The word Hippopotamus means river horse, and is given to an animal of the thick skinned kind which frequents the rivers of Africa.

These have four toes on each foot, all about the same size and in small hoofs; a large body with no hair, short massive limbs, a belly touching the ground, a large head, short tail and small eyes and ears.

They feed on roots and vegetables and are not gifted with the same clear sagacity as the elephant, but seem on the contrary rather stupid.

The skeleton, that is the bony framework inside upon which the body is built up, as a house is on its scaffolding, is very like that of an ox or hog.

Its stomach, when the animal is full grown, will contain about five or six bushels of food, which is only roughly bruised by the teeth, and which, consisting of vegetables, requires a large quantity for a very little real nutriment they generally feed during the night, and do an immense deal of damage to the crops, not only by consuming these, but still more by trampling on them and destroying them by their great weight.

The young can take to the water almost as soon as born; they can remain a long time under the water closing the nostrils to keep out the liquid.

He is taken either in pitfalls on the shore or by the rifle, in the former case a large hole is dug near his haunt, and this is covered over with thin planks, earth and herbage, and the trapped animal is shot in the snare.

Its flesh is eaten by the natives in some parts of Africa, where it is found, the fat especially being considered a great dainty. Its skin is cut up into strips to make whips; and the large teeth are in great request among the dentists for making false teeth,

the ivory retaining its colour better than any other, and so fetching a very high price indeed in the market for this purpose, and from the great weight and hardness it possesses.

There are not only animals of this kind now, but there have been in the long past times before man was a tenant of the globe, and we meet with the fossil remains of these from time to time, the solid bones having been preserved in the soil and turned to stone.

HOME AND CLASS WORK.

Learn the spellings at the top of the page; and write sentences containing these words.

AN ITALIAN BOAT SONG.

The morn shines bright,

And the bark bounds light

As the stag bounds o'er the lea;
We love the strife

Of a sailor's life,

And we love our dark blue sea.

Now high, now low,

To the depths we go,

Now rise on the surge again;

We make a track

On the Ocean's back,

And play with his hoary mane.

Fearless we face

The storm in its chase,

When the dark clouds fly before it;
And meet the shock

Of the fierce siroc,

Though death breathes hotly o'er it.
The landsman may quail
At the shout of the gale
Which perils the sailor's joy;
But wild as the waves
Which his vessel braves

Is the lot of the sailor boy.

SIR E. B. LYTTON

HOME AND CLASS WORK.

Learn the spellings at the top of the page; and write sentences containing these words.

Do you know that I like children much better than grown-up people? I should so like to have a whole lap full of your bright eyes and rosy cheeks, and dimpled shoulders, to kiss. I should like to have a good romp with you this very minute. I don't always keep this old pen of mine scratching. If a bright cloud comes sailing past my window, I throw down my pen, toss up the casement, and drink in the air, like a gipsy.

I feel just as you do, when you are pent up in school, some bright summer day, when the winds are at play, and the flowers lie languidly drooping under the blue arching sky; when the little butterfly poises his bright wings on the rose, too full of joy even to sip of its sweets:- when the birds sing, because they can't help it, and the merry little swallow skims the ground, dips his bright wing in the lake, circles over head, and then flies, twittering, back to his cunning little brown nest, under the eaves. On such a day, I should like to be your schoolmistress. I'd throw open the old school-room door, and let you all out under the trees. You should count the blades of grass for a sum in addition; you should take an apple from a tree, to learn subtraction; you should give me kisses to learn multiplication.

You shouldn't go home to dinner. No: we'd all take our dinner-baskets and go into the woods; we'd hunt for violets; we'd lie on the moss under the