Buttercups and Daisies.

but'-ter-cups, little yellow wild flowers.

fro'-zen, subject to frost, chilly. hard'-ships, trials, cares of life. leaf'-less, bare, without leaves. pa'-ly, without colour, wan. pa'-tient, calm, not hasty.

peep'-eth,beginning to appear.
pret'-ty, lovely, beautiful.
pur'-ple, red tinted with blue.
stur'-dy, strong, stout.
sun'-ny, bright, clear.
vis'-ion'd, seen to be, pictured.

BUTTERCUPS and daisies,
Oh! the pretty flowers,
Coming, ere the spring-time,
To tell of sunny hours.
While the trees are leafless,
While the fields are bare,

Buttercups and daisies
Spring up everywhere.

Ere the snow-drop peepeth,
Ere the crocus bold,
Ere the early primrose

Opes its paly gold;

Somewhere on a sunny bank

Buttercups are bright,

Somewhere 'mong the frozen grass

Peeps the daisy white.

Little hardy flowers,

Like to children poor,

Playing in their sturdy health

By their mother's door; Purple with the north wind,

Yet alert and bold,
Fearing not and caring not
Though they be a-cold.

What to them is weather!
What are stormy showers!
Buttercups and daisies,

Are these human flowers.
He who gave them hardships,
And a life of care,

Gave them likewise hardy strength,

And patient hearts to bear.

Welcome, yellow buttercups;

Welcome, daisies white; Ye are in my spirit

Vision'd a delight!

Coming, ere the spring-time,
Of sunny hours to tell;

Speaking to our hearts of Him

Who doeth all things well.

M*

MARY HOWITT.

QUESTIONS:-1. Name the writer of this poem. 2. Can you name any other poems she has written? 3. What are the pretty flowers she has mentioned in the first verse? 4. What time of the year do they come? 5. What to tell us of? 6. What are the wild flowers named in the second verse? 7. What is the meaning of that line about the primrose-"Opes its paly gold"? 8. What is one quality of the buttercups and daisies mentioned in the third verse? 9. Having this quality, what does she say they are like? 10. Find out, in the fourth verse, what she calls the children of the poor. 11. If their Maker has given them "hardships,' "" and a life of care," what else has He given them? 12. When we look on these pretty wild flowers, buttercups and daisies, and see how nicely they are made, of whom should we think? 13. How has He made all things?

STEP together, boldly tread,
Firm each foot, erect each head;
Fixed in front be ev'ry glance,
Forward at the word, Advance!
Serried files that foes may dread,
Like the deer on mountain heather,

Tread light!

Left

Right,

Steady, boys, and step together!

Step together, be each rank

Dressed in line, from flank to flank,
Marching so that you may halt

'Mid the onset's fierce assault,
Firm as is the rampart's bank
Raised the iron rain to weather.
Proud sight-Left—right,
Steady, boys, and step together!

Step together, be your tramp
Quick and light, no plodding stamp,
Let its cadence, quick and clear,
Fall like music on the ear;
Noise befits not hall or camp,
Eagles soar on silent feather.
Tread light-Left-right,
Steady, boys, and step together!

LESSON LVI.

Flight of Birds.

ac-quaint'-ed, familiar with. be-wil'-dered, stupefied, perplexed.

com-mit'-ted, given, trusted. ex-per'-i-ment, trial, practical proof.

mi'-gra-to-ry, changing residence, roving.

ob-served', noticed.

| plu'-mage, feathers of a bird.
pro-gres'-sion, onward motion,
course, passage.
spe'-cies, sort or kind.
wedge, a body thick on one

side, and sloping gradually
to a thin edge on the other.

SWALLOWS fly in the form of a wedge. The leading of the group is committed to a chief or captain, who takes his station at the thin end of the wedge.

He gives place to another when tired, and goes

to the end of one of the lines.

It has been observed that old and young birds fly in separate companies, and that the old ones return to the place whence they set out, while the young do not. Males and females fly in separate lines though in the same company.

Birds which differ in voice also keep separate lines during their migratory flights.

In a flight of bullfinches, for instance, all those having a deep-toned voice fly on one side, while those with high tones fly on the other; bird catchers are acquainted with this fact. It becomes a question whether those birds are of the same species. It is possible that those with deep voices may have a flat skull, and the others a high one; if so, though the plumage may be the same, they are of different species, and, if put together, would probably not match.

Birds generally migrate for the sake of food and climate. Some people have imagined that it was from the relation between the magnetism of their bones and that of the earth.

As to the mode of progression, some birds run, others fly, others swim, others walk. Most of them fly; but the cassowary, ostrich, and penguin do not. Some sea-birds become quite bewildered on land, and seem to lose the power of flight, so that they may be kept without cutting their wings, if distant from the sea.