"They are hard and sour before
they are full grown, and so the taste is not pleasant, and nobody wishes
to eat them, except sometimes a few foolish boys, and these are punished
by being made sick. When the apples are full grown, they change from
sour to sweet, and become mellow--then they can be eaten. Can you tell
me of any other fruits which are preserved in this way?"

One boy answered, "Strawberries and blackberries;" and another said,
"Peaches and pears."

Another boy asked why the peach-stone was not outside the peach, so as
to keep it from being eaten; but the master said that he would explain
this another time. Then he dismissed the scholars, after asking Roger to
wait until the rest had gone, as he wished to see him alone.

Several of the articles which follow were communicated for this work by
different teachers, at the request of the author.

11. THE SERIES OF WRITING LESSONS.--Very many pupils soon become weary
of the dull and monotonous business of writing, unless some plans are
devised to give interest and variety to the exercise; and, on this
account, this branch of education, in which improvement may be most
rapid, is often the last and most tedious to be acquired.

A teacher, by adopting the following plan, succeeded in awakening a
great degree of interest on the subject, and, consequently, of promoting
rapid improvement. The plan was this: he prepared, on a large sheet of
paper, a series of lessons in coarse-hand, beginning with straight
lines, and proceeding to the elementary parts of the various letters,
and finally to the letters themselves. This paper was posted up in a
part of the room accessible to all.

The writing-books were made of three sheets of foolscap paper, folded
into a convenient size, making twenty-four pages in the book. The books
were to be ruled by the pupil, for it was thought important that each
should learn this art. Every pupil in school, then, being furnished with
one of these writing-books, was required to commence this series, and to
practice each lesson until he could write it well; then, and not till
then, he was permitted to pass to the next. A few brief directions were
given under each lesson on the large sheet. For example, under the line
of straight marks, which constituted the first lesson, was written as
follows:

_Straight, equidistant, parallel, smooth, well-terminated._

These directions were to call the attention of the pupil to the
excellences which he