7. Really, a snow house is quite a snug home. The snow keeps in the heat of the house, just as a blanket keeps in the heat of your body. Perhaps you know that it is the blanket of snow spread over the ground in winter which keeps the roots of the plants from being frozen. 8. When summer comes, the snow and ice melt along the edge of the sea. Then the Eskimo leaves his winter quarters for the seashore. 9. The sea-shores of these very cold lands abound in bears, seals, foxes, and other wild animals. The sea is full of fish, and millions of gulls, geese, and other birds fly north for the summer. [Illustration: {Polar bear}] 10. When a boy is ten years of age his father gives him a bow and arrows and a canoe. Then he thinks himself a man indeed. In the lower part of the picture you see a man in an Eskimo canoe. He is going to hunt seals and small whales. 11. Now I must bring this long letter to a close. I shall write you one more before I start for home. I am eager to see you all again.--Your loving FATHER. * * * * * 28. FATHER'S LAST LETTER. 1. MY DEAR CHILDREN,--This is the last letter which I shall write to you from abroad. I hope to sail for home in a week's time. I shall send you a telegram to tell you when I shall arrive. You must all come to the station to meet me. 2. Look at the globe and find North America. The northern half is called Canada, and the southern half is called the United States. I am now in New York, the largest city of the United States. 3. The people of the United States speak English. The forefathers of many of them came from our islands. But the United States do not belong to Britain. Their flag is not the Union Jack, but the Stars and Stripes. 4. This morning at breakfast a black man waited upon me. His skin was very dark, his lips were thick, and his hair was short and curly. 5. Are you not surprised to hear that there are black men in America? There are thousands of them in New York. In the southern part of the United States there are more black men than white men. 6. Most of the black men live in the hot part of the United States, where cotton and sugar are grown. White people cannot work in the cotton or sugar fields, because the sun is too hot for them. 7. The black people who live in the United States were born in America. They have never known any other land. America, however, is not their real home. They really belong to Africa. 8. How is it that we now find them in America? When the white men of America began to grow cotton and sugar, they needed black men to work in the fields. Men called "slavers" went to Africa in ships. They landed and pushed inland. When they came to villages they seized the people and drove them off to the ships. 9. The poor blacks, who were thus dragged from their home and kindred, were thrust into the holds of ships and carried to America. Sometimes they suffered much on the voyage. The weakest of them died, and were thrown overboard.