so for. They ought to grow right out in the open air,
like apples, and not have such vile porcupine skins on them,--just to
plague the boys. So saying he struck with all his might a fine large
burr, crushed it to pieces, and then jumped up, using at the same time
profane and wicked words. As soon as he turned round he saw the master
standing very near him. He felt very much ashamed and afraid, and hung
down his head.

"Roger," said the master, (for this boy's name was Roger) "can you get
me a chestnut burr?"

Roger looked up for a moment, to see whether the master was in earnest,
and then began to look around for a burr.

A boy who was standing near the tree, with a red cap full of burrs in
his hand, held out one of them. Roger took the burr and handed it to the
master, who quietly put it into his pocket, and walked away without
saying a word.

As soon as he was gone, the boy with the red cap, said to Roger, "I
expected the master would have given you a good scolding for talking
so."

"The master never scolds," said another boy, who was sitting on a log
pretty near, with a green satchel in his hand, "but you see if he does
not remember it." Roger looked as if he did not know what to think about
it.

"I wish," said he, "I knew what he is going to do with that burr."

That afternoon, when the lessons had been all recited, and it was about
time to dismiss the school, the boys put away their books, and the
master read a few verses in the Bible, and then offered a prayer, in
which he asked God to forgive all the sins which any of them had
committed that day, and to take care of them during the night. After
this he asked the boys all to sit down. He then took his handkerchief
out of his pocket, and laid it on the desk, and afterwards he put his
hand into his pocket again; and took out the chestnut burr, and all the
boys looked at it.

"Boys," said he, "do you know what this is?"

One of the boys in the back seat, said, in a half whisper, "It is
nothing but a chestnut burr."

"Lucy," said the master, to a bright-eyed little girl, near him, "what
is this?"

"It is a chestnut burr, sir," said she.

"Do you know what it is for?"

"I suppose there are chestnuts in it."

"But what is this rough prickly covering for?"

Lucy did not know.

"Does any body here know?" said the master.

One of the boys said he supposed it was to hold the chestnuts together,
and keep them up on the tree.

"But I heard a boy say