Harry's Ladder to Learning Part 12

It is to make mince-pies. Do you love mince-pies? Oh, they are very good!

Look! a pretty little robin is flying against the window. Open the window. Well, what do you want, little robin? Only a few crumbs of bread. Give him some crumbs, and he will hop, hop about the parlour, and sit upon the top of the screen, and sing--oh, he will sing all day long! Now pray do not let that wicked cat take him. No, puss! you must go and catch mice; you shall not eat poor robin.

Little boys come from school at Christmas. Pray wrap them up warm, for it is very cold. Well, spring will come again some time.

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THE IDLE BOY.

There was a little boy; he was not a big boy, for if he had been a big boy I suppose he would have been wiser; but this was a little boy, not higher than the table, and his papa and mamma sent him to school. It was a very pleasant morning; the sun shone, and the birds sung on the trees.

Now this little boy did not much love his book, for he was but a silly little boy, as I told you; and he had a great mind to play instead of going to school. And he saw a [Ill.u.s.tration]

bee flying about, first upon one flower, and then upon another; so he said, "Pretty bee! will you come and play with me?" But the bee said, "No, I must not be idle; I must go and gather honey." Then the little boy met a dog, and he said, "Dog! will you play with me?" But the dog said, "No, I must not be idle; I am going to catch a hare for my master's dinner: I must make haste and catch it." Then the little boy went by a hay-rick, and he saw a bird pulling some hay out of the hay-rick, and he said, "Bird! will you come and play with me?" But the bird said, "No, I must not be idle; I must get some hay to build my nest with, and some moss, and some wool." So the bird flew away. Then the little boy saw a horse, and he said, "Horse! will you play with me?" But the horse said, "No, I must not be idle; I must go and plough, or else there will be no corn to make bread of." Then the little boy thought with himself, "What! is n.o.body idle? then little boys must not be idle neither." So he made haste, and went to school, and learned his lesson very well, and the master said he was a good boy.

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GATHERING APPLES.

See, here is Mamma, and here are Maria, and Harry, and Herbert. They are in the orchard gathering apples to put into puddings. See, Mamma is shaking the tree, and Maria is catching the apples in her frock. And look, how busy Harry and Herbert are! I hope they will not eat too many apples.

HARRY'S LADDER TO LEARNING.

PART VI.

HARRY'S COUNTRY WALK.

COUNTRY WALK.

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Early one morning during last summer, Harry and I put on our hats, and taking some cake in our pockets for lunch set out for a good long walk.

First we went through the Home Meadow, where the tall elm-trees are, and then through the gate at the bottom of the valley into the corn-fields.

The sun was s.h.i.+ning bright and clear, and a lark was singing high up in the blue sky almost beyond our sight. Harry and I stood still to watch its descent, and after many minutes we saw it alight near a tuft of gra.s.s by the hedge-side. We walked a little nearer, and then we found that there was another bird there with some young ones; so we thought that this lark had been singing its long, sweet song in the air to cheer its mate, who was feeding their little ones in the nest.

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We then walked on, and soon came to the skirts of the wood, through which runs a little stream. We thought there must be some one in the wood, for we heard a smart tapping sound, like the noise of a little hammer. I climbed on the top of a hedge-bank, and, after a little while, found that the noise came from over our heads. On the trunk of a tree were two wood-p.e.c.k.e.rs pecking with their long beaks at the bark of a fir-tree, in which they find a number of little insects, which serve them for their food. I lifted Harry up to see them at their work, but he did not frighten them, and at some long way off we could still hear them tapping away.

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Just at the corner of the wood, as we were turning round by the side of the fence, we saw two hares and a rabbit feeding among the clover; one of them p.r.i.c.ked up his ears and looked at us for a moment, and then all of them ran away across the field much faster than Harry, who tried all he could to catch them.

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We had not walked much further when we heard a great chattering, and when we came to a young beech-tree close by the stile, we soon found the cause of the noise. About two dozen or more of a little bird called the t.i.tmouse had all perched on one tree, where they were pecking, and fighting, and love-making, and noise-making, all at the same time.

Except the noise made by sparrows when they go to bed on a summer's evening, I never heard the like.

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While I was amusing myself by watching the t.i.tmice, Harry, who had rambled on a little way, came running back to ask me what the funny thing could be that he had found. It was a mole that had been caught in a trap, and was dangling in the air with a swarm of bees around. I told Harry that the moles are blind, or nearly so, and that they live under the ground, and do great good to the farmers by eating the slugs and other things that destroy the corn; but that they turn up such great mounds of earth when making their tunnels, that the farmers are often glad to get rid of them, and therefore set traps to kill them.

In the next field we came to, the young wheat had grown up higher than my knees, and Harry was greatly pleased at running down the furrows and making the blades of corn bend before him. Presently he stopped and peeped through an opening, whence he discovered a whole covey of partridges, the two old birds and seven young ones; they all rose with a whirring noise, and flew into the field we had just left.

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Soon after the partridges had flown away, Harry was delighted to hear the well-known voice of the cuckoo; it sounded so near us that we both started at the first voice, and we soon found out where the cuckoo was.

Like a lazy tyrant, instead of making a house for himself, the cuckoo takes the first little bird's nest he can find, and turns the poor occupant away. When we reached the tree where the cuckoo was, we saw it sitting on a small nest throwing out the eggs of a poor little bird, who was screaming in anger at the intruder.

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When I told Harry what the cuckoo had been doing, he wanted to throw a stone at it, but I told him that this cuckoo was only doing what all other cuckoos did, and that the poor little bird would soon build itself another nest. As we walked on, still by the side of the wood, Harry saw something jumping about in the boughs of a tree; and presently another followed it: they were two squirrels, with their long bushy tails curled over their backs, and their ears p.r.i.c.ked up to hear the slightest noise.

As soon as they saw Harry looking at them they both leaped away, and we lost them in the branches of a large oak. To look after the squirrels we had climbed over the hedge, so we were walking a little way in the wood. Presently I heard the call of a pheasant; and as we walked further, we came to some brush-wood, under which were two old birds and their young ones. They all flew away at our approach; but the old c.o.c.k-pheasant left two of his tail-feathers in the brush-wood, which Harry soon picked up to decorate his hat with.

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The next bird that caught our notice was a fly-catcher. It was sitting on a bramble catching bees and flies, and so intently was it watching for them, that it did not even notice our presence, till Harry tried to put his hand on it, but then away it flew with a fine chattering.

We now left the wood, and taking the foot-path to the left, went along till we came to the road. Just by the stile sat a girl, who had been gathering dried sticks in the wood, where her father was cutting down trees. She had tied up the sticks into a bundle, and was sitting on them to rest herself, because they were so heavy. She asked me to help her to put them on her head; this I did, and then she thanked me, and trudged on, singing as merrily as a lark in the sky.

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Now we came to a bridge over a wide river. I mounted Harry astride the parapet, and there we stopped for some minutes to look at the boats as they pa.s.sed under us, and to watch two swans which were sailing up the river with their great wings spread out for sails, and their necks so proudly bent that they looked like the king and queen of the river.

Harry would have stayed for hours to look at them, but we could not stop long.

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