something like glass. This is the effect of the glazing. A substance made of lead, called litharge of lead, is put into water, and mixed up with ground flints, or granite, so as to make a liquid like thick cream; and into this the articles which require glazing are dipped. They are then put into an oven and heated again. The glazing makes them easily washed, and enables them to hold any liquid without absorbing it.

“Earthen ware and porcelain ware are made in England, France, China, and to some extent in our country. There is

a place in France where they make plates and cups and saucers which have most beautiful paintings upon them of birds, or flowers, or places. These sell for a great deal of money; and in looking at them, it seems impossible to believe that they were made of clay and flint stones.

"The knives are divided into two parts, the blade and the handle. The blade is made of steel, which is a preparation of iron. Iron is a metal which is dug out of the earth. When first found, it is not in the state in which you now see it, but it looks like a rough, dark-brown stone. This is put into a furnace and melted, and the iron is drawn off in a liquid form. Iron is the most useful of metals, and it is found in nearly all parts of the world.

"Steel is made by putting bars of iron into a close box with fine-powdered charcoal, and then heating the whole very hot. The vapor of the charcoal acts in a peculiar way upon the iron, and makes it harder, more elastic, and less liable to rust. Steel, also, when struck, sounds, or rings, louder than iron, and it takes a brighter polish.

"The handles of knives are made of ivory, bone, horn, or wood. Ours are made of bone. Knives are made in England, Germany, and also in our own country. Sheffield, in England, is a place where many are made.

“Do you see any thing else on the table that is made of iron ?"

“No, mother, I do not.”

"There is something else, though you do not perceive it.

This waiter is made of iron. It is made of very thin iron, called sheet iron, which is first painted, and then varnished. A great deal of ware of this kind is made in Birmingham, in England. This is a large and rich city, and the people are mostly employed in various manufactures of metal. They make buttons, buckles, thimbles, pencil cases, steel pens, tea pots, trays, cake baskets, and many other similar articles. "The spoons are made of silver, real silver. Silver is a metal, which is dug out of the ground. It is one of the precious metals, so called; it comes next in value to gold and platinum, which latter is rarely used. Money is coined from gold and silver. Silver is used for many purposes; and various beautiful and useful things are made from it. It comes mostly from Mexico and South America.

"Having now disposed of the table, its covering, and the furnishing of the table, let us proceed to consider what we have had to eat. Our breakfast has consisted of tea, coffee, sugar, bread, butter, milk, boiled eggs, and baked apples.

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Tea is the leaf of a shrub which grows in China and Japan. It is from four to six feet high. The leaves are gathered twice a year; in the spring and the autumn. They are dried a little in the sun, then laid on plates of hot iron, and afterwards rolled on mats with the palm of the hand. There are many varieties of tea, but they are divided into two great classes, black tea and green tea. These do not come from the same kind of plant.

"The Chinese are very fond of tea, and always have been SO. It was introduced into Europe about the year 1660; and it is now very much used, especially in England and America. A great many ships come from China which are entirely filled with tea. It is packed in wooden chests, which have a lining of lead.

Coffee is the berry of an evergreen shrub which grows in Arabia, and the East and West Indies. It is about ten feet high, and its berry, when ripe, is red, and not very unlike a cherry. At the proper time the fruit is gathered, dried in the

sun, and the berries extracted by the help of mills. The berries are again dried, packed in bags, and sent away in vessels. When we want to make coffee, the berries, or grains, are roasted, ground, and boiled in water. The finest coffee comes from Mocha, in Arabia.

"Tea is made by steeping the leaves in boiling water, which uncurls them, and makes them look larger than they were when put in. Thus tea is properly an infusion. But coffee is a decoction, because it is made by boiling. Now will you promise to remember the distinction between these two hard words?"

"I will try to.

Decoction is when you boil any thing, and infusion is when you only steep it."

