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SUMMER-TIME.

IN summer-time, in summer-time, How pleasant 'tis to play,

In meadows bright with sunshine, And sweet with new-mown hay;

To watch the silver fishes
Dart in and out the reeds,
Or play at hide-and-seek below
Amongst the dark green weeds;

To sit upon the soft long grass And pluck the dear wild flowers, Or read some tale of fairy-land

To while away the hours.

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MARY AND THE CHAR

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WOMAN.

"DID learn lessons, and do sums, and write copies, when you were a little girl, Mrs. Brown, or did you always scrub floors and wash plates and dishes, as you do now?" said Miss Mary, as she sat one day in the kitchen watching a good old charwoman, who was washing up. "Well, Miss," answered Mrs. Brown, “I can't say that I ever had much book-learning. I went to service when I was very young, so I was not able to learn to write. I'm very sorry for it now, because I can never send a line to my poor boy in China." "Why don't you learn to write, then?" asked Mary. "I am mostly too old now," said Mrs. Brown. Mary reflected for a little while, for she had said that morning, when she had had a difficult exercise to write, that "she wished she had never learnt to write;" but now she thought she should not like to grow up like Mrs. Brown, and put off learning to write until she was "too old."

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STAG AND HIND.

THE Stag is the male deer, and the Hind is the female deer and has no horns. The Stag's horns do not grow until he is a year old; after that he gets new ones every spring, for his old ones drop off about that time, and grow afresh every year larger than before. Deer are usually very timid animals, but they soon become tame, and will often come and eat out of the hand of any one they know. Mr. Wood relates that some boys at college used to tie a piece of bread to the end of a string and fish for the deer out of window. They would come and nibble up the bread with great delight; indeed they liked everything that was given them, even a ham sandwich with plenty of mustard. Although they seem so gentle, they become very fierce when they have young ones to take care of, and a Hind has been known to fly at a dog and break his neck when he attempted to touch her young.

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