e
and benefit. There is a wonderful deal of happiness among them, showing
how, as the Psalm says, the Lord's "tender mercies are over all his
works;" and a little kindness makes them so familiar, that we are always
reminded how sociable they were with Adam in the garden of Eden; and how
happy they and we should all be together now, if sin had not entered
into the world to destroy the beauty and blessedness that were upon
every thing when God first made them, and saw that they were all "very
good."

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII.

FISHES--INSECTS.

A story about Jack. When he was a little fellow, soon after he came to
me, and before he knew many words, he made me understand that he wanted
a very long, slender stick. I asked a gardener of a friend, and he cut
him a fine one from a particular sort of tree. Then Jack laid out a
penny, all that he had, on a coarse bit of line, such as fishermen use;
and, lastly, he came to me for some large pins: one of which he bent
like a hook; explaining to me that he was going to dig for worms to put
upon it, that he might fish. I shook my head, saying, "No." Jack nodded
his head, and said "Yes." I said "bad;" Jack said "good;" and then I
took up his little red hand, and pretended I was going to run the hook
through the flesh. He snatched it away in a fright, saying "Bad, bad!"
but I nodded, and said "Good, good!" He said, "Bad Mam, hurt Jack!" and
I answered, "Bad Jack, hurt worm: God made Jack--God made worm." He
shook his head, and said, "No;" and what do you think was the reason he
gave? He reminded me that God is high up above, and that the worms come
from below, under the ground. The little fellow did not know that the
world is round; he thought it was flat: still less did he then
understand that God is everywhere, and made all things, above and
beneath. Then I told him that the Lord did so; and that worms and other
things were put into the earth by him, even as we were made to walk upon
its surface. Jack considered a little; and then said the worms were
rolled up in the world as apples were in a dumpling, and that they eat
their way through the crust. It was an odd idea, and made me smile; on
which he said, "Good," and told me he would fish with a piece of meat or
bread for a bait.

[Illustration: THE TADPOLE OR YOUNG FROG.]

Next morning, Jack came to me, and after reminding me of this, he asked
me if God also made the little newts, tadpoles, and frogs, and other
t