Islands, but is now cultivated in many other parts of the East Indies.

6. The Dutch, who were the conquerors of the islands in which the nutmegs first grew, wished to keep all the nutmeg-trees for their own profit, and to prevent them from growing anywhere else.

7. They destroyed a good many of the trees, so that the crop of nutmegs should not be very large. In this way they thought to keep up the price. Then, too, they were afraid the trees might spread and become common, and that people in other countries might begin to trade in nutmegs.

8. But the Dutch were prevented from carrying out their selfish scheme by means they had little thought of. A kind of bird, called the spice-eating pigeon, used to feed on the nutmeg and swallow it whole.

9. These birds were flying from place to place quite out of the reach of the Dutch, and they dropped a nutmeg sometimes in one place and sometimes in another. It was not long before trees began to grow in places which did not belong to the Dutch, and the nutmeg spread in spite of them.

10. The tough husk or coat surrounding the kernel is made into mace. So we get

both mace and nutmeg from the same tree. Mace is of a beautiful red color; the redder it is, the better it is thought to be.

sea'-son, to flavor, to spice. de-li'-cious, very pleasing.

ker'-nel, the meat of a nut. scheme (skeem), plan, project.

Write a short account telling what cloves are, and where and how they grow. Describe the trees and blossoms.

Write only one sentence telling what the nutmeg is and how the tree looks.

XLVIII. - SELF-SEEING IS NOT FAR-SEEING.

nat'-u-ral

ea'-gle

roy'-al

po-si'-tion whirled of-fence'

pres'-ence

spăr'-row*

perched

in-qui'-ry* soared snapped

I. THE EAGLE AND THE SPIDER.

1. ONE day an eagle had soared to the top of a very lofty mountain, and there, perched on high, upon a rock, he broke out into some natural remarks about his powers of flight.

SELF-SEEING IS NOT FAR-SEEING.

137

2. Just as he had said, in his grandest style, "Here I am higher than ever created being was before!" he heard a sharp voice saying, "What a boaster you are, to be sure! Am I not higher than you?" and looking up he saw, to his great surprise, a spider just over his head, coolly weaving its web and looking about for flies.

3. "How did you ever manage to get up there?" asked the eagle; "you don't mean to say you crawled

up?

"

"No," said the spider, "that was not my means of raising myself on high."

4. "Well, then, how in the world did you get here?"

"Why, I just fastened myself on you, and you brought me with you, snugly perched on your tail feathers. But now I know how to maintain my position here without your help; so I beg you won't assume such grand airs in my presence; for I should like you to know that I

5. But just then a gust of wind came passing swiftly by, and in a moment the spider was whirled away, and no one ever heard anything more of it.

II. THE EAGLE AND THE SPARROW.

6. "I WONDER," said a sparrow, "what the eagles are about, that they don't fly away with the cats. And now I think of it, a civil question cannot give offence." So the sparrow finished his breakfast, went to the eagle, and said:

7. "May it please your majesty, I see you and your royal race fly away with the kids and the lambs that do no harm; but there is not a creature so cruel as a cat. She prowls about our nests, eats up our young, bites off our heads. She feeds so well that she must be herself good eating. She is lighter to carry than a kid, and you would get a famous grip in her loose fur. Why do you not feed upon cat?"

8. "Ah," said the eagle, "there is sense in your question! I had the worm, too, here this morning, asking me why I did not breakfast upon sparrow. Do I not see a bit of worm's skin on your beak, my child?"

9. The sparrow cleaned his bill upon his bosom, and said, "I should like to see the worm who came to you with that inquiry."

"Stand forward, worm," said the eagle. But as soon as the worm appeared, the sparrow snapped him up and ate him. Then he went on with his talk against the cats.

style, manner.

as-sume', take upon one's self.

maj'-es-ty, the title of a king prowls, hunts for prey, as a or a queen. wild beast.

Explain these phrases:—(1) Assume such grand airs. (2) Your royal race. (3) There is sense in your question.

Write answers to the following questions, and have each answer a complete sentence:

Where were the eagle and the spider? What was the spider doing? What happened to it?

Write what you think the fable of the eagle and the sparrow teaches.

1. Two boys, Frank Bates and Charles Wilson, who lived near a forest in which there