Reading Made Easy for Foreigners - Third Reader | Page 8

earth to the sun in one hundred and seventy-one
years,--that is, if we had a road to run on and time to spare for the
journey.
Arriving at the palace of the sun, we might then have some idea of his
size. A learned Greek who lived more than two thousand years ago
thought the sun about as large as the Peloponnesus; if he had lived in
our country, he might have said, "About as large as Massachusetts."
As large as their peninsula! The other Greeks laughed at him for
believing that the shining ball was so vast. How astonished they would
have been--yes, and the wise man too--if they had been told that the
brilliant lord of the day was more than a million times as large as the
whole world!

LESSON XXX
IVORY
How many articles are made of ivory! Here is a polished knife-handle,
and there a strangely-carved paper-cutter. In the same shop may be
found albums and prayer-books with ivory covers; and, not far away,
penholders, curious toys, and parasol-handles, all made of the glossy
white material.
Where ivory is abundant, chairs of state, and even thrones are made of
it; and in Russia, in the palaces of the great, floors inlaid with ivory
help to beautify the grand apartments. One African sultan has a whole
fence of elephants' tusks around his royal residence; the residence itself
is straw-roofed and barbarous enough, both in design and in structure.
Yet imagine that ivory fence!
The elephants slain in Africa and India in the course of a year could not

furnish half the ivory used in the great markets of the world during that
time. Vienna, Paris, London and St. Petersburg keep the
elephant-hunters busy, yet it is impossible for them to satisfy all the
demands made upon them, and the ivory-diggers must be called upon
to add to the supply.
Every spring, when the ice begins to thaw, new mines or deposits of
fossil ivory--a perfect treasure of mammoths' tusks--are discovered in
the marsh-lands of Eastern Siberia. There are no mammoths
now--unless we call elephants by that name; yet their remains have
been found upon both continents. In the year 1799, the perfect skeleton
of one of these animals was found in an ice-bank near the mouth of a
Siberian river. As the vast ice-field thawed, the remains of the huge
animal came to light.
The traders who search for mammoths' tusks around the Arctic coasts
of Asia make every effort to send off, each year, at least fifty thousand
pounds of fossil ivory to the west along the great caravan road. So great
is the demand, however, that this quantity, added to that sent by the
elephant-hunters, is not large enough to make ivory cheap in trade or in
manufacture.

SELECTION XII
WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE
Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough! In youth it
sheltered me, And I'll protect it now. 'Twas my forefather's hand That
placed it near his cot: There, woodman, let it stand; Thy ax shall harm
it not.
That old familiar tree, Whose glory and renown Are spread o'er land
and sea,-- And wouldst thou hew it down? Woodman, forbear thy
stroke! Cut not its earthbound ties! Oh, spare that aged oak, Now
towering to the skies!
When but an idle boy I sought its grateful shade; In all their gushing
joy, Here, too, my sisters played. My mother kissed me here, My father
pressed my hand: Forgive this foolish tear, But let that old oak stand.
My heart-strings round thee cling, Close as thy bark, old friend; Here
shall the wild bird sing, And still thy branches bend. Old tree, the storm
still brave! And, woodman, leave the spot! While I've a hand to save,
Thy ax shall harm it not.

_George P. Morris_.

LESSON XXXI
FLOWERS
He who cannot appreciate floral beauty is to be pitied, like any other
man who is born imperfect. It is a misfortune not unlike blindness. But
men who reject flowers as effeminate and unworthy of manhood reveal
a positive coarseness.
Many persons lose all enjoyment of many flowers by indulging false
associations. There are some who think that no weed can be of interest
as a flower. But all flowers are weeds where they grow wild and in
abundance; and somewhere our rarest flowers are somebody's
commonest.
And generally there is a disposition to undervalue common flowers.
There are few that will trouble themselves to examine minutely a
blossom that they have often seen and neglected; and yet if they would
question such flowers and commune with them, they would often be
surprised to find extreme beauty where it had long been overlooked.
It is not impertinent to offer flowers to a stranger. The poorest child can
proffer them