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WE ARE SEVEN.

An old gentleman, as he was walking one day in the fields, met a little cottage girl, and asked her how many brothers and sisters she had. "How many?" she said; "seven in all."

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"And where are they? I

pray you tell.'
She answered, ‘Seven are we;
And two of us at Conway dwell,

And two are gone to sea;
"Two of us in the churchyard lie,
My sister and my brother,
And in the churchyard cottage I

Dwell near them with my mother.'

But if your brother and sister are dead, then ye are only five," the old gentleman told her; but—

""Twas throwing words away; for still

The little maid would have her will,
And said, Nay, we are seven.'

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LIZZIE AND HER BREAD

AND MILK.

LIZZIE was a dainty little girl, and used to find fault with her bread and milk, and want toast and tea for her breakfast; so at last, every time that she refused to eat her basin of bread and milk, her Mamma gave it to Scrub, the dog, who liked it well enough, and ate it up without ever saying that it was not sweet enough or that there was too much bread, or grumbling like Lizzie. But, as Lizzie was not allowed to have anything else, she found that she got very hungry before dinner-time, and so after a few mornings she ate up her bread and milk without any complaints. Poor Scrub was very disappointed; he used to sit watching every spoonful that she put in her mouth, hoping that she would not like it, and that it would be given to him. But Lizzie was wiser now, and poor doggie only got a very little bit now and then. Look how solemnly he sits there, waiting his turn

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T

WINTER-TIME.

It is almost as beautiful in our park in winter as in summer; for although the trees have lost all their leaves, yet, when the bare branches are covered with soft white snow, with icicles hanging here and there from them, they look nearly as lovely as when they are in full leaf. But the poor little birds do not like it at all, for they cannot find any shelter, and the ground is so hard that they cannot pick up any worms other food to eat, and they are therefore often starved and frozen to death if there is a long frost.

or

In some countries it is winter for about nine months out of the year, and only summer for the other three. There is no spring and no autumn, but they jump from summer to winter in a few days. This is in countries near the North Pole, and it is dark in those countries during the whole long winter.

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