1. 'It is such a wet day, I don't know what to do!' said Harry, looking very unhappy.

2. 'Are you tired of your drawing and painting?' asked his mother.

'Oh yes! And we have played at houses, and had the bricks out on the floor, and now there is nothing to do, and it is not nearly tea-time yet. Will you read to us, mother?'

3. 'Not just now. But if you would help me a little I should get on faster, and then we might have a nice time before tea.'

'Jolly!' cried Harry; and he ran to the foot of the stairs and called Dora.

4. Down came Dora very fast, with her doll in her arms, and the dog at her heels.

5. 'What I want you to do,' said mother, 'is to tear up these old papers and put them into this sack. The man is coming soon to take it to the paper-mill.'

6. 'Why is it taken to the paper-mill?' asked Harry.

'To be made over again into paper. Perhaps it will come back to us some day, all clean.

7. 'Or it may be made into a newspaper, and father may bring it home in his pocket.'

'Or we may get it in copy-books at school.'

'Yes; or it may come from the shop with rice in it.'

8. 'It may never come at all,' said Dora. 'Perhaps it will go to some other house.'

'That is quite likely,' said mother, who was now cleaning the hearth.

9. They went on putting the paper into the sack for a long time, and then Harry asked:

'How was paper made before there was old paper to make it of?'

10. 'Oh, it is not made of paper only. It is made of old rags, old ropes'——

Harry and Dora began to laugh.

'And straw, and wood, and a kind of grass'——

'Now, are you joking, mother?'

11. 'No, indeed! They cut the wood and straw into tiny bits, and they cut and tear the rags and boil them.'

'And what do they do with the grass?'

'They cut it up, boil it, and mix clay with it. Then it is put through a very clever machine, which makes it into paper.'