Q. What have we been hearing about?  A. Turf.  Q. What is the use of turf?  A. To make fires.  Q. What other use is sometimes made of it?  A. To build houses.  Q. Where do they build turf houses?  A. In Ireland.  Q. Are they not very cold?  Q. No; if they are kept mended, they are not.  Q. What do you call people, when they like to sleep in the cold rather than mend their houses?  A. Lazy.  Q. Is it bad to be lazy?  A. Yes; very bad.  Q. What do we call it besides being lazy?  Q. Being idle.  Q. Are idle people very happy?  A. No; they are always miserable.  Q. Right; and I hope no little children will be ever idle; they should always try to be useful, and do all they can to help their friends.  Now tell me, where is the turf got From?  A. From bogs.  Q. What are they called in England?  A. Mosses and fens.  Q. Are the bogs in England larger than in Ireland?  A. No; the Irish bogs are the largest.  Q. What animals live in the bogs?  A. Some sorts of birds.  Q. Do men and women live in them?  A. No.  Q. Why not?  A. They are too wet and soft.  Q. What very dangerous places are in some parts of them?  A. Bog-holes.  Q. What are they?  A. Deep holes full of water.  Q. What did I tell you were in some parts of these bogs?  A. Nice green islands.  Q. Are they of any use?  A. Yes; the people put cows and horses to feed on them.  Q. How do they get across the bog?  A. They make a kind of rough road over to them.  Q. What do they cut the turf with?  A. A sort of spade with two sides.  Q. What is this called?  A. A Slane.  Q. When the turf is cut, what do they do next?  A. Put it in heaps to dry.  Q. What were those great bogs many hundred years ago?  A. Beautiful forests of fine large trees.  Q. What flowed through those forests?  A. Nice bright rivers.  Q. What sang in the trees?  A. Pretty birds.  Q. What eat the grass?  A. Fine large stags and deer.  Q. How did those beautiful places become ugly black wet bogs?  A. The trees, when they got old, fell into the rivers and stopped them up.  Q. What did this cause?  A. The water flowed over the banks.  Q. What harm did this do?  A. It made all the nice grass wet and marshy.  Q. What more?  A. It rotted the roots of the trees.  Q. What happened then?  A. They all fell down.  Q. In some hundred years, what did all those forests become?  A. Great bogs.  Q. Are any of the trunks or bodies of those old trees ever found?  A. Yes; many hundreds are yet far under the bogs.  Q. Are they of any use?  A. Yes; they are useful to make chairs, tables, and presses.  Q. What colour are they?  A. As black as a piece of coal.  Q. When they are polished, do they look nice?  A. Yes; so bright you can see your face in them.  Q. What is this wood called?  A. Bog-oak.  Q. Will you all try to remember this lesson?  A. We will.  Teacher.  That is right; for little children should always remember the pretty things that their teacher takes such trouble to tell them.