Harry Linn, and Lily Forester, and Ellen Raby, said a spelling-lesson; and there were some words in their lesson which Mary explained to them, because they did not understand what these words meant. Ellen Raby spelled Wild Deer, and she asked Harry Linn if he knew what a wild deer was? Harry said, “I guess it is a goat. Let us ask Mary.” Mary told them it was not a goat, and she would see if she could find a picture of a wild deer to show them. She had a large book, full of pictures; and there were horses, and cows and goats, and many different kinds of animals in it. Mary soon found a picture of a wild deer, and all the scholars wished to come and look at it. She told them they might come. And they asked her to please to tell them something about a wild deer. Mary told them, that the part of America where they lived, and where the school-house stood, was once a great forest of trees, where only Indians lived, and wild deers and other animals. She told them that the Indians used to hunt the wild deer, and shoot them, that they might have them to eat. Their flesh was very tender and good, and was called venison. [Illustration: a wild deer] “Why are there not any wild deer here now, Mary?” asked Ellen. “Because there is no place for them to live in. The forests, where they like to live, are all cut down; and now, instead of forests, we have fine farms, and houses on them to live in.” “Who cut down the forests, Mary?” said Ellen. “Our forefathers, who came here a great while ago.” “But why did not our forefathers let the pretty little wild deers stay here, Mary?” “They would not stay,” Mary said. “They are afraid of people, of men and women, and of little boys and girls, and they ran away from them.” “Where did they go, Mary?” “Away into the forests, which are many hundreds of miles from here. When our forefathers came here, they wanted houses to live in, and something to eat; and they built themselves houses, and cut down the trees before they could plant corn, and wheat, and rye, and potatoes. They had to cut down the trees before they could make farms.” Carry looked as if she did not quite understand Mary, and Mary said, “You know, Carry, your mother told you, you might have a little garden of your own, and she gave you a little piece of ground to make your garden of, which was full of cedar bushes; and do you not remember, you asked your father if he would cut down the cedar bushes, so that you could have a nice smooth place for your flower seeds?”