1. In some parts of our country there are immense plains that reach for miles and miles. Long, waving grass grows on them. It is like a wide sea of grass.

These far-spreading plains are called prairies. 2. Birds and animals make their home in

the prairie. The wild horse gallops about with his mane flowing in the wind. The great heavy buffalo is there. The wolves roam about in packs. There is plenty of food for them all.

3. Sometimes the hunter who is out in the prairie sees red streaks shooting up from the line of the sky and the earth. Volumes of smoke keep rolling on, and there is a queer crackling noise. The noise seems to come nearer and nearer, and soon it rolls along with a loud roar.

On come the red leaping flames! The long, waving grass is on fire!

4. How did the prairie get on fire? Perhaps an Indian left his camp-fire burning or dropped a spark from his pipe, or the dry weather has lasted a long time, and the grass

took fire from the rays of the sun. rate, the mischief is done.

At any

5. If men are near, they try to save themselves by burning a space all around where they stand. When the fire gets to the bare

place it finds nothing there to burn.

6. What becomes of the poor animals? They have but one way of escape, and that is by flight. The horses gallop madly along, their eyes starting, their manes flowing. The buffaloes are not so swift; but they make all the haste they can. Each tries to shift for himself. Each knows by instinct that the red, scorching flames are coming to devour him.

7. All the wild beasts of the prairie are in a terrible fright; but if they can find a space free from grass or a shallow body of water to run into they may escape.

de-vour', to eat up wholly.
im-mense', vast in extent.
In'-dian (ind'-yan), one of the
race that lived in America at
the time of its discovery.
in'-stinct, the natural feeling
by which animals are guided
to any action.

mis'-chief, harm; injury done
in sport.

pack, a number of wolves or
dogs that hunt together.
prai'-ries, a vast tract of level
or rolling land without trees,
and covered with coarse grass.
vol'-ume, a rounded form.

1. "WHY thus aside your playthings throw,
Over the wet lawn hurrying so?

Where are you going, I want to know?"
"I am running after the rainbow."

2. "Little boy, with your bright brown eyes
Full of an innocent surprise,
Stop a minute, my Arthur wise,

What do you want with the rainbow?"

3. Arthur paused in his headlong race,

Turned to his mother his hot young face, "Mother, I want to reach the place

At either end of the rainbow.

4. "Nurse says, wherever it meets the ground, Such beautiful things may oft be found, Buried below or scattered round,

If one can but catch the rainbow.

5. "O, please don't hinder me, mother dear; It will all be gone while I stay here." So with many a hope and not a fear,

The child ran after the rainbow.

6. Over the damp grass, ankle deep,

Panting up the rugged steep,

Past the wood where the birds were going to sleep,
But he could n't catch the rainbow.

7. Said Arthur, sobbing, as home he went,
"I wish I had thought what mother meant;

I wish I had only been content,

And not run after the rainbow."

8. And as he came sadly down the hill,
Stood mother chiding, but smiling still,
And hugged him up close, as mothers will;
So he quite forgot the rainbow.

1. THE whale is the largest animal in the

world. It is the giant of the seas.

Some

2. There are several kinds of whales. are found in the southern and some in the northern seas; but the kind I shall tell you

about is the Greenland whale, which lives up in the cold and ice of the frozen zone.

3. This whale feeds on very small creatures which it finds lying on the surface of the sea. It swims along with its vast mouth open, and sucks in a host of these little animals for its dinner. It also eats shrimps.

4. The whale is not a true fish. It breathes

air as you and I do. When it comes up to breathe, it sends up jets of breath and vapor from the two blow-holes in the top of its head. Then the whale is said to blow or spout.