of the bird. The moment she appeared at
the entrance to her nest, the squirrel flew at her like an angry cat.
The startled wood-pecker fled in fear, and the squirrel came forth
triumphantly and went away for a short time. Whilst he was away the
wood-pecker came again and looked into her nest. Something, however,
probably a broken egg, displeased her, and she flew away again. Shortly
afterwards her mate looked into the nest, but he, too, was dissatisfied,
and flew away. Many times they returned to the nest, but always with the
same result. At length they seemed to make up their minds that they
could never make their home in that nest again, and they flew away to
another part of the wood. The squirrel promptly took possession of the
deserted nest, and when autumn came he turned it into a store-house for
nuts.

W. A. ATKINSON.

THE GREAT PICTURE BOOK.

The world's a pleasant picture-book,
Wherein my eyes may daily look,
And see the things set there to please:
Mountains and valleys, rocks and trees.

Soft rivers where the sunbeams play;
The blue sky spread far, far away;
Bright flowers that blossom at my feet,
The tender grass, the ripened wheat.

Though I am young, I may grow wise
When on this book I turn my eyes,
And, as I look, with reverence see
The pictures painted there for me.

'Tis God Who made this book so fair,
Who gave the colours that are there;
Who paints the daisies red and white,
And in the sky sets stars at night.

FRANK ELLIS.

THE STORY OF SLATE.

Slates are not so much used in our schools as they were years ago,
exercise-books being cheaper now. Still, there are some schools where
the children have slates, and pocket-books are to be bought, containing
a slate tablet, on which you can write notes, and rub them out
afterwards to make fresh ones. Slates upon the roofs of houses are
objects familiar to us all. Probably few, young or old, who have to do
with slates, ever think what this substance is, and where it has come
from. Yet slate is one of the most wonderful things in this world of
ours.

Supposing the first question put to us was, 'What is slate?' our answer
would be, 'It is simply a sort of dried mud.' If the second was, 'What
is its place amongst the rocks of our earth?' we should say, 'Slate
belongs to the Cambrian formation.' This is a big series of rocks,
sometimes eighteen thousand feet thick. It c