a moment, "I should suppose
if the meat of the chestnut had no covering, the rain might wet it and
make it rot, or the sun might dry and wither it."

"Yes," said the master, "these are very good reasons why the nut should
be carefully guarded. First the meats are packed away in a hard brown
shell, which the water cannot get through; this keeps it dry, and away
from dust, and other things which might injure it. Then several nuts
thus protected grow closely together inside this green prickly covering;
which spreads over them and guards them from the larger animals and the
boys. Where the chestnut gets its full growth and is ripe, this covering
you know splits open, and the nuts drop out, and then any body can get
them and eat them."

The boys were then all satisfied that it was better that chestnuts
should grow in burrs.

"But why," asked one of the boys, "do not apples grow so?"

"Can any body answer that question," asked the master.

The boy with the green satchel said that apples had a smooth, tight
skin, which kept out the wet, but he did not see how they were guarded
from animals.

The master said is was by their taste. "They are hard and sour before
they are full grown, and so the taste is not pleasant, and nobody wants
to eat them,--except sometimes a few foolish boys, and these are
punished by being made sick. When the apples are full grown they change
from sour to sweet, and become mellow; then they can be eaten. Can you
tell me of any other fruits which are preserved in this way?"

One boy answered, "Strawberries and blackberries," and another said,
"Peaches and pears."

Another boy asked why the peach-stone was not outside the peach, so as
to keep it from being eaten. But the master said he would explain this
another time. Then he dismissed the scholars, after asking Roger to wait
until the rest had gone, as he wished to see him alone.

11. THE SERIES OF WRITING LESSONS. c.[F] Very many pupils soon become
weary of the dull and monotonous business of writing, unless some plans
are devised, to give interest and variety to the exercise, and on this
account, this branch of education, in which improvement may be most
rapid, is often the last and most tedious to be acquired.

[Footnote F: The articles to which this letter is prefixed were
communicated for the work, by different teachers at the request of the
author.]

A teacher, by adopting the following plan, succeeded in awakening a
great degree of