dealings.

EXERCISES.--What is this lesson about? Can we be happy without friends?
How can we win the love of those about us? Whose fault is it if we are not
loved? What rule will surely gain us love and friendship if we always
follow it?

LX. THE GIRAFFE, OR CAMELOPARD. (162)

1. The giraffe is a native of Africa. It is of singular shape and size,
and bears some resemblance both to the camel and the deer. The mouth is
small; the eyes are full and brilliant; the tongue is rough, very long,
and ending in a point. The neck is long and slender, and, from the
shoulder to the top of the head, it measures between seven and eight feet;
from the ground to the top of the shoulder, it is commonly ten or eleven
feet; so that the height of a full-grown giraffe is seventeen or eighteen
feet.

2. The hair is of a deep brown color in the male, and of a light or
yellowish brown in the female. The skin is beautifully diversified with
white spots. They have short, blunt horns, and hoofs like those of the ox.
In their wild state, they feed on the leaves of a gum-bearing tree
peculiar to warm climates.

3. The giraffe, like the horse and other hoofed animals, defends itself by
kicking; and its hinder limbs are so light, and its blows so rapid, that
the eye can not follow them. They are sufficient for its defense against
the lion. It never employs its horns in resisting the attack of an enemy.
Its disposition is gentle, and it flees to its native forest upon the
least alarm.

4. Le Vaillant (the celebrated French traveler and naturalist) was the
first who gave us any exact account of the form and habits of the giraffe.
While he was traveling in South Africa, he happened one day to discover a
hut covered with the skin of one of those animals; and learned to his
surprise that he was now in a part of the country where the creature was
found. He could not rest contented until he had seen the animal alive, and
had secured a specimen.

5. Having on several days obtained sight of some of them, he, with his
attendants, on horseback and accompanied with dogs, gave chase; but they
baffled all pursuit. After a chase of a whole day, which effected nothing
but the fatigue of the party, he began to despair of success.

6. "The next day," says he, "by sunrise, I was in pursuit of game, in the
hope of obtaining some provisions for my men. After several hours'
fatigue, we saw, at the turn of a hill, seven giraffes, which my pack of
dogs inst