hite, curly roots. Each root was
not much thicker than a thread.

10. 'Don't touch them,' said the mother; 'roots are very tender things.'

'What is the good of them?' asked Dora.

'What is your mouth useful for?' asked her mother.

11. 'Oh, do you mean that the ivy eats and drinks?'

'Yes, that is what I mean. These roots take out of the water, or out of
the earth, all sorts of things good for the food of the plant. They then
send them up into the stem and on into the leaves.'

12. 'Mother,' said Harry, 'let us go and plant all this ivy. I am sure
it wants to try the taste of the earth!'

A TREE.

rab'-bits
shoots
ta'-ble
spread
rough
heard
birch
beech
branch'-es
caught
oak
found

1. 'Let us go over to that log where we sat when we saw the rabbits,'
said Dora to Harry.

2. 'All right! We can play at ship, and the grass shall be the sea.'

'Or we can have see-saw, if we can find some wood to lay across the
log.'

3. They were soon at the log, and on it they sat down, and looked about
them.

The log was the trunk of an old oak, and a little way off stood the
stump, with many new shoots and leaves coming out all round it.

4. Dora went and stood on it, and called out that she was on a hill. She
jumped off and on a few times, and then said it would make a good table,
and they might have tea on it.

5. Harry found that the stump had roots that spread out all round for a
long way.

'How thick and hard they are!' he said; 'come and feel this one!'

[Illustration: It is all marked in rings.]

'It is not like the roots we saw on the ivy,' she said. 'Now look at the
top of the stump. It is all marked in rings.'

6. 'In the very middle there is a little light spot, and then come dark
rings, and then more rings outside. Father once told me these rings
showed how old the trees were. And do you see lines coming away from the
middle?'

7. 'They look like the rays of the sun, which I draw on my slate,' said
Dora. 'What a rough coat this tree had! Come and feel the outside of the
log.'

'That is the bark! I have heard father talk about bark.'

8. 'Well, I shall call it the coat. It is the tree's overcoat to keep
him warm and dry. But trees do not all seem to have rough coats. Look at
that one!' and she ran over to a little birch, and pulled off some of
its thin bark.

9. 'I have found a fine tree!' cried Harry; and Dora came running to
look