r it seemed almost as much alive as herself. She only wondered, and
wondered!

11. Margery heard her mother calling her, and she trudged home across the
shells and pebbles with a pleasant smile dimpling her cheeks; for she felt
very much at home in this large, wonderful world, and was happy to be
alive, although she neither could have told, nor cared to know, the reason
why. But when her mother unpinned the little girl's Highland shawl, and
took off her hood, she said, "O mother, do let me live on the doorstep! I
don't like houses to stay in. What makes everything so pretty and so glad?
Don't you like to wonder?"

12. Margery's mother was a good woman. But then there was all the
housework to do, and, if she had thoughts, she did not often let them
wander outside of the kitchen door. And just now she was baking some
gingerbread, which was in danger of getting burned in the oven. So she
pinned the shawl around the child's neck again, and left her on the
doorstep, saying to herself, as she returned to her work, "Queer child! I
wonder what kind of a woman she will be!"

13. But Margery sat on the doorstep, and wondered, as the sea sounded
louder, and the sunshine grew warmer around her. It was all so strange,
and grand, and beautiful! Her heart danced with joy to the music that went
echoing through the wide world from the roots of the sprouting grass to
the great golden blossom of the sun.

14. And when the round, gray eyes closed that night, at the first peep of
the stars, the angels looked down and wondered over Margery. For the
wisdom of the wisest being God has made, ends in wonder; and there is
nothing on earth so wonderful as the budding soul of a little child.

DEFINITIONS.-l. Trudg'ing, walking sturdily. 2. Hues, colors. Ca'lyx, the
outer covering of a flower. 4. Ho-ri'zon, the line where the sky and earth
seem to meet. 5. War'ble, a trill of the voice. Spears, shoots of grass.
Sheaths, coverings.

EXERCISES.--Name the things about which Margery
wondered. What did she wonder about each? What is still
more wonderful than all that at which Margery wondered?

XXXVI. THE CHILD'S WORLD. (103)

1. "Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world,
With the wonderful water round you curled,
And the wonderful grass upon your breast,--
World, you are beautifully drest."

2. "The wonderful air is over me,
And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree;
It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,
And