Stones, ashes, and dust came flying up through the water, and then
fell back into the water again. When all was quiet, they settled down at
the bottom of the sea, and became mud.

7. 'All this happened many times, till there was a great deal of mud.
Then, little by little, the mud was covered up by other things.'

8. 'What sort of things?'

'Dead fish, perhaps, and shells, and sand and mud that had been brought
by rivers into the sea. These things lay on the top of the mud and
weighed it down.

9. 'The heat under the bottom of the sea still kept up, and made the mud
very hot, and baked it through. At last it gave a great push, and heaved
the mud up above the water, so that it became dry land.

10. 'In other ways it was made harder and harder, until it was turned
into rock. And now we call it slate. Here is a bit of your old broken
slate. See if you can turn it into mud again!'

CHALK.

PART 1.

a-cross'
morn'-ing
chalk'-ing
picked
piece
teach'-er
black'-board
spread'-ing
wheat
col'-ours
fetch
laughed
earth
brown
moist
through

1. A few days after this, Dora and Harry were going across the fields.
They saw a horse and cart standing, and a man taking white stones out of
the cart and putting them over the ground.

2. 'Why, it is Joe!' they cried, as they came nearer. 'Good-morning,
Joe. What are you doing?'

'Chalking this bit of land, you see. You know what chalk is, do you?'

3. Harry and Dora picked up a piece or two.

'Teacher writes on the blackboard with chalk,' they said.

'Yes, you are right. It is used for many things,' and he went on
spreading it over the field.

4. 'But what is it wanted here for, Joe?'

'No chalk, no wheat!' said Joe.

'Father put no chalk on our field, and we had such a heap of wheat!'

5. 'Yours is good land. This up here has never been used for farming. It
had little old trees on it, you know, and they were cut down and their
roots dug out of the ground; and now, look at it! It is poor soil.'

6. 'How do you know it is poor?'

'Look at the field below, what a nice brown it is! That will grow
anything, but this is all colours--black, red, yellow, and green.

7. 'I have been a long way to fetch this chalk: I started off with old
Dobbin this morning before it was light, and got it out of the
chalk-pit.'

8. 'When we were fast asleep!' said Dora.

'Then you don't buy chalk at a shop?