ng the basket. Ah! here comes the ladder at last, with a man under
it."

UNCLE SAM.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

SLEEPING IN THE SUNSHINE.

SLEEPING in the sunshine,
Fie, fie, fie!
While the birds are soaring
High, high, high!
While the buds are opening sweet,
And the blossoms at your feet
Look a smiling face to greet.
Fie, fie, fie!

Sleeping in the sunshine,
Fie, fie, fie!
While the bee goes humming
By, by, by!
Is there no small task for you,--
Nought for little hands to do?
Shame to sleep the morning through!
Fie, fie, fie!

RAMBLES IN THE WOODS.

RACHEL has been used to a life in the city, but she is now on a visit to
her uncle's in the country; and she has fine times rambling through the
woods and fields.

Her cousin Paul takes her to pick berries, and tells her the names of
the things she sees. "Smell of these leaves," Paul will say, breaking a
twig from a shrub, somewhat like a huckleberry-bush, and crushing the
leaves in his hand. "This is the bayberry-shrub. How fragrant the leaves
are! It bears a berry with a gray wax-like coating; and in Nova Scotia
this wax is much used instead of tallow, or mixed with tallow, to make
candles."

"But what is this little red berry on the ground?" asked Rachel once
when they were on one of their rambles. "It has a dark glossy leaf; and
I like the taste and the smell of it very much."

"That is the checkerberry," said Paul. "Some people call it the
boxberry; and some call it wintergreen. It has a flavor like that of the
black birch. It is used to scent soap, and sometimes to flavor candy. It
is an evergreen plant."

"What do you mean by an evergreen?" asked Rachel.

"I mean, it is green the whole year round: it does not dry up and fall
off, like the leaves of the strawberry-plant," said Paul.

"What other sweet-smelling plants are there about here?" asked Rachel.

"Did you ever taste the bark of the sassafras-tree?" asked Paul. "If
not, here is one; and I will break off a twig for you to chew. The color
of the inner bark, near the root, is red, like cinnamon. A beer is made
from it; and it is also used in soaps."

[Illustration: RAMBLES IN THE WOODS.]

"I like the odor of it very much," said Rachel.

"Here is a black-birch tree,"