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used in relating briefly the story of Canada's relation to Great Britain. The reading lesson could be selections like "The Lion and Her Cubs," from the great poet of the imperial spirit, Rudyard Kipling, and the many British and Canadian writers of our national songs. The arithmetic lesson might deal with the wealth of the Empire.

An interesting exercise would be the story of the making of the British flag, accompanied by colored crayon sketches on the blackboard. For about seven centuries the banner of St. George was the English flag. This was a white ground with a red cross (the plus sign). The Scotch flag, St. Andrew's, was a blue field with a white cross (the multiplication sign). When Scotland united with. England in 1603, the crosses were united on their common banner. Two hundred years later, in 1801, when the act of union of Ireland was passed, the cross of St. Patrick (the multiplication sign)-a red cross on a white ground-was placed on the flag. This formed our Union Jack. A red ensign with the Union Jack in the upper left hand corner and the colonial coat of arms, about the centre of the right hand side, is the ensign for the colonies. The flags might be sketched by the children on their slates, after the teacher has drawn them progressively on the board. "The flag that braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze" must, of necessity, have its story very much curtailed in the telling. As a sequel to the story there might be a short talk on what the flag means to us. It stands for the best that is, has been or ever will be (our ideals) in all departments of our national life. It stands for liberty without license, for truth, purity, brotherly love and every best thing. Patriotism is one of the noblest passions of the human breast. Sir Walter Scott says:

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Breathes there a man with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said,

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This is my own, my native land'?

Whose heart hath n'er within him burned
As home his footsteps he hath turned,
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well,
For him no minstrel raptures swell,
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim ;
Despite these titles, power and help,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living shall forfeit fair renown,
And doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored and unsung."

But we must be careful not to teach a narrow-minded patriotism. On other days we want to draw the attention of children to the great and good men of other nations and the valiant deeds done by them for right and truth. In this connection might be read Kipling's "Recessional," "Lest we forget, lest we forget." Let us take all the help we can get from our contemporaries, just as we have helped ourselves so liberally from the great storehouses of wisdom of the past ages, the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Jews, and so on, to solve our great national problems. We shall need a great deal of light. May we not be forgetful of the great debt which we owe to the men and women who, uncomplainingly and as a matter of course, have shed their life blood in bringing to light the great moral ideas that have placed us where we stand as a nation.

The afternoon gathering ought to be of a more public nature. The children might invite their parents and friends. The programme could consist of songs, recitations and speeches, all tending towards the same end, the development of a good patriotic sentiment.

Without boastfulness, but as matters of fact, let us place before our children, as the coming citizens of this Dominion of Canada, the vast resources of the country and the great future that most assuredly awaits it. Let us interest them in the trees which go to form the great forests. A lesson might be very profitably given on the useful trees of Canada, illustrated with blackboard and chalk. It is through the children we must make a strong appeal for the preservation of our valuable forest trees.

Patriotism is defined by the Standard Dictionary as: "Love and devotion to one's country; the spirit that, originating in love of country, prompts to obedience to its laws, to the support and defence of its existence, rights and institutions, and to the promotion of its welfare."

A short talk on civico might not be out of place in our "Empire Day" exercises. The children would enjoy giving reasons why they love their country, obey her laws and will defend her rights and institutions. We receive from our country a great many more blessings than we are ever likely to return. The civic duties embrace the most important of human duties, and the older children of the school should be prepared to some extent for entrance into citizenship.

A LESSON ON THE GREAT RAILWAYS.

