another hole and tap there, and then to another.
Some holes he passed and did not knock at all.

'At last he had just begun tap-tapping in front of a hole, when out
rushed a big rabbit. They began to fight, and they both rolled down to
the bottom of the hill.

8. 'The man often saw rabbits tapping like this. Sometimes two or three
would come out to speak to the one that tapped, and they seemed to have
a friendly chat.

9. 'There was another sound they could make with their hind-feet. If one
of them made it, the others would run into their holes as fast as they
could. It meant danger.'

'What was it like?' asked Dora.

'_Tap-pat._'

IVY.

win'-ter
vase
changed
sprays
be-tween'
pur'-pose
um-brel'-la
mid'-dle
straight
veins
flow'-er
thick'-er
thread
ten'-der
mouth
use'-ful

1. Some sprigs of ivy had been standing all the winter in a vase. The
water had often been changed, and the leaves washed.

2. When spring came each spray began to put out buds. The buds were not
all at the ends of the sprays, but came out also close to the old
leaves.

3. At last there was a very small bud between every old leaf and the
stem. When the first bud opened into a leaf, Dora and Harry clapped
their hands, and called every one to look.

4. 'How clean and sweet it is!' cried Dora. 'And do you see something
like wool or hair on it?'

'How curly it is!' said Harry. 'It is not quite open yet. Why, it is
like a hand! All the leaves look rather like hands, don't they? See;
one, two, three, four, five!'

5. 'Look at this old leaf against the light,' said the mother; 'now you
can see the five long fingers. But people call them ribs, not fingers!
They are for the purpose of keeping the leaf spread out.'

6. 'Like the ribs of an umbrella,' said Harry. 'They seem very strong;
the middle one, which goes up straight from the stem, is the strongest
of all.'

[Illustration: Spray of Ivy.]

7. Dora was holding up one spray after another to the light. 'What are
all these pretty marks on the leaves, mother, lines crossing about all
ways?'

'Those are veins, dear. They carry the sap that feeds the leaves.'

8. 'What is sap?'

'The blood of plants and trees.'

'Oh,' said Dora, 'then that is the wet that comes out when I pick a
flower or cut a leaf!

9. 'But look at this!' and she held up one of the sprays.

At the end of it was a little bunch of w