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the leaves. Some sparrows were brought from over the sea to kill these worms.

Now there are so many sparrows that the parks seem quite full of them.

The men who take care of the parks, make little houses which they place in the trees.

In these houses the sparrows spend the winter.

Bessie's father lived near one of these parks.

One Christmas morning Bessie looked out of the window, and saw several little sparrows hopping about in the snow.

They were trying to find something to eat, and they looked hungry and cold.

Bessie was a kind little girl, and she felt very sorry for the poor birds.

She would have asked them into her warm home if they would only have come.

Pretty soon she she thought of a plan. What do you suppose it was? It was a queer plan. She asked her mother if she could not make a Christmas tree for the little birds.

"How will you do it?" asked her mother.

"O I will take the little Christmas tree you gave me last night, and put it outside the window, and hang little baskets of seed and bread in it for the birdies."

Her mother helped her fasten the little tree just outside the window. Then Bessie put her presents for the sparrows on it.

At first the birds did not think the tree could really be for them.

But by and by two or three sparrows came to it.

They looked at it a while, and then flew off to the park and told the rest of the birds.

Soon there were very many sparrows in Bessie's tree. They thanked Bessie over and over, and wished her a "Merry Christmas" more times than she could count.

It took the birds nearly all day to take care of their presents, and Bessie was happier than they. Bessie was pleased because she had made the

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birds happy, and her

Bessie, you see that

the way to be happy yourself, is to

make others happy."

LANGUAGE LESSON.

Why were the sparrows placed in the park?

Where did they live in the winter ?

What did Bessie wish to do for them?

What did Bessie give them for presents ?

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WHAT A SPIDER AND A FLY DID.

There was once a young prince, who said that, if he had the power, he would drive all the spiders and flies out of the world.

One day, after a great fight, this prince had to hide from his foes. He ran into a wood, and there, under a tree, he lay down and fell asleep.

A bad man saw him. He drew

his sword, and crept up toward him. But a fly came creeping over the face of the prince and waked him. He sprung to his feet and the man ran off.

That night the prince hid himself in a cave in the same wood. In the night, a spider wove her web across the mouth of the cave.

Two men, who were hunting for the prince, that they might kill him, passed by the cave in the morning, and the prince heard what they said.

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'Look," cried one of them, "he must be hid in this cave!

"No," said the other, "that can not be, for if he had gone in there, he would have brushed down that spider's web."

And so the men went on, and did not wait to look in the cave.

As soon as they were out of sight, the prince thought how his life had been saved-one day by a fly, and the next day by a spider.

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