mer send a message to the city ordering new milk
cans and strawberry boxes? How do messages come to your house?

In olden days the persons had to carry all of their messages for
themselves or send them by other persons. The messenger would often run
for miles without resting so as to deliver the letters as soon as
possible. At last the people decided to give all of their letters to a
postman who would ride on horseback from place to place with the mail.
Stagecoaches were next used. It took a week for a coach to go as far as
a train can go now in a few hours. Our mail is now carried from one
place to another by trains or vessels, and then the letter carriers
deliver it at our city houses or to our town post office or rural
mail-box.

The quickest way to send a message is by cable, telegraph, telephone or
wireless message. Over the electric wires or through the air the words
are flashed for miles in a few minutes.

CHAPTER IX

FAMILIAR SURFACE FEATURES

1. Hill and plain. 3. River
2. Mountain and valley. 4. Ocean
5. Island and peninsula.

_Note to the Teacher._--Consider at this time only such familiar
features as belong to the children's immediate environment in or
very near their neighborhood. Defer the study of the other land and
water forms until later, as suggested in the Introduction. For
further details of these features, see Chapters I and IV in Part II.

1

HILL AND PLAIN

Some streets and roads are flat and level. Others slope like _hills_.
Can you name a street which is level, and one that slants or slopes?
Which road is easier to walk on? Why? Do you prefer the level or the
sloping street when roller-skating? Why? Which is the best when you are
coasting?

You may have noticed that some of the fields in the park or in the
country are nearly flat. Other fields lie on slopes or hills. We call
the flat part of the land a _plain_, whether it is in the city or in the
country. The sloping part of the land forms a hill. Have we mostly hills
or plains in the streets of our city?

2

Some plains and some hills are covered with trees. If you were in the
woods, surrounded by trees, how would you know whether you were on a
plain or on a hill?

[Illustration: HILLS AND VALLEYS.]

Some hills look very different from others. Some slope very gradually,
while some are very steep. Some hills have city streets on them. Others
have great fields of grass for co