mother!' cried the children, opening their eyes
wide with wonder, 'you bought it only last Saturday!'

'So I did. But it was not made last Saturday.'

5. 'No, I suppose the man cut it, and made the frame, and fixed it on
before that.'

'Perhaps on Friday,' said Dora.

6. 'But the slate itself,' the mother went on, 'where did that come
from? Did the man make it?'

Harry and Dora looked well at it, turned it over, rubbed their fingers
on it, and said they did not know.

7. 'Well, would you say it is like wood, or like stone, or is it metal
like the poker? Is it a kind of wood, do you think? Did it ever grow?'

'I think it must be a sort of rock, or stone,' said Harry, 'only very
smooth and thin.'

8. 'The man who worked at it before it came to the shop made it smooth
and cut it thin. It was not smooth and thin at first. But you are quite
right; it is a sort of stone.'

[Illustration: A Slate Quarry]

9. 'It is as cold as a stone,' said Dora, putting it against her face.
'Do you remember, Harry, how cold our hands were in winter when we did
sums? Yes, and it is very hard. I am sure it is a piece of rock.'

SLATE.

PART 2.

should
laughed
high'-er
thought
laugh'-ing
pur'-pose
prop'-er-ly
please
set'-tled
hap'-pened
deal
dead
weighted
through
heaved
brok'-en

1. 'I should like to see a rock all made of slate! Have you ever seen
one, mother?'

'Yes, many, dear. But there are none near.' Then she laughed a little.
'But if you like to go just outside the door you will see rows and rows
of slates.'

2. Out they ran, looked all over the ground, then at the garden-wall,
then back at their mother, who had come to the door.

'Look at the house,' she said, 'look higher!'

3. 'Oh, we never thought of the roof,' they cried, and ran in again
laughing. 'But those slates are not so nice and smooth as our slates.'

'Your slates are made smooth on purpose. Besides, they are made of
better slate--older slate. The older the slate is the better it is.'

4. 'How old?'

'No one knows. It is a long story, and no one can tell it properly.
Shall I tell you as much as I know?'

'Yes, do, please, mother!' and the two settled themselves at her feet.

5. 'Well,' she began, 'once upon a time there was a great stir at the
bottom of the sea. The heat and gas under the ground broke through and
pushed out everything that was in the way.

6. '