x watching ducks from a distance.]

3. Soon another branch came drifting down among them, and again they took
flight from the river; but when they found the branch had drifted by and
done them no harm, they flew down to the water as before.

4. After four or five branches had drifted by in this way, the ducks gave
little heed to them. At length, they hardly tried to fly out of their way,
even when the branches nearly touched them.

5. The man who had been watching all this, now began to wonder who had set
these branches adrift. He looked up the stream, and spied a fox slyly
watching the ducks. "What will he do next?" thought the man.

6. When the fox saw that the ducks were no longer afraid of the branches,
he took a much larger branch than any he had yet used, and stretched
himself upon it so as to be almost hidden. Then he set it afloat as he had
the others.

7. Right among the flock drifted the sly old fox, and, making quick snaps
to right and left, he seized two fine young ducks, and floated off with
them.

8. The rest of the flock flew away in fright, and did not come back for a
long time.

9. The fox must have had a fine dinner to pay him for his cunning, patient
work.

LESSON XLIX.

saint silk'en sim'ple pov'er ty plain sin'ner

spin'ner splen'dor worth stead'y mur'der plan'ning

sil'ver ten'der prov'erb re mem'ber

[Illustration: Spider spinning web.]

PRETTY IS THAT PRETTY DOES.

1. The spider wears a plain brown dress,
And she is a steady spinner;
To see her, quiet as a mouse,
Going about her silver house,
You would never, never, never guess
The way she gets her dinner.

2. She looks as if no thought of ill
In all her life had stirred her;
But while she moves with careful tread, And
while she spins her silken thread,
She is planning, planning, planning still
The way to do some murder.

3. My child, who reads this simple lay,
With eyes down-dropt and tender, Remember
the old proverb says
That pretty is which pretty does,
And that worth does not go nor stay
For poverty nor splendor.

4. 'Tis not the house, and not the dress,
That makes the saint or sinner.
To see the spider sit and spin,
Shut with her walls of silver in,
You would never, never, never guess
The way she gets her dinner.
Alice Cary.

LESSON L.