shall build as the birds do,
And shall get your scanty food
By boring, and boring, and boring,
All day in the hard dry wood."

Then up she went through the chimney.
Never speaking a word;
And out of the top flew a woodpecker,
For she was changed to a bird.

She had a scarlet cap on her head,
And that was left the same,
But all the rest of her clothes were burned
Black as a coal in the flame.

And every country school-boy
Has seen her in the wood;
Where she lives in the trees till this very day
Boring and boring for food.

And this is the lesson she teaches:
Live not for yourselves alone,
Lest the needs you will not pity
Shall one day be your own.

Give plenty of what is given to you,
Listen to pity's call;
Don't think the little you give is great,
And the much you get is small.

Now, my little boy, remember that,
And try to be kind and good,
When you see the woodpecker's sooty dress,
And see her scarlet hood.

You mayn't be changed to a bird, though you live
As selfishly as you can;
But you will be changed to a smaller thing--
A mean and selfish man.

* * * * *

Directions for Reading.--In what manner should this lesson be read at
the beginning--quietly, or with much spirit?

On page 77, beginning with the second stanza, is what Saint Peter says
quiet and slow, or emphatic and somewhat rapid?[06]

Point out three places where two lines are to be joined and read as
one.

What two lines in each stanza end with similar sounds?

[06] See stanza number 12 of the poem.

* * * * *

LESSON XVII.

ex pres'sion, _a look showing feeling_.

a maze'ment, _great surprise; astonishment_.

mag'netisnm, _an unknown power of drawing or pulling_.

con tin'ued, _went on; stayed_.

test'ing, _trying_.

con ven'ience, _ease; the saving of trouble_.

ex per'i ments, _the trials made to find out facts_.

* * * * *

A FUNNY HORSESHOE.

"What a funny horseshoe!" said Charlie, "It has no holes for the nails!"

I looked up and saw that he had taken up a small "horseshoe magnet."

"Why that isn't a horseshoe," I said. "It's a magnet."

"Magnet! What's that?"

Charlie turned it over in his hands, and pulled the bar a little. The
bar slipped so that it hung only by a corner.

"Never mind,"