The tea-plant has to grow three years before the leaves are fit to be pulled off. When it is three years old, the persons whose business it is to gather the leaves, brush the trees free from dust. They then wash their hands quite clean and pull the leaves, one by one, from the stalks.

The owners of the tea-plant are so much afraid of doing harm to the flavour of the tea, that they will scarcely allow the people at work to breathe on the leaves. You have heard of green tea: people used to think it was dried upon copper, and was very unwholesome; but they know better now. What we call green tea is the first crop of leaves, which is taken from the tree about the end of February; these leaves are very young and tender. There is another gathering in April, then one in June, then another in August. From the last crop of leaves the more cheap and common tea is made.

When the leaves are pulled and brought home, they are dried on large, flat, iron pans, over hot fires: this is done in a very long house, made on purpose. The fresh, juicy leaves crack as they touch the fire: there are people to move them about, that they may not burn: the heat makes them look curled up, as we see them.

After the tea is dried fit to be used, it is sold to merchants, who send it to England, and to all parts of the world. Some years ago, tea was very scarce and dear. I once met with an old lady, who told me, that when she was young, it was quite a treat to rich people; and they used to drink it out of very small cups. We also read in history of some very grand gentleman, who bought some tea, and had to pay

sixty shillings for a pound of it. If it were so dear now, you could never taste it. When you see what a comfort it is, you should feel very thankful that God has put it into the hearts of men to cultivate this plant; also, that God has given men wisdom to build ships, and to steer them where they wish them to go.

China is a great, great way off; a wide sea is between us and that country. Were there no ships, we should have to do without tea, and many other useful things. Now, I hope when you drink tea, you will often think of what you have just read. Think, too, how very good that God must be, who makes the trees and herbs to grow for our use, and also causes the people a long way off to labour for us. Many poor people in China are, perhaps, at this very moment pulling or drying those leaves, with which you will make tea, if you are alive next year.

WHAT is tea?

Where does it grow ?

How high does the tea-plant grow?

How many years does it grow before the leaves

are pulled?

What is green tea ?

What is black tea?

How are the leaves dried?

Is China near to us?

Then how is the tea brought?

Of whom should you think when you are taking

tea?

From whom do all your comforts come?

What, then, should you do to that God who is so good to you?

SUGAR.

WITHOUT milk and sugar, tea has a bitter taste, and few persons like it. You all know what milk is: do you know what sugar is?

on

Sugar is made from the juice of a plant called the sugar-cane. The sugar-cane_grows islands a great way off, called the West Indies, and in other countries. The sun there is very warm and very bright, and the leaves are always green upon the trees.

Apples and pears do not grow in that country; the fruit is of another kind, very sweet and

nice.

In England, the farmers plough the ground: they sow wheat, and barley, and oats, which by harvest time gets ripe and fit to be cut. They are then dried, and afterwards ground in a mill into flour, which makes bread and cakes.

In the West Indies, many of the fields are planted with sugar-canes or coffee. They are not ploughed by horses; but a great many black people go to the fields with hoes, to dig the holes in which the cane is planted.

When the time of year comes that the canes are ripe, the men go into the fields with great knives, and chop off the canes close to the ground. Canes grow tall and straight, not unlike a thick yellow stick, with joints in it, and long leaves like grass.

The tops of the sugar-cane are cut off to plant again, and the lower parts are tied in bundles, and carried on mules' backs to a mill. There

the sweet juice is pressed out, then boiled with great care in large iron boilers, over a great furnace while boiling, the scum is taken off.

After the juice of the sugar-cane has boiled long enough, it runs, by a spout, from each boiler into large pans, where it cools. Then it gets very hard, and has to be broken into pieces by great hatchets, before it is packed tight in hogsheads and sent to this country.

Loaf-sugar is made white by being more boiled, and something is put in to clear it. When this is done, it is put into moulds; and, when cold, the fine white loaves are turned out.

If it be a cold, wet day, when you read this, some of you may wish you lived in that country, where there is so much sun, and no winter; but thunder storms and lightning are there; and those who live in hot climates have fever oftener than we have here. Learn from this to be content, because God is good to all his creatures. He places each one in that country, and in that station, which is best for him, and all should seek to be happy in loving and serving him.

WHAT plant is sugar made from?
Where does the sugar-cane grow?

What sort of climate is that of the West Indies ?

Have they snow and ice there?

What chiefly grows in their fields?

How are the fields prepared?

What is done when the cane is ripe?

Where is it carried when it is cut?

Is the whole of the cane carried to the mill ?

What use is made of the top?

What does the sugar-cane look like before it is cut down?

D

Which part makes the sugar ?
How is it made?

ORDER.

By order, is meant that good quality which makes people put everything in its proper place, and do everything in its proper time. It is, indeed, a good quality; for, without it, we could hardly live at all. A person who has no order is always uncomfortable; when he wants anything, he wastes a long time in looking for it, and, perhaps, cannot find it at all.

The disorderly man is never in time for anything; if he is to meet some one at one o'clock, it will very likely be near two before he arrives. When he goes to church, instead of being there when the service begins, he is always too late, and sometimes it is half over.

However bad it is for a man to be disorderly, it is almost worse for a woman. If a woman is without order, the whole house must go wrong: the rooms will be in a constant litter, her clothes will soon be worn out for want of mending, and she will always look dirty and untidy.

Perhaps you may think that I am telling you about the faults of grown-up people, and that the subject does not much concern children. But this is a great mistake: children are orderly or disorderly as well as other people; but then, of course, children will show this in little things. Well, how will a girl show that she is orderly? An orderly little girl will get up at the proper time in the morning, and not lie in bed so