rate, the music so moved the soul of Mr. Donkey
that he could no longer restrain himself, but entering the open door
he stepped into the parlor, approached the lady, and with a voice
faltering from the excess of his emotion, he joined in the chorus!

The lady jumped backwards and gave a dreadful scream, and the Donkey,
thinking that the music went up very high in that part, commenced to
bray at such a pitch that you could have heard him if you had been up
in a balloon.

That was a lively concert; but it was soon ended by the lady rushing
from the room and sending her man John to drive out the musical
jackass with a big stick.

Fortunately, all donkeys have not this taste for music. The nearest
that the majority of jackasses come to being votaries of music is when
their skins are used for covering cases for musical instruments. And
if they have any ambition in the cause of harmony, that is better than
nothing.

THE SENSITIVE PLANT.

There was never a better name for a plant than this, for the delicate
leaves which grow on this slender stalk are almost as sensitive to the
touch as if they were alive. If you place your hand on a growing
plant, you will soon see all the leaves on the stem that you have
touched fold themselves up as tightly as if they had been packed up
carefully to be sent away by mail or express. In some of the common
kinds of this plant, which grow about in our fields, it takes some
time for the leaves to fold after they have been touched or handled;
but if you watch them long enough--five or ten minutes--you will see
that they never fail to close. They are not so sensitive as their
cultivated kindred, but they still have the family disposition.

Now this is certainly a wonderful property for a plant to possess, but
it is not half so strange as another trait of these same pretty green
leaves. They will shut up when it is dark, and open when it is light.

It may be said that many other plants will do this, but that is a
mistake. Many flowers and leaves close at _night_ and open in the
_day-time_, but very few indeed exhibit the peculiar action of the
sensitive plant in this respect. That plant will open at night if you
bring a bright light into the room where it is growing, and it will
close its leaves if the room is made dark in the day-time.

Other plants take note of times and seasons. The sensitive plant obeys
no regular rules of this kind, but acts according to circumstances.

When