Floors and stair-cases are sometimes made with it; and in old houses in the country, which were built when oak was more plentiful than at present, almost all the timber about them was oak. It is also occasionally used for furniture, as tables, chairs, drawers, and bedsteads; though mahogany has now much taken its place for the better sort of goods, and the lighter and softer woods for the cheaper: for the hardness of oak renders it difficult and expensive to work. It is still, however, the chief material used in mill-work, in bridge and water-works, for waggon and cart bodies, for large casks and tubs, and for the last piece of furniture a man has occasion for. What is that, do you think, George? Geo. I don't know. Har. A coffin. Tut. So it is. Har. But why should that be made of such strong wood? Tut. There can be no other reason than that weak attachment we are apt to have for our bodies when we have done with them, which has made men in various countries desirous of keeping them as long as possible from decay. But I have not yet done with the oak. Were either of you ever in a tanner's yard? Geo. We often go by one at the end of the town; but we durst not go in for fear of the great dog. Tut. But he is always chained in the day-time. Har. Yes-but he barks so loud, and looks so fierce, that we were afraid he would break his chain. Tut. I doubt you are a couple of cowards. However, I suppose you came near enough to observe great stacks of bark in the yard. Geo. O yes-there are several. Tut. Those are oak bark, and it is used in tanning the hides. Har. What does it do to them? Tut. I'll tell you. Every part of the oak abounds in a quality called astringency, or a binding power. The effect of this is to make more close and compact, or to shrivel up, all soft things, and thereby make them firmer and less liable to decay. The hide, then, when taken from the animal, after being steeped in lime and water to get off the hair and grease, is put to soak in a liquor made by boiling oak bark in water. This liquor is strongly astringent, and by stiffening the soft hide, turns it into what we call leather. Other things are also tanned for the purpose of preserving them, as fishing nets and boat-sails, This use of the bark of the oak makes it a very valuable commodity; and you may see people in the woods carefully stripping the oaks when cut down, and piling up the bark in heaps. Geo. I have seen such heaps of bark, but I thought they were only to burn. Tut. No, they are much too valuable for that. Well, but I have another use of the oak to mention, and that is in dyeing. Har. Dyeing! I wonder what colour it can dye? Tut. Oak saw-dust is a principal ingredient in dying fustians. By various mixtures and managements it is made to give them all the different shades of drab and brown. Then, all the parts of the oak, like all other astringent vegetables, produce a dark blue or black by the addition of any preparation of iron. The bark is sometimes used in this way for dyeing black. And did you ever see what boys call an oak-apple? Geo. Yes-I have gathered them myself. Tut. Do you know what they are? Geo. I thought they were the fruit of the oak. Tut. No-I have told you that the acorns are the fruit. These are excrescences formed by an insect. Geo. An insect!-how can they make such a thing? Tut. It is a sort of a fly, that has a power of piercing the outer skin of the oak boughs, under which it lays its eggs. The part then swells into a kind of ball, and the young insects, when hatched, eat their way out. Well; this ball or apple is a pretty strong astringent, and is sometimes used in dyeing black. But in the warm countries, there is a species of oak which bears round excrescences of the same kind, called galls, which become hard, and are the strongest astringents known. They are the principal ingredients in the black dyes, and common ink is made with them, together with a substance called green vitriol or copperas, which contains iron. I have now told you the chief uses that I can recollect of the oak; and these are so important, that whoever drops an acorn into the ground, and takes proper care of it when it comes up, may be said to be a benefactor to his country. Besides, no sight can be more beautiful and majestic than a fine oak wood. It is an ornament fit for the habitation of the first nobleman in the land. Har. I wonder, then, that all rich gentlemen who have ground enough, do not cover it with oaks. Tut. Many of them, especially of late years, have made great plantations of these trees. But all soils do not suit them: and then there is another circumstance which prevents many from being at this trouble and expense, which is the long time an oak takes in growing, so that no person can reasonably expect to profit by those of his own planting. An oak of fifty years is greatly short of its full growth, and they are scarcely arrived at perfection under a century. However, it is our duty to think of posterity as well as ourselves; and they who receive oaks from their ancestors, ought certainly to furnish others to their successors. Har. Then I think that every one who cuts down an oak should be obliged to plant another. Tut. Very right-but he should plant two or three for one, for