"Your father drinks coffee for breakfast, and I drink tea; but you drink milk. Tea and coffee both belong to those articles of food which are called stimulants. They act upon the nerves, and produce a slight exhilaration or excitement. They are not good for little boys and girls; and they should be used only in moderation by grown persons. When your father comes home at night, tired with his day's work, a cup of tea refreshes him; but if he were to drink too much, or drink it too strong, it would keep him awake, and he would have a headache the next morning. Many persons injure themselves by drinking too much strong tea and coffee.

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Sugar is the produce of a plant called the sugar cane, which grows in the West Indies, and many other warm countries. It is about ten feet high, and about two inches in diameter; it looks a good deal like our Indian corn. When ripe, the canes are full of a rich, sweet juice. They are then cut down, and next crushed in a mill; the liquid that runs out is boiled away, and a little lime water is mixed with it, to help clarify it; that is, make it clear.

"When this liquid cools, it settles down in the form of brown sugar; and the liquid that runs off is molasses. Brown sugar, which is sometimes called raw sugar, is refined and purified, and thus turned into loaf sugar. To do this, it is

boiled in lime water, and the heated liquor is cleansed, or purified, and then poured into conical moulds; and when it cools, it appears in the form of a loaf of hard white sugar.

Sugar is made from other substances than the juice of the sugar cane. In France, the juice of the beet root is much used for this purpose. Sugar has also been obtained from grapes, and from liquorice root. In our country, much maple sugar is made by boiling down the juice of a kind of maple.

tree."

LXXV. -THE SAME SUBJECT, CONCLUDED.

"You will observe that there are two kinds of bread on the table; one is brown and the other is white; but they are both made of wheat. Wheat is the growth of a plant which looks something like a very tall blade of grass; when it is ripe, it is cut down, and spread upon the floor of a barn, and then beaten with a wooden stick called a flail, which causes the wheat to drop out. It then appears in the form of small, brown grains, about as big as apple seeds.

"These grains are carried to a mill and ground into flour. This is done by having them put between two stones, the lower of which is fixed, while the upper one turns round. The brown bread is made of flour in the state it is when it comes from the mill. The white bread is made of flour which has been passed through a very fine sieve, or bolted, as it is sometimes called. The outer husk, or covering, of the grains of wheat, makes, when ground, a substance called bran. In the unbolted flour this bran is retained; in the bolted it is not. Many persons who are not strong and well find the brown bread more healthy for them.

"In order to make bread, the flour is mixed with water, in which state it is called dough. It has to be kneaded, or stirred about, for a considerable time, in order to make the water and the flour blend together perfectly. Then yeast is put into the

dough, which makes it rise, or swell. When you cut a slice of bread, you will notice that it is porous, or full of little holes. This is owing to the effect produced by the yeast. When it is sufficiently risen, it is put into an oven and baked.

"Yeast is a liquid, frothy substance, commonly made from hops, and obtained from brewers who make beer. But there are other ways of procuring it, and there are other substances that produce the same effect. In what manner the yeast acts upon the bread so as to make it rise, I could not explain to you without using many hard words, which would go into one of your little ears and out of the other. When you are older, and study chemistry, you will understand it. Dough which has been mixed with yeast is called leaven, a word sometimes used in the Bible. Unleavened bread means bread which has not had any yeast, or leaven, put into it. At times, the Jews were required to eat only unleavened bread.

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"Every woman in America should be taught to make bread; and when you are a little older, I mean that you shall learn. Good bread cannot be made without care and attention; and some people always have bad bread because they will not take the trouble to make good. Of late years, prizes have been offered at cattle shows for the best bread; and this is a good plan. One of their prizes was won by the wife of a clergyman, a lady who knew a great deal, and had read many books, but she did not think it beneath her to learn how to make good bread."

“But, mother, is not bread sometimes made of other things than wheat? I have eaten at grandfather's a kind of bread which is called rye and Indian bread."

"You are right, my dear. Bread is sometimes made of rye, of barley, of oats, and of Indian corn. The bread of which you speak is made of rye flour and Indian meal. Rye is a grain of the same kind as wheat. Indian corn is the fruit of a plant which we call by the same name, and is also termed maize. It grows in the form of yellow grains, much larger than those of wheat, which are set round what is called the