that people's hair does grow, but I do not know why it grows; if you please will you tell me.'

'If you pull out one of your hairs, my dear, I will show you a part of it through this small microscope, which may help to make you understand how hair grows.'

Mary pulled a hair, and looked through the microscope. She saw a very small round thing at the end of the hair, which had been in her head, and she said it was a little like what she had seen at the root of some plants, only a very great deal smaller.

That little round thing,' said her mamma, 'is called a bulb; it remains under the skin of the head, and receives nourishment from it, in some manner which I do not understand; the hair is a tube, and the nourishment drawn up from the head passes through it; you recollect, my children, the small glass tube which I showed you with the

coloured water rising in it, how quickly the red liquid ran up that tube; the smaller the tube is, the higher the liquid will rise in it, I cannot explain the cause of this now, as you could not yet understand it; the hair is a much smaller tube than the glass, therefore juices from your head go up through the hair, both higher and more rapidly, than through the glass tube.'

'Are our hairs vegetables, mamma ?

'No, my dear, but they are provided with the means of growth, as is every part of animals; you remember cow dolly's calf, which we saw with little horns, not so long as your finger, those horns will grow, and be as large as her mother's; the horns and the hair are of the same substance, if you burn some of your hair in a candle or the fire, you will find a strange and unpleasant smell; but if you burn grass, or leaves, or any vegetable, the smell is quite different; the horns, if burned, would have the

same smell the hair has. This is one method by which people try whether a substance is animal or vegetable.'

'And will Miss Dolly's hair never grow, mamma, I wish I had not cut it.' 'Indeed, Lucy, you ought to have prized your aunt's present more, you have quite spoiled the doll she was so kind as to give you; learn, my dear children, the consequence of not thinking, and asking those who are wiser than yourselves what you ought to do ; children do not know what is right or wrong, they should therefore always apply to their friends to direct them.'

'I think, aunt,' said Harriet, 'I could put hair on Lucy's doll, though I could not get any so pretty as that which was cut off.'

'I should be glad if you would try, my dear.'

And I too, dear Harriet, and I promise you I will not cut it off again.' Harriet applied to Jane for the ringlets

she had cut from Isabella's head, and in a short time she had a very respectable looking head dress for Miss Dolly.

Mrs. Stewart told the young people they might get their bonnets and hats, and come with her to the beach. Charles, my dear,' she said, ' bring a small basket and a trowel with you, perhaps we shall find something deserving of our attention, and worthy of a place in the basket, that we may study it at our leisure.'

CONVERSATION XXVIII.

THE SEA-SHORE.

THE happy party was soon on the seashore; they saw in some places a fine sandy beach; in others, large granite rocks raising a bold front, and seeming to defy all storms. Some sea plants were found, and some shells put into the basket. Presently, Mrs. Stewart said she would sit on a rock and watch the ebbing tide.

You, my dear children,' she continued, may go about, and examine the productions of the shore.'

She had not sat long when the whole party returned, and Charles said:

Aunt, we discovered the most curious sea-plant you can imagine; I wish you could have seen it, but it is gone.'