fear of accidents in their growing. I will now repeat to you some verses describing the oak in its state of full growth, or rather of beginning decay, with the various animals living upon it—and then we will walk. See where yon Oak its awful structure rears, THE YOUNG MOUSE. A FABLE. A YOUNG Mouse lived in a cupboard where sweetmeats were kept: she dined every day upon biscuit, marmalade, or fine sugar. Never any little mouse had lived so well. She had often ventured to peep at the family while they sat at supper: nay, she had sometimes stole down on the carpet, and picked up the crumbs, and nobody had ever hurt her. She would have been quite happy, but that she was sometimes frightened by the cat, and then she ran trembling to the hole behind the wainscot. One day she came running to her mother in great joy. Mother! said she, the good people of this family have built me a house to live in; it is in the cupboard! I am sure it is for me, for it is just big enough: the bottom is of wood, and it is covered all over with wires; and I daresay they have made it on purpose to screen me from that terrible cat, which ran after me so often: there is an entrance just big enough for me, but puss cannot follow; and they have been so good as to put in some toasted cheese, which smells so deliciously, that I should have run in directly and taken possession of my new house, but I thought I would tell you first, that we might go in together, and both lodge there to night, for it will hold us both. My dear child, said the old Mouse, it is most happy that you did not go in, for this house is called a trap, and you would never have come out again, except to have been devoured, or put to death in some way or other. Though man has not so fierce a look as a cat, he is as much our enemy, and has still more cunning. THE WASP AND BEE. A FABLE. A WASP met a Bee, and said to him, Pray can you tell me what is the reason that men are so ill-natured to me, while they are so fond of you? We are both very much alike, only that the broad golden rings about my body make me much handsomer than you are: we are both winged insects, we both love honey, and we both sting people when we are angry; yet men always hate me, and try to kill me, though I am much more familiar with them than you are, and pay them visits in their houses, and at their tea-table, and at all their meals: while you are very shy, and hardly ever come near them: yet they build you curious houses, thatched with straw, and take care of, and feed you, in the winter very often :-I wonder what is the reason. The Bee said, Because you never do them any good, but, on the contrary, are very troublesome and mischievous; therefore they do not like to see you; but they know that I am busy all day long in making them honey. You had better pay them fewer visits, and try to be useful. TRAVELLERS' WONDERS. ONE winter's evening, as Captain Compass was sitting by the fire-side with his children all round him, little Jack said to him, Papa, pray tell us some stories about what you have seen in your voyages. I have been vastly entertained whilst you were abroad, with Gulliver's Travels, and the Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor; and I think, as you have gone round and round the world, you must have met with things as wonderful as they did.-No, my dear, said the Captain, I never met with Lilliputians, or Brobdignagians, I assure you, nor ever saw the black loadstone mountain, or the valley of diamonds; but, to be sure, I have seen a great variety of people, and their different manners and ways of living; and if it will be any entertainment to you, I will tell you some curious particulars of what I observed.-Pray do, Papa, cried Jack and all his brothers and sisters; so they drew close round him, and he began as follows. Well then-I was once about this time of the year, in a country where it was very cold, and the poor inhabitants had much ado to keep themselves from starving. They were clad partly in the skins of beasts, made smooth and soft by a particular art, but chiefly in garments made from the outer covering of a middle-sized quadruped, which they were so cruel as to strip off his back while he was alive. They dwelt in habitations, part of which was sunk under ground. The materials were either stones, or earth hardened by fire; and so violent in that country were the storms of wind and rain, that many of them covered their roofs all over with stones. The walls of their houses had holes to let in the light; but to prevent the cold air and wet from coming in, they were covered by a sort of transparent stone, made artificially of melted sand or flints. As wood was rather scarce, I know not what they would have done for firing, had they not discovered in the bowels of the earth a very extraordinary kind of stone, which, when put among burning wood, caught fire and flamed like a torch. Dear me, said Jack, what a wonderful stone! I suppose it was somewhat like what we call fire-stones, that shine so when we rub them together.-I dont think they would burn, replied the Captain; besides, these are of a darker colour. Well-but their diet too was remarkable. Some of them ate fish that had been hung up in the smoke till they were |