I care not now to chase its flight:

Oh, call my brother back!

"The flowers run wild-the flowers we sowed

Around our garden-tree;

Our vine is drooping with its load :

Oh, call him back to me!"

He could not hear thy voice, fair child;
He may not come to thee;

The face, that once like spring-time smiled,
On earth no more thou'lt see.

"And has he left his birds and flowers?

And must I call in vain?

And through the long, long summer hours,
Will he not come again?

"And by the brook, and in the glade,
Are all our wanderings o'er?

Oh, while my brother with me played,
Would I had loved him more!"

THE LEAVES OF THE TREES.-Dr. W. Hooker.

CAN you tell me the use of the leaves on the trees? Let me try to tell you. If you put flowers in water you notice that there is less water next morning. That is because the flowers have drunk up what they needed, through little pipes in their stalks. The reason why the earth in a flower-pot gets so soon dry is mostly that the roots of the plants have sucked in the moisture. You have noticed, have you not, that when you put cold water into a tumbler, the outside of the tumbler is covered with drops of water. That water was in the air, and gathers on the glass because the water inside has made the tumbler so cold. But there would not have been nearly so much moisture in the air but for the leaves of the trees and plants all round us. They breathe out the water their roots have drunk in, all the time, and it is this which makes the air so soft and pleasant to breathe. If it were dry it would be very painful for us, and very hurtful. Just think how many leaves there are, and you will easily see that they must give off a great deal of water, altogether.

Then, the leaves are very beautiful and cheering. In

winter, when all the trees and hedges are stripped and bare, how dreary the country looks, and, when spring is returning, how we rejoice to watch the bursting of the buds. The fresh green is a delight to the eye and to the heart. God has clothed the earth with the verdure of summer, that we may rejoice in the loveliness He has made.

A third use of leaves is to give shade. How refreshing it is to get under a tree in the hot days of July or August. After walking through stony streets, it is delightful to come on a square or park in which leafy shadows offer us protection from the sun. How pleased the cows and sheep look under the trees, in the meadow, at mid-day, chewing the cud. The very fruit needs the shade of the leaves, in some degree. It would be withered if it were not hidden in part from too much bright sunshine.

But the great use of leaves is to keep plants and trees alive, and to make them grow. If you were to strip off all the leaves from a plant as fast as they came out, you would kill it, after a while. Sometimes worms eat up the leaves on trees, and if this is done year after year the tree dies.

Leaves are the same things to plants as lungs are to us or to animals. We draw the air into our lungs by breathing, and, just in the same way, the leaves draw the air into the tree or plant. You may see from this how much good watering a plant whose leaves are dusty must do. It lets the little mouths that are all over the leaf breathe freely.

One very curious thing I must tell you. You know that if we breathe the air of a room too long without letting in fresh air, it grows bad. You have felt this, I'm sure, at some party, or at a meeting where many people were together. Now, what becomes of this bad air which we breathe out of our lungs? Listen. The plants take it all away, for it is the very thing they need. It makes them grow. They draw in the bad air we breathe out, and they breathe out the good air we need. So the leaves of all trees and plants, and the lungs of men and of all living creatures, are making an exchange all the time; the one living on what would kill the other.

But perhaps some thoughtful boy or girl will ask me how it is in winter-time, when all the leaves are gone while the lungs still remain? I shall tell you. There are always plenty of leaves in the south, even in winter, and then the summer of the other side of the world comes just when our winter comes to us, and the plants in all these regions work for us when there are no leaves in our own country. The bad air is carried away all through the sky, and the leaves find it out and draw it in whenever it touches them as it passes, and in the same way the good air which the plants breathe out is blown everywhere, and reaches our lips, and is our life. Is it not wonderful how God has made all things so wisely?

Just one thought more to keep in your minds and think about. You can see that if plants and living creatures help each other in this amazing way, and work

for each other, there must never be too many of the plants, or too many of the living creatures, else there would be too much bad air, or too much good air, for the one or the other. Yet so wondrous is the power and wisdom of God that the balance is always kept, and there are always just the lungs and just the leaves all over the world that are needed for each other.

DICTATION.-The roots of plants drink up the moisture round them. The leaves give out a great deal of water, which keeps the air moist. Then they are very beautiful and cheering, making us rejoice in the loveliness of nature. They also give shade. But their great use is to feed the plant, which they do by drawing in the air it needs. Plants draw in the air which would kill living creatures, and give off the air which they need.

QUESTIONS.-What are the four great uses of the leaves of plants? What kind of air do plants give out? What kind do they need? How do the plants keep the air right in winter?

WISE SAYINGS.

ALL honest work is noble. The crock that goes longest to the well gets broken at last. A friend in need is a friend indeed.