Then Maudie screamed with surprised de

light;

And she always believed, from that very

night,

That crickets can hear when little girls

speak,

And mean a great deal a great deal by their "Creak, creak, creak!”

LANGUAGE LESSON.-Let pupils fill blanks in the statements given below, using in each, one of the following words: shrill, loud, quiet.

The cricket's chirp is

It sounds quite

Then the house is

in the night.

Let pupils unite these three statements, using the words for and and, omitting unnecessary words.

"If wisdom's ways you'd wisely seek, Five things observe with care:

Of whom you speak, to whom you speak, And how, and when, and where."

Stop!

Look at the trunk of that tree! Do you see that bird clinging to the bark ? Let us watch him for a few minutes, and see what he is about. Listen! Do you hear a noise-peck, peck, peck? Can you tell where the noise comes from, and how it is made ?

Yes, the noise is made by the bird. He is striking his bill against the tree. Tap, tap, tap-the sounds come quickly one after another.

Do you know why he pecks the tree in that way ? Can it be in play? Look! He seems to be trying to make a hole in the tree.

That bird is a woodpecker.

Notice

his straight bill, and how he cuts away the bark and the wood with it.

pairs of toes on each foot-one pair be

fore, and one pair behind.

Notice, also, his tail. How short and stiff it is, and how he puts it against the tree, and seems to sit on it while he works.

The bill of this bird is a neat little bone pickax, sharp at the end, and at the sides, too, and hard enough to make a hole in solid wood.

The woodpecker feeds on insects and small worms, and the kinds he likes best, live in trees. Sometimes they are in the bark, and sometimes in the hard wood. These insects do great harm to the trees.

The woodpecker seems to know in just what kind of trees the insects and grubs live, and just where they are to be found, for he never makes a hole in any other trees or in any other places.

Sometimes many holes are made in the same tree, but that is because there are many insects in it.

The woodpecker not only carries a pickax, which he knows how to use better than we do; but he also carries a spear, and in his mouth, too.

It is a long spear for such a little bird; and though one end of it is fastened, so that it can not get away, he can throw the other end out more than two inches beyond the point of his bill.

The end that he throws out is slightly bent and sharp, and has little hooks, or barbs, on its edges, like a fishhook, only a fishhook has but one barb on it.

Notice the picture of a woodpecker's head, showing the bill, like a pickax, and the spearlike tongue run a long way out.

This tongue saves the bird much hard work. As soon as an opening is made to the insect's home, the tongue darts in and spears the insect, as a man spears a fish.

The tongue is then drawn back into the mouth, bringing the insect with it, for the barbs will not let it get off.

The woodpecker can run up and down and hop about the trunks of trees, as easily as other birds can the branches.