And so,
little by little, the drink came, after a while, into common use.
The coffee plant is a beautiful little tree, growing sometimes to the
height of twenty feet. It has smooth, dark leaves, long