PLEASANT PAGES. A JOURNAL OF HOME EDUCATION ON THE INFANT-SCHOOL SYSTEM. M. Because we are now going to learn about the Bear tribe. Ion. What a quiet sleepy beast he is? See how lazily he gets out of the water! Please, mamma, to let him give us his own history, as the dog did, if he is not too tired and sleepy. You see he need not have the trouble of speaking, you would do all that for him--he will merely put the thoughts in your head. M. Well, you may ask him. Ion. Mr. Bear, are you in a good temper this fine day? We would thank you to give us some AUTOBIOGRAPHY-that is, if your style is not too heavy. Do you ever grumble in this hot country? W. (In a whisper.) Don't mention that subject, Ion; I have often heard the expression, "as surly as a bear". "he grumbles like a bear." Let us hear what he will say! White Bear. It's-yaw-aw-aw-a Natural History. W. B. It's yaw-aw-aw W. So it is! W. B. It's-a-va-a-ry—warmdayya-a-a-w! IV. Yes, but M. Don't interrupt him! Hear what he will say. W. B. Yaw-aw-aw-w L. I really don't think he is going to say anything else. Yes, he is stretching again! W. B. Did-you-make-? W. Yes, of course, we did. We made the remark that we should like to hear your history. W. B. Ya-a-a-se I-se-e-par -teec-l-a-a-a-r—ob Ion. Objection, you were going to say-nor more have we. The only thing we object to is the waiting for you to begin-we are losing our time and patience. W. B. Did you ever see an iceberg? Ion. No. Did you? W. B. If you could only see an iceberg, you might look up, and look up again, and you might be looking up higher and higher still, for half a day-thou would'st never see the top! W. It must be very tall. But what is an iceberg-where is it to be found? W. B. Thou should'st go beyond the seventieth degree-far, far, beyond. Beyond Sweden and Norway; beyond Nova Zembla-up to SPITZBERGEN. Aye, farther still! up, up to the regions around the North Pole W. "Polar them. W. B. Yes. Regions," we call There is a dreary place, where the ground is ice, and the mountains are ice-those are the mountains we call icebergs! They are often broad flat masses of ice, very much larger than all the Zoological Gardens! Zoological Gardens-Bah! Ah, how hard it is to live in this warm country and bathe in water with the chill off! Ah! let me return to the North Pole ! Ion. What is there worth seeing there? NATURAL HISTORY. rus which some sailors had cooked and had left on the ice. I had smelt it all that way off. I was often very hungry, and then I would even fight the Walrus himself. Whenever I could kill him I ate him, all but his skin and tusks. The carcase of a dead whale I would sometimes find on the water, or carcase of some animal from the land; sea-birds, also, and their eggs I would eat; while, if I reached the land, and were hungry, I would even eat roots and fruits; sea-weed also I have eaten. But, one day when I had smelt some delicious and rich smelling walrus, and found it W. B. There are the great northern lights, the rosy Aurora Borealis !-there shine very brilliant stars! Up there, it is a solemn and retired place, when the pale moon shines on the ice-ready cooked, I was just going to and her bright beams of silver dance on the waves of the restless sea! When I was a young bear, and loved to roam, I would climb from rock to rock, and up steep icebergs to some very open place, there I would listen to the roaring of the waves, and the creaking of the ice, and the flapping of the wings of the cold north wind. L. And what did you see? W. B. Sometimes a quiet whale. Enormous Greenland whales would quietly swim about, enjoying the silence and peace. Ion. But suppose that you felt hungry! W. B. Why, if I felt hungry, I would go to the edge of the water; there I would wait at the large holes in the ice, for I knew that the seals came to such holes to get fresh air,-these animals I would catch; or I would dive in after the fish. Sometimes I would climb the high rocks, and begin sniffing the wind to discover the smell of hot Walrus. I once went out to try and find food; and on I travelled for fifteen miles, when I found some smoking Wal enjoy a dainty meal, when some sailors with guns and spears-ah! you know the rest; I was soon bound and taken on board ship— and here I am in the Zoological Gardens! Zoo-o-logical Gardens ! Bah! its very hot-(plunge). L. There he has gone in the water to cool himself-perhaps when he comes out he will finish his story. Ion. We should like, sir, if you are cool enough, to hear the rest of your story. You are aware that you are one of the bear tribe, belonging to the order of "flesheating animals." We should be glad to know how you differ from the other tribes, so as to be called A BEAR. W. B. Well, you must know that I am rather "Pestalozzian" in my way. I wish you to use your reasoning powers as well as your perceptive faculties. W. Oh! W. B. So you may not only notice what parts I have different from the other tribes, but now that you know my habits, you may see why I have such parts. What |