Ripple, ripple--thus they sing.
Never idle, never still,
Always working with a will!

3. Listen to the honey-bee,
Flying now so merrily
Here and there with busy hum--
Humming, drumming, drumming, drum.
Never idle, never still,
Humming, drumming--hum it will!

4. Like the mill, the brook, the bee,
May it now be said of me
That I'm always busy too,
For there's work enough to do.
If I work, then, with a will,
It will be but playing still;
Ever merry, never weary,
It will be but playing still.

THE ROSE.

bas'-ket
wo'-man
vil'-lage
sweet'-ly
cab'-bage
be-cause'
stooped
smile
thorns
yel'-low
a-greed'
win'-ter

1. Mother went back to her roses, and soon called for a little basket,
saying that Dora and Harry should take a few to an old woman who lived
in the village.

2. 'Poor granny,' she said, 'is so fond of roses, and she can never get
out now to see them. Which shall we pick for her?'

3. 'Some of these white ones,' said Dora.

'I think she would like these red ones,' said Harry, 'they smell so
sweetly.'

4. Mother cut one or two of each, and then a moss-rose, which looked as
if it had moss growing round it, and then a pink cabbage-rose.

5. 'What has it to do with cabbage?' asked Harry.

'It is only called cabbage because it is so big and round.'

6. 'I like it the best of all,' said Dora, and stooped to smell it,
putting her nose far down into the sweet, deep cup: 'it is such a nice
rose!'

[Illustration: Wild Rose.]

[Illustration: Garden Rose.]

7. 'Yes, I am very fond of it, and of all roses,' said mother, looking
at her bushes with a smile, 'but I almost think I like the wild ones
best. Do you know that the wild rose is the mother of all these? Once
upon a time all roses were wild.'

8. Harry and Dora did not think that wild roses were very like garden
roses. 'But they both have thorns,' they said.

9. 'Look at them as you go along. There are some bushes not far from the
bottom of the lane, after you turn round to go to the village. I don't
think you will find many roses left, but you will see their fruit. They
are the birds' fruit-trees.'

10. 'What can mother mean?' they asked as they went along.

But they soon found out. The bushes were covered with hips; some green,
others yellow, one or