What he does is this: when he finds a fallen cocoanut, he begins tearing away the thick husk and fiber with his strong claws, and he knows perfectly well which end to tear it from; namely, from the end where the eyeholes are, which you call the monkey's face, out of one of which, you know, the young cocoanut would burst forth.

And when he has got to the eyeholes, he hammers through one of them with the point of his heavy claw. So far, so good: but how is he to get the meat out?

He cannot put his claw in. He has no proboscis like a butterfly to insert and suck with. He is as far off from his dinner as the fox was when the stork offered him a feast in a long-necked jar.

What, then, do you think he does? He turns himself round, puts in a pair of his hind pincers, which are very slender, and with them scoops the meat out of the cocoanut, and so puts his dinner into his mouth with his hind feet.

And even the cocoanut husk he does not waste; for he lives in deep burrows which he makes, like a rabbit; and being a luxurious crab, and liking to sleep soft in his hard shell, he lines them with a quantity of the cocoanut fiber, picked out clean and fine, just as if he were going to make cocoanut matting of it.

And being also a clean crab, he goes down to the

sea every night to have his bath and moisten his gills; and so he lives happy all his days, and gets so fat in his old age that he carries in his body nearly a quart of pure oil.

That is the history of the cocoanut crab.

And if any one tells me that the crab acts only on what is called "instinct," but does not think and reason, though of course not in words as you and I do, then I shall be inclined to say that that person does not think nor reason either.

CHARLES KINGSLEY.

DAFFODILS.

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never ending line
Along the margin of a bay;

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay

In such a jocund company;

I gazed — and gazed — but little thought What wealth to me the show had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye,
Which is the bliss of solitude; •
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

THE SONG OF PIPPA.

The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn :

God's in his heaven

All's right with the world.

ROBERT BROWNING.

It happened that a plot against the emperor Nero had been discovered, and the chief conspirator had been put to death, together with some of his servants.

One of these men had a dog of which he was very fond; and from the moment the man was thrown into prison, the dog could not be persuaded to move away from the door.

At last there came a day when the man suffered the cruel death common in Rome for such offenses. He was thrown down a steep flight of stairs, and his neck was broken by the fall.

A crowd of Romans had gathered round the place of execution, in order to see the sight, and in the midst of them all the dog managed to reach his master's side, and he lay there howling piteously.

Then one of the crowd, moved with pity, threw to the dog a piece of meat; but he only took it and laid it across his master's mouth.

By and by the men came for the body in order to throw it into the river Tiber. Even then the dog followed and swam after it, and held it up and tried to bring it to land; and the people came out in multitudes from the houses round about to see what it was to be faithful unto death- and beyond it.

Nor must we forget the sudden changing seasons of the northern clime. There is no long and lingering spring, unfolding leaf and blossom one by one;