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them. The young birds fluttered their wings in a pleased manner, and opened their beaks. They did not look at all as they did when they were in the cage.

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8. The mother linnet for it was really the good mother was delighted to see them, and, after caressing them with her beak, as if she was kissing them, she flew away for a few moments, and came back with some food for them.

9. When Edwin saw how happy the old bird was with her nestlings, he looked at Mary and whispered, "I will never take young birds away from their mothers again." And Mary smiled, and gave her little brother a kiss.

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(1,7 41, 52, 111, 153, 169, 197, 220, 269, 270-8.)

1. LITTLE more than a hun'dred years ago, in a small village in Ches'ter coun'ty, Penn-syl-va'ni-a, a boy seven years old was sitting by the cra'dle of an in fant. The boy's name was Ben'ja-min West; his

parents were Qua'kers; the in'fant in the cra'dle was his niece.

2. It was on an af-ter-noon in sum'mer, and Benjamin's mother had left him in charge of the in'fant, and given him a fan to keep away the flies. He was pleased with the trust, and he sat fan'ning away the flies, and look ́ing at the baby.

3. By and by the baby be-gan to smile in her sleep; at which Benjamin was much de-light'ed. He thought he had never seen anything quite so beau'tiful. "What a pity," thought he, "that I can'not have mother see the baby now! Sure'ly never was there so pretty a smile!"

4. Pen, ink and paper, were on the table. There were two kinds of ink, red and black. Benjamin had never had any in-struc'tion in draw'ing. He knew nothing of the art. What would he have given for a book with such pict'ures as are in this Reader, which you hold in your hand!

5. He loved to look on beau'ti-ful things, and he thought he would try to make a like'ness of the baby: so he took pen and paper, and sat down by the cradle and began to draw. His mother came in while he was busy in the attempt.

6. "What hast thou there?" asked his mother. At first he did not wish to tell; but he was a frank and good boy, and so he put the paper into his mother's hand.

7. "It is a picture of little Sally!" cried she, with a smile of de-light; and she kissed Benjamin most ten'der-ly. He never for-got that kiss. Often, in

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after life, when he had be-come fam'ous, he would "That kiss made a paint'er of me! 8. Shortly after this, he was sent to school. Indians came into the village, and gave him some red and yellow paint, such as they used in paint'ing their faces.

9. Benjamin now had paints, but no paint brush. What should he do for a paintbrush? As he was try'ing to think, his glance fell on the old cat, who lay sleep'ing qui'et-ly on the hearth.

10. "Old cat," said Benjamin, "I know thou canst spare me the tip end of thy tail. It will not hurt thee to have it cut off, and it will be of the greatest service to me."

11. So, taking a pair of scis'sors, Benjamin crept towards the cat, and snipped off fur enough to make a very good paint brush. The cat mewed a little, but did not grieve much for her loss.

12. Benjamin soon showed so much skill as a paint'er, that his friends sent him to Phil-a-delphi-a; and from there he went to Rome, and to London. He painted portraits, and met with great success. He made a fine painting of "Christ Healing the Sick," and presented it to the hospital in Philadelphia. was ex-hib'it-ed prof'it-a-bly.

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13. In the year 1791, the little Penn-syl-va'ni-a Qua'ker boy had risen to be Pres'i-dent of the British Roy'al A-cade-my. He painted many cel'ebrat-ed pictures, by which he gained both fame and wealth. He was a good and up'right man. He departed this life in the year 1820.

CII.

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THE INATTENTIVE SCHOOL-BOY.

1. HENRY was sent by his parents to school, but they never obliged him to attend reg'u-lar-ly; hence he often came very late, or did not come at all. His ex-cus'es were, that he had to go on an errand for his parents, or he was sick, or was wanted at home.

2. You may read'i-ly sup-pose that the teach er con-sid ́ered these excuses friv'o-lous and un-sat-is-fac ́to-ry; for how could he in-struct Henry as he ought to be, when the boy was absent so frequent-ly from school?

3. But what especially grieved the teacher was this: Henry did not prize the little in-struc'tion that he did receive. He was foolish enough to think that he was doing his teacher a favor when he got his lesson, or was dil'i-gent and attentive. As if the ben'e-fit were not all his own!

4. The result was, that Henry made very poor use of his three years at school, and learned very little. He was so dull that he did not see that it was for his own future good and ad-vance'ment in life that the teacher urged him to study.

5. One day Henry stepped into the school-room, and said that he had had enough of school; he was not coming again. Does your father mean to send you to another school?" asked the teacher." No, sir," replied Henry; "I am not going to school any longer; my father wants me at home."

6. "I am somewhat sur-prised at that," remarked the teacher; "you have been under my in-struc'tion only three years, and during that pe'ri-od you have

been absent at least half the time, and have never shown any dil'i-gence in study."

7. "Father says I know enough," replied the boy. "He says that he went to school himself only till he was ten years old; he now wants me to go into a store, or learn a trade, in order that I may be in the way of getting my own living."

8. "But do you think," said the teacher, "that any skil'ful trades'man or me-chan'ic will want an appren'tice who can neither read nor write prop'er-ly, and who knows little or nothing of a-rith'me-tic? What will your services be worth?

9. "And how would you man'age, should you have business of your own to attend to, and not know how to make out a bill or cast up an account cor-rectly?"

10. Henry could only reply, "Father says I know enough, because I know as much as he did at my age." All which was very true; but Henry's father had always got along poorly in the world, because of his igʻno-rance of many things, a knowledge of which would have advanced him. He could hardly support himself by his trade, although he might have made a good living by it if he had acquired more learning in his youth.

11. So Henry took leave of his school, and did not come again. He never once thanked his teacher for the pains he had taken to instruct him, but acted as if he thought the ob-li-ga'tion was all on the teacher's side. I hope there will not be many young persons who will con-duct' themselves in a manner at once so fool'ish and un-grateful.

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