You have often seen the little green insects that crawl up the stems of the rose-trees. They are called a-phi-des, and these little creatures are the cows, and yield a sweet juice, much delighted in by the ants, which keep their cows in all sorts of ways. There is a species of yellow ant, that does not roam much about, but lives chiefly on the milk of its herd, which it keeps underground-like the unhappy cows of some of the London dairymen—at the bottom of its ant-hill; and an ant-hill is more or less rich in proportion to the number of its herds. There are many other kinds of cowherd ants. Some take less trouble than others with their cows, and being active and good climbers, run, themselves, up the branches on which the cows are, and milk them there. Others take so much pains as to make a little tunnel of earth from the foot of the tree to their nest, in which they carry home the cows, underground, without being seen or disturbed by other ants.

Other kinds again make sheepfolds or stalls for their cattle, apart from their own nests. They build with earth, round the stems of plants, little houses, round within, and as smooth and hard as these ingenious little plasterers can make them. These folds are of the shape of a funnel, sometimes of a ball, with a very small hole at the bottom, for the ants to go in and out at. Other ants will make a little hollow ring of earth and decayed wood, mixed into hard plaster, round the branch on which are their a-phi-des, which they carry down to this prison, and visit from the inside of the tree by passages through the bark without coming outside.

Their way of milking is very curious. The body of the a-phi-des, or plant-lice, is very soft and tender, and they have a trunk by which they cling to the leaf or plant. For fear of bursting them, the ant strokes them and caresses them with its feelers very gently, until the creature loosens its hold, when the ant gently carries it away. There are two horns near the tail of the little cow, which give out the sweet juices of the plant on which it has been feeding. The ant begins by stroking down its captive with its feelers, and then strikes these horns gently, when a little honey-like drop comes out of them. And this the ant drinks.

But they not only capture, they actually breed their cows as well. They take the greatest care of their eggs, gather them up carefully, keep licking them and moistening them, and glue them together with a sort of gum from their own spittle, as the parent would have done if she had been free, and so they hatch captives within their ant-hills. They also collect food, and bring it to them, lest their cows should go dry for want of grass.

DICTATION.-The ants mostly make slaves of black ants and use them for dairymaids, for the ants have cows, kept underground, or in a prison on a branch of a tree. The cows are found on rose-leaves and trees, and are called a-phi-des. They are milked by the ants, and the milk is drunk. How curious that ants should have slaves, and keep herds of cows, and have cowhouses and dairymaids.

QUESTIONS.-What are the ant-cows called? Tell about the cow-houses and prisons? How do the ants milk their cows? What do the ants do besides taking their cows captive? What do they do with the cow-eggs?

LITTLE BIRDS SLEEP SWEETLY.
Poems for Children.

LITTLE birds sleep sweetly in their soft round nests,
Crouching in the cover of their mothers' breasts;
Little lambs lie quiet, all the summer night,

With their old ewe-mothers, warm, and soft, and white.

But more sweet and quiet lie our little heads, With our own dear mothers sitting by our beds; And their soft, sweet voices sing our hushabies, While the room grows darker as we shut our eyes.

And we play at ev'ning round our father's knees,
Birds are not so merry, singing on the trees;
Lambs are not so happy, 'mid the meadow flow'rs;
They have play and pleasure, but not love like ours.
But the heart that's loving, works of love will do;
Those who dearly cherish, we must honour too;
To our father's teaching listen day by day,
And our mother's bidding cheerfully obey.

DICTATION. Children lie more sweetly and quietly in their little beds, with their mothers singing hushabies to them, than the little birds crouching in their nests, or the lambs beside the ewes. And lambs playing among the flowers, or birds singing on the trees, are not so happy as children playing round their father's knees.

QUESTIONS.-Where do the birds sleep, and how? Tell about the lambs, at night? Who sit beside children's beds, and what do they do? What do children do at evening? How should children behave to their father and mother? What works will a loving heart do?

ELLIPTICAL LESSON.

Words sounding alike, but of different meanings. Spell each word to be supplied.

THE STRIFE BETWEEN WINTER AND
SPRING.-H. R. Hensel.

WHEN the four Seasons were first made they were told to go down to the earth one after the other; first, Spring, then Summer, then Harvest, and then Winter.

And so it was. They divided the twelve months among them, each getting three. And now the three months of Spring came on the earth, then the three months of Summer, and then the Harvest with her three months. But when Winter first came to his turn, he grumbled at being last, and said "If I am to be last, I shall, at any rate, stay longer on the earth than the others."

When his three months were over, Spring came and said—“Now it is my turn again; " but Winter said, "Come back to me in a month." And when Spring was not willing, Winter drove such a furious snowstorm in her face, that Spring was glad to take herself off as fast as she could. But Winter laughed, and thought, "I have got quit of her, now.'

When Spring came back at the month's end, Winter said a second time, "Come back in another month;" but Spring was not willing. Then Winter let great snow-flakes fall all over her, and sent a cold, sharp wind through her back.