one underneath; we are constantly changing it, little by little, every day. The old skin comes off in very small, flat scales, like fine white dust, and the new skin is constantly growing from beneath. This is one of the reasons why daily washing and frequent change of underclothing are necessary.

34. The outer layer of the skin, from which these scales come, is called the epidermis. It can stand a good deal of rough treatment without bleeding or feeling painful. But if this outer layer happens to be taken away by a scratch or a blister, you find that the lower skin bleeds freely, showing that it is full of blood vessels, and is painful when touched, showing that it is full of nerves.

35. These nerves give us the sense of touch or feeling, but they need the rough upper skin to keep them from injury. On the tips of the fingers, where we have a keen sense of touch, the nerves are very numerous. They rise in little mounds and ridges, so as to be near the surface and to give greater fineness of touch.

36. There is a very curious fact about these little ridges which you see curving round and round on the tips of your fingers and thumbs. They are never exactly alike in any two persons, and they never change their form from year to year. Thus no two persons' fingers can make marks of the same shape on a piece of soft wax.

37. Now, when a person is accused of a crime, it is sometimes very important to know whether it is the same person who was formerly punished for another crime. Accordingly, the police in some places keep copies of the finger prints of all convicts. It is found that these finger prints are a surer way of knowing a person again than a photograph is. The face changes more than the fingers do.

38. One use of the skin is to protect the tender parts underneath the veins and small blood-vessels, and the nerves or living telegraph wires. And in the lower animals, in order to give the better protection, the skin is sometimes covered over with such substances as shells, scales, hair, wool, feathers, nails, claws, horns, and the like, which are all different forms of the outer layer of the skin.

39. If a part of the body, such as the arm, be inclosed in a loose india rubber bag full of fresh air and kept in it for some time, the air in the bag is found to be changed. It contains the same impurities as the air which we breathe out from the lungs. This shows us that the skin is really one of our breathing organs.

40. This breathing, as well as the passage of the perspiration, takes place through very fine spiral tubes or pores of the skin. On the palm of the hand there are nearly three thousand pores in every square inch of skin, and it has been found that the

whole length of these tubes in a single body would be about thirty miles!

41. Such facts as these may help you to see that the skin is a very important part of the body. And it is the part which we can do most to help in its work, as it is not covered up from us. The help we can give it is chiefly by keeping it clean and vigorous, and protecting it from cold when necessary.

I. Rétāin': keep.

III. Vŏl'un tá ry: controlled by the will. In vol'un tá ry:

not under the control of the will. Extend': stretch out.

The Bugle Song

BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892): One of the most popular of English poets. His greatest work is "In Memoriam," written in memory of his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. He wrote "The Idylls of the King," "The Princess," "Maud," several dramas, and many shorter poems.

1. The splendor falls on castle walls

And snowy summits old in story:

The long light shakes across the lakes,

And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

2. O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going! O sweet and far from cliff and scar

The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!

Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

3. O love, they die in yon rich sky,

They faint on hill or field or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,

And grow forever and forever.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

Scär: a steep, rocky place; a bare place on the side of a mountain.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin his control

Stops with the shore; - upon the watery plain The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,

When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and un

known.

- BYRON

Robinson Crusoe Gets Supplies from the Wreck

Daniel DeFoe (1660?-1731): An English author. His masterpiece is "Robinson Crusoe," from which this selection is taken. The story of "Robinson Crusoe," suggested by the experiences of a sailor named Alexander Selkirk, narrates the adventures of a man shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. DeFoe wrote "A History of the Plague" and many other books.

1. When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear and the storm abated. That which surprised me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lay by the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the rock which I first mentioned, where I had been so bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This being within about a mile from the shore where I was, and