ght of man can reach, singing louder
and louder, and more and more gayly the higher it ascends? When the
sweet hay-time comes on, and mowers are busy in the fields with their
great scythes, it is sometimes a dangerous season for larks, who make
their nests on the ground. Often the poor little nests must suffer; but
only think how ingenious their owners are if they do. A mower once cut
off the upper part of a lark's nest. The lark sitting in it was
uninjured. The man was very sorry for what he had done; but there was no
help for it--at least so he thought. The lark knew better, and soon
afterward a beautiful dome was found made of grass over the nest by the
patient, brave bird.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: THE SILKWORM.

THE BAT.

CARRION BEETLES.

THE SPIDER.]

[Illustration: THE SYRIAN OX.

THE HORSE.

THE MULE.

THE ARABIAN HORSE.]

THE STORY OF A SEAL.

Some years ago a German Artist was travelling in Norway, on foot, with
his knapsack on his back and his stick in his hand. He lodged most of
time in the cottages that he fell in with on his road. In one of them
there was a seal, which the fisherman had found on the sand, after
harpooning the mother of the poor animal. No sooner was it admitted into
the cottage than the seal became the friend of the family and the
playmate of the children. It played from morning till night with them,
would lick their hands, and call them with a gentle little cry, which is
not unlike the human voice, and it would look at them tenderly with its
large blue eyes, shaded by long black lashes. It almost always followed
its master to fish, swimming around the boat and taking a great many
fish, which it delivered to the fisherman without even giving them a
bite. A dog could not have been more devoted, faithful, teachable, or
even more intelligent.

[Illustration]

THE KING OF THE MOUNTAINS.

"What is that, mother?" "The eagle, boy,
Proudly careering his course with joy,
Firm on his own mountain vigor relying,
Breasting the dark storm, the red bolt defying;
His wing on the wind, and his eye on the sun,
He swerves not a hair, but bears onward, right on.
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world he stands;
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls,
He watches from his mountain walls.
Boy, may the eagle's flight ever be thine,
Onward and upward, and true to the line."

[Illustration]

THE BEE.

Oh! busy bee,
On wing so free,