SNUFF.-TOBACCO.

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box is the object you mean. I do not like snuff, but I wish to know what it is.

HELEN. Then, without farther hesitation, pray, mamma, what is snuff?

MOTHER. Snuff is the powdered leaves of the tobacco-plant, dried, and occasionally enriched by certain perfumes.

LOUISA. And what sort of a plant is the tobacco-plant?

MOTHER. Tobacco is a beautiful American annual, propagated by seed, and rising with a straight stem to the height of six or seven feet. The leaves, which grow on the sides of the stem, are narrow and very long, of a yellowish green colour; and the blossoms, which are abundant, are of a delicate pink hue in some sorts, or of a pale green in others. When the leaves begin to turn brown, the plants are cut down and laid in heaps till they

188

EXPORTS.

-IMPORTS.

become heated; then they are hung up in the shade to dry. The leaves are afterwards stripped from the stems and tied up in bunches, called hands, or formed into ropes, by winding them in a kind of mill, around a stick. In this condition, it is imported into Europe, where it is cut up for tobacco, as we see it, or dried and powdered for snuff.

HELEN. I often hear of import and export : what do these words mean?

MOTHER. Import means bringing any thing into a country; export, sending any thing out of it.

HELEN. I shall remember the distinction perfectly well. Exit, or going out, will assist to remind me.

LOUISA. Now then, I think we must export the decanters and glasses, and import the candles!

MOTHER. You are a giddy girl; but you have used the words correctly—so do as you propose.

LOUISA. But, first, mother, be so kind as to tell us who brought the use of tobacco into England?

MOTHER. Sir Walter Ralegh, in the reign of Elizabeth. It is said of Sir Walter, that having sent his servant to draw a jug of ale, he lighted his pipe of tobacco; and the man, on his return to the room, seeing the smoke issue from his master's mouth, thought his head must be on fire, and immediately threw the contents of the jug over him.