cation_. Here industry
and sloth are personified and made the equals of human beings. What does
_entreats_ mean? What does _persuades_ mean? (That means _teases_ or
_begs_.) Which is the stronger word, entreats or persuades? (_Entreats_
means _begs strongly_; _persuades_ means _begs and makes me believe what
is said_. I think the latter is really the stronger word.) What does
_alternately_ mean? (First one and then the other.) What does
_impartial_ mean? (Fair; without any favoritism.) What does _detained_
mean? (Kept.) What does _pleadings_ mean? (Where a case is tried in
court the lawyers on each side try to persuade the court or jury to
decide in favor of the man [client] who has hired them. The written
papers and the speeches the lawyers make are called _pleadings_.)

Do you think the young man was really serious? Do you think he really
tried to decide anything as he lay in bed, or was he just trying to make
up an excuse for his laziness? Was there any reason why the young man
should lie in bed? Did he think there was? Could you find any better
reason than he gave? Do you think he was a bright young man? If you had
listened to him would you have taken his excuse? Why? Was it really
truthful? Did you ever lie in bed and think, "Well, I must get up; no,
I'll lie a little longer. But I must get up. What's the use? But I ought
to get up. Yes, I really ought to get up," etc., etc., and finally
discover that you had wasted a great deal of time without really
intending it? Were Industry and Sloth pleading with you then? Do you
think that some people waste much time trying to decide useless
questions? Does it sometimes happen that men and women waste so much
time in this way that they never accomplish a great deal of anything?

_Why the Sea Is Salt_

(Volume II, page 484)

In this pleasing fairy story Mary Howitt has told the tale of the
curious explanation offered by the peasants of Denmark and Norway for
the saltness of the sea. It naturally raises in a child's mind the
question, why is the sea salt? The question can be answered in this
manner:

The rain falls down in little drops, some of which soak into the ground,
while others make rivulets that run into brooks that in time join the
rivers that flow into the sea. Much of the water that soaks into the
ground finds its way again to the surface in springs that feed the
brooks and keep them alive when no rain is falling. Of course the sun
when it shines turns some