sleepers. Most of the world's great workers took a goodly amount of
sleep, however. Sir Walter Scott, the great writer, took eight hours
of sleep, and so did the famous philosopher Emanuel Kant. Children
need more sleep than grown people. They should retire early and sleep
until they awake in the morning.

When fairly awake we should get up. Dozing is unhealthful, especially
for young people.

"Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

LESSON XXVI

CURIOUS BIRDS' NESTS

Among the most curious nests are those made by the birds called
weavers. These feathered workmen serve no apprenticeship; their trade
comes to them by nature; and how well they work at it! But then you
must admit that Nature is a skillful teacher and birds are apt scholars.

The Baltimore oriole is a weaver, and it makes its nest out of bark,
fine grass, moss, and wool, strengthening it, when circumstances
permit, with pieces of string or horse-hair. This nest, pouch-shaped,
and open at the top, is fastened to the branch of a tree, and sometimes
is interwoven with the twigs of a waving bough. The threads of grass
and long fibers of moss are woven together, in and out, as if by
machinery; and it seems hard to believe that the little birds can do
such work without help.

The tailor-bird of India makes a still more curious nest: it actually
sews, using its long, slender bill as a needle. Birds that fly, birds
that run, birds that swim, and birds that sing are by no means rare;
but birds that sew, seem like the wonderful birds in the fairy-tales.
Yet they really exist, and make their odd nests with great care and
skill. They pick out a leaf large enough for their nest, and pierce
rows of holes along the edges with their sharp bill; then, with the
fibers of a plant or long threads of grass, they sew the leaf up into a
bag. Sometimes it is necessary to sew two leaves together, that the
space within may be large enough.

This kind of sewing resembles shoemakers' or saddlers' work; but, the
leaf being like fine cloth and not like leather, perhaps the name
"tailor-bird" is the most appropriate for the little worker. The bag
is lined with soft, downy material, and in this the tiny eggs are
laid--tiny indeed, for the tailor-bird is no larger than the
hummingbird. The weight of the little creature does not even draw down
the nest, and the leaf in which the eggs or young birds are hidden
looks like the