-A LESSON on one of the great Railways needs to be prepared for months, even years, beforehand. In these days of well illustrated newspapers and magazines there is no reason why such a lesson should not be made most interesting. The plan of one teacher, perhaps of many, was to make a paper case of seven pockets or compartments labelled respectively, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, South America, Islands. When an illustration of some city, town, river, lake, etc., of Europe was found, it was placed in the pocket marked Europe; and so on with the others. As the teacher herself took only one. magazine and one newspaper, the store would have grown somewhat slowly; but the children were interested in the plan and asked for clippings from the newspapers at home. In the case of magazines that one would not care to cut up, an indexed book, under the same headings, was kept, noting the pages in the magazines, where pictures bearing on the various parts of the world might be found. Pictures illustrative of the industries of countries, of the processes of agriculture, of the men who have made the country or who are advancing its interests in various ways, as well as those illustrating its natural or artificial scenery, should be preserved. After a while the illustrations become so numerous that it is found necessary to subdivide again. The war between the United States and Spain evoked a tremendous amount of illustrated matter most valuable to the teacher of forethought and prudence. But it is not necessary to wait for some great war to spread its devestating hand over our land, before beginning a collection. The past week has been most fertile in pictured newspapers and yet there has been no unusual disturbance of international relationships. Then again our railway guides are a fruitful source of illustration. Tourists guides contain very many fine pictures. But even the ordinary timetables are sometimes very useful in this regard. The Kodak has been brought into requisition during the last few years. The whole line of the St. Lawrence River and the great lakes has been well presented to a class by means of snap-shots taken along the route. For the photographs a book is necessary in which to keep them.

When the lesson is to be given, each child, or, as many

children as can find time-tables at home, should use them. The teacher requires her assortment of pictures bearing on the places through which or near which the railway passes, arranged in the order in which they will be required, a ruler, good blackboard, chalk and a large map, showing the position of the railway in relation to the continent as a whole. The starting point is decided on and marked by a circle on the blackboard, on the right side if the trip is to the west, and on the left hand side if to the east. The children look up in the time-table the time of starting of the train, and the teacher then shows pictures of the starting point. A scale of miles is placed on the board. The children find the next point on the route, stating how many miles have been travelled, and the time taken, the teacher marking by a line the distance from the last point and the direction. The children decide the speed of the train from the data given in the time-table. Any interesting places, as rivers, lakes or other natural objects, and towns, etc., passed on the route, are pointed out, pictures of these, and the second town, being then shown. At the end of the lesson the blackboard presents a plan of the railway, with the distances marked to scale, the towns along the route, rivers crossed, etc.

The next day a freight train might be taken over the same road, the children deciding, in general terms, with teacher's help, what freight should be carried, where it should be left, and what should be taken on the return trip.

A lesson conducted in this way serves well, as the body of geography, which the child, as his experience of life broadens, through travel and reading, will come to clothe with greater and greater elaborateness and finish. The long lines of railway which present themselves to us on a railway map become instinct with life as we travel over the line behind some iron horse. We cannot take the children with us in actual fact. We may do so in imagination. The imagination is specially active in childhood. Many other suggestions might be offered. These will suffice for an introduction.

BEGINNING MAP WORK.

After beginning regular map work see to it that children frequently hold their maps with the tops toward true north. See to it that they gradually change the posi

tion of these maps from horizontal to vertical, for we would impress upon our pupils this fact: The north, indicated by the map, means not up, but in the direction of the north star. From the very beginning lead pupils to form the habit of locating every place and every country mentioned in reading, study, story or song. Even the first-year child can attempt to indicate on blackboard, slate or paper his home and his school; can attempt to show the direction in which he passes from one to the other. Follow with paper and pencil the travels of " Red Riding Hood," the wanderings of "Cinderella." Children must be trained into judging distances, and into testing their judgment by actual measurements. How far from the desk to the school door? Nine feet, says one. Measure, test the judgment, and then attempt to represent the distance by a line of the same length upon paper or slate. The necessity for a scale becomes apparent. Lead children into suggesting the drawing of one inch for each one foot of the actual distance, etc. The children must also be led into comparing distances. How important comparison becomes when we remember that we can never attain exact ideas of long distances and vast areas All the teacher can do is, first, lead children into fixed ideas of distances and areas within the sense grasp; second, through comparison, approximate the greater distances, the vaster areas of the world beyond sense limits. To read a map aright children must know map language and interpret it correctly. Let us see to it that mountains suggest far more than elevation, far more than changes in slope and changes in temperature. They should suggest varied plant life, varied animal life and man at work; man taking from earth's storehouses hidden treasures. Let the river system suggest far more than it usually does; let it also suggest water at work, wearing and tearing, carrying and depositing soil; let it also suggest life--life on the river banks, life on its surface, life in its depths.-The Teacher.

STORIES FOR REPRODUCTION.

The following short stories, suitable for purposes of reproduction in connection with the composition class, are taken from The New Education:

THE SUN'S CHRISTMAS CALL.

The sun peeped into a back room last Christmas morn

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