8.-The Daisy and the Lark.

1. Our in the country, close by the road, stands a handsome house. Before it there is a garden with flowers, and a painted railing; and just outside the railing, among the beautiful green grass, grew a little daisy. The sun shone upon it as warmly and kindly as upon the large, splendid flowers in the garden; and so it grew from hour to hour, till one morning it stood fully unfolded, with its small white petals in a ring round the yellow sun in the middle.

2. The daisy did not think or care that it was all unseen there among the grass, and that it was a poor despised flower. No; it was very contented, and turned its face to the warm sun, looking up to it gladly, and listening with joy to the merry lark singing high in air.

3. Inside the railing stood a great many stiff, genteel flowers: the less fragrance they had, the prouder they were of their fine clothes. The peonies blew themselves up, in order to be bigger than the rose; but size is nothing. The tulips had the most beautiful colors, as they very well knew; and therefore they held themselves very straight up, that people might have a good sight of them.

4. They never looked at the little daisy outside; but the daisy looked all the more at them, and thought within itself, "How rich and beautiful they are; certainly the lark will come down and pay them

a visit! How glad I am to be so near them, for I shall see that fine musician too!"

5. Just at that moment, tee-wheet! down flew the lark, but not to the peonies and tulips; oh, no! down into the grass beside the poor daisy, which was so astonished and so delighted, that it did not know what to think of it. The bird danced round about it, and sang, "How soft the grass is! And see what a lovely little flower, with a golden heart and a silvery white dress!"

6. Nobody can imagine how happy the little daisy was. The lark kissed it with its bill, sang to it, and then flew up to the blue sky again. It was a full quarter of an hour before the daisy could compose itself; then it turned round to see what the garden-flowers were doing. Surely, it thought, they must have been delighted to see a little flower so happy.

7. But the tulips stood as stiff as before, and their lips were drawn together in a pout, and they were red in the face; for the fact was, they had been angry. The peonies hung their heavy heads in a very sulky manner; and it was well they could not speak, otherwise the daisy would have got a thorough scolding.

8. Just then a little girl came into the garden with a pair of sharp scissors, and went straight to the tulips, which she snipped off, one after the other. "Oh dear!" sighed the daisy; "it is all over with them now." The girl went away with

the tulips; but the daisy was glad that its head had not been snipped off, and very thankfully folded up its petals, as the sun was setting, and fell asleep, and dreamed the whole night about the sun and the lark.

9. Next morning, as the flower was stretching out all its white petals, like so many little arms, to the air and light, it recognized the bird's voice, but the voice was very mournful now. The poor lark had, indeed, good reason for singing a sad song; for it had been taken prisoner, and put into a cage, which hung beside an open window of the house. The little daisy wished very much to help its friend, the lark; but how could it do so? And the flower quite forgot, in thinking of the poor captive bird, how beautiful everything around it was, and how warmly the sun shone.

10. Two little boys now came out of the garden, one of them with a knife in his hand; and they came directly toward the daisy, which could not conceive what they were going to do. "Here we

can cut out a beautiful piece of turf for the lark," said the boy with the knife; and he began to cut out a square turf, with the daisy exactly in the middle of it.

11. "Tear the flower off," said one boy; and then the daisy began to tremble for fear. To be torn off was to lose its life; and it was so anxious to live that it might come with the turf into the cage of the captive lark. "No, let it stay!" said

the first boy, "it makes the turf so pretty." The daisy was accordingly spared, and with the turf was put into the cage of the prisoner.

12. Still the poor bird lamented loudly over its lost freedom, and flapped with its wings against the wires of the cage; and the little daisy could not speak, could not say a word of comfort, willing as it was to do so. Thus passed the whole morning.

13. "There is no water here," said the imprisoned bird; "they have all gone out, and have forgotten to give me a drop of water to drink! My throat is dry and burning. Ah! I must die." Then it bored its bill into the cool turf to refresh itself a little, and its eyes fell upon the daisy. The bird nodded to the flower, kissed it with its bill, and said, "Poor little flower, you too will grow dry and wither away here. They have given me only you and your little spot of green grass, instead of the whole world that I had outside! Ah! you

only remind me of how much I have lost."

14. "Oh, if I could only comfort him!" thought the daisy. Evening came, but still no one brought the poor bird a drop of water. It stretched out its pretty wings, and shook them in a quivering way that was painful for the daisy to see. Its song was now a mournful chirp, its little head bent over the flower, and the bird's heart broke for want and longing. The daisy could not now fold its petals together and sleep; it hung sickly and sad toward the ground.

15. The boys did not come till next morning; and when they saw the bird dead, they cried, and shed many tears; and they dug it a neat little grave, which they decked with leaves and flowers. Poor lark! while he lived and sang they forgot him, left him to sit in his cage and suffer thirst; but now, when he was dead, they gave him tears and a fine burial.

16. The turf, with the daisy in the middle of it, was thrown out into the dusty road; and nobody thought of the one that alone had felt pity for the bird, and had been most anxious to soothe and comfort it.-HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.

Analysis. What are the petals of a flower? What is meant by "despised"? By " astonished"? By "delighted"? By "mournful"? What is a daisy? What is meant by " captive"? What is meant by "turf"? Write a word instead of conceive in the tenth paragraph. Give the meaning of “lamented.” Of "decked.”

Language Lesson.-Let the pupils reproduce this lesson from memory in their own language.

9. Farmer John.

1. HOME from his journey, Farmer John Arrived this morning safe and sound; His black coat off, and his old clothes on, "Now I'm myself," said Farmer John; And he thinks, "I'll look around."