OLD-TIME SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-BOOKS - online book

An Illustrated history & description Of Schools in the 18th & 19th Centurys.

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	Advanced Readers                         291 The scene of this story is one of the busiest parts of London; but the illustration which accompanies it shows a New England country road, with three curious little loads of hay standing in a wayside field to suggest a hay-mart. Here is a lesson which purports to have been written by a Missourian. It is from Pierpont's The National Reader, Boston, 1827. The Worm. Who has not heard of the rattle-snake or copperhead ! An unexpected sight of either of these reptiles will make even the lords of creation recoil: but there is a species of worm found in various parts of this state, which conveys a poison of a nature so deadly, that, compared with it, even the venom of the rattlesnake is harmless. To guard our readers against this foe of human kind, is the object of this communication. This worm varies much in size. It is frequently an inch through, but, as it is rarely seen, except when coiled, its length can hardly be conjectured. It is of a dull leaden colour, and generally lives near a spring or small stream of water, and bites the unfortunate people, who are in the habit of going there to drink. The brute creation it never molests. They avoid it with the same instinct that teaches the animals of Peru to shun the deadly coya. Several of these reptiles have long infested our settle­ments, to the misery and destruction of many of our fellow-