t's deep well;
The good, the joy, which it may bring,
Eternity shall tell.
George Washington Langford.

LESSON XLIV.

THE SEVEN STICKS.
1. A man had seven sons, who were always quarreling.
They left their studies and work, to quarrel among
themselves. Some bad men were looking forward to the
death of their father, to cheat them out of their property by
making them quarrel about it.
2. The good old man, one day, called his sons around him.
He laid before them seven sticks, which were bound
together. He said, "I will pay a hundred dollars to the one
who can break this bundle."
3. Each one strained every nerve to break the bundle.
After a long but vain trial, they all said that it could not be
done.

116 ECLECTIC SERIES.
4. "And yet, my boys," said the father, "nothing is easier
to do." He then untied the bundle, and broke the sticks, one
by one, with perfect ease.

5. "Ah!" said his sons, "it is easy enough to do it so;
anybody could do it in that way."
6. Their father replied, "As it is with these sticks, so is it
with you, my sons. So

THIRD READER. 117
long as you hold fast together and aid each other, you will
prosper, and none can injure you.
7. "But if the bond of union be broken, it will happen to
you just as it has to these sticks, which lie here broken on the
ground."

Home, city, country, all are prosperous found,
When by the powerful link of union bound.

LESSON XLV.
THE MOUNTAIN SISTER.
1. The home of little Jeannette is far away, high up among
the mountains. Let us call her our mountain sister.
2. There are many things you would like to hear about her,
but I can only tell you now how she goes with her father and
brother, in the autumn, to help gather nuts for the long
winter.

118 ECLECTIC SERIES.
3. A little way down the mountain side is a chestnut wood.
Did you ever see a chestnut tree? In the spring its branches
are covered with bunches of creamy flowers, like long
tassels. All the hot summer these are turning into sweet nuts,
wrapped safely in large, prickly, green balls.
4. But when the frost of autumn comes, these prickly balls
turn brown, and crack open. Then you may see inside one,
two, three, and even four, sweet, brown nuts.
5. When her father says, one night at supper time, "I think
there will be a frost tonight," Jeannette knows very well what
to do. She dances away early in the evening to her little bed,
made in a box built up against the wall.
6. Soon s