Chambers's Elementary Science Readers Part 16

6. 'Next she looked about for some old wood, and found it in a tree, perhaps, or post, or bit of fence. She rubbed away at it with her jaws till she got some of it off in powder.

7. 'She made this powder into a paste with a sort of gum which came out of her mouth, and off she went with it to her room.'

8. 'What did she do with it?'

'She spread it out in sheets of thin brown paper, and with these she made a comb like a bee's.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wasp's Nest.]

'She made paper of it.'

'Only a bee's is made of wax. I know that!' said Harry.

9. 'She put many layers of paper on the top to keep the rain out, and pillars under it to hold it up. Then she laid an egg in each cell. When the eggs were hatched'----

'Little wasps came flying out,' said Dora.

'No; little grubs came crawling out!

10. 'The wasp was now more busy than ever. She fed each baby in turn, and as they all grew bigger she had to get more and more food for them.'

THE SUNFLOWER

blue buzz'-ing set'-tled watched sun'-flow-er course warmth in-stead'

star'-ing spar-row stopped crowd cush'-ion mid'-dle gar'-den know

1. It was very hot, the sky was blue, and the air was full of the humming and buzzing of bees and flies. A white b.u.t.terfly flitted by, but soon went away over the garden-wall.

2. Bee after bee, and fly after fly, settled on the sunflowers and hunted for honey. Dora and Harry watched for a long time.

3. 'The sunflower is like a little sun,' said Dora.

'And it loves the sun,' said her mother, who was snipping off dead roses close by; 'it always turns to look at it. See, its face is towards the sun now. And if you look again before sunset you will find the flower turned to it still.'

4. 'How strange!' said Dora.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sunflower.]

'And it has such a strong stalk,' said Harry. 'You would not think that it could turn round. It must be alive!'

'Of course it is alive!'

'But, I mean, it must feel, or why should it turn and turn to get the light and warmth?'

5. 'How ragged all the stalks and leaves are!' said Dora. 'I wish they would make themselves tidy instead of always staring at the sun. Why are there so many holes in the leaves?'

6. 'Grubs have been eating them. Our friend Mr Sparrow must have been away lately!'

7. Here mother stopped snipping at her rose-trees, and came up to one of the sunflowers.

8. 'There is something I want you to see,' she said. 'You think this is one big flower, but it is really a crowd of little flowers. Look! Can you think of another flower that is something like it?'

9. Harry and Dora shook their heads.

'It is very small,' mother went on, 'with a cus.h.i.+on in the middle like this, and rays standing out all round like these.'

10. 'Does it grow on a tree?'

'No.'

'In this garden?'

'No.'

'In the fields?'

'Yes.'

'Oh, I know!' cried Harry. 'It is the daisy.'

MERRY WORKERS.

wheels bus'-y i'-dle brook'-lets ripp'-ling sky'-lark lis'-ten hon'-ey mer'-ri-ly hum'-ming e-nough'

wea'-ry

1. Tell me what the mill-wheels say, Always turning night and day; When we sleep and when we wake, What a busy sound they make!

Never idle, never still, What a worker is the mill!

2. What is it that the brooklets say, Rippling onward day by day?

Sweet as skylark on the wing, Ripple, ripple--thus they sing.

Never idle, never still, Always working with a will!

3. Listen to the honey-bee, Flying now so merrily Here and there with busy hum-- Humming, drumming, drumming, drum.

Never idle, never still, Humming, drumming--hum it will!

4. Like the mill, the brook, the bee, May it now be said of me That I'm always busy too, For there's work enough to do.

If I work, then, with a will, It will be but playing still; Ever merry, never weary, It will be but playing still.