elf. He
found it so pleasant to the taste that he told some of his neighbors
about it. They tried it and were as much pleased as himself. And so,
little by little, the drink came, after a while, into common use.

The coffee plant is a beautiful little tree, growing sometimes to the
height of twenty feet. It has smooth, dark leaves, long and pointed.
It has pretty, white blossoms, which grow in thick clusters close to
the branches. Its fruit looks a little like a cherry; and within it
are the coffee berries, two in each cherry.

When ripe, the red fruit turns to a deep purple and is sweet to the
taste. In Arabia the fruit is allowed to fall on mats placed under the
trees; but in other countries it is commonly gathered as soon as it is
ripe, and it is then dried by being placed on mats in the sun.

After the outside part has been removed the berries are again dried.
They are then put in sacks and boxes to be sent into other parts of the
world.

LESSON IV

OUR NATIONAL FLAG

There is a national flag. He must be cold indeed who can look upon its
folds rippling in the breeze without pride of country. If he be in a
foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself with all its
endearments. Who, as he sees it, can think of a state merely? Whose
eyes, once fastened upon it, can fail to recognize the image of the
whole nation? It has been called a "floating piece of poetry."

Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it
represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence. It is
a piece of bunting lifted in the air, but it speaks sublimely, and
every part has a voice. Its stripes of alternate red and white
proclaim the original union of thirteen states. Its stars of white on
a field of blue proclaim the union of the states. A new star is added
with every new state. The very colors have a language, which was
understood by our fathers.

White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice. Thus the
bunting, stripes and stars together, make the flag of our
country--loved by all our hearts and upheld by all our hands.

SELECTION II

THE SHIP OF STATE

Thou, too, sail on, O ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity, with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate.

We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workman wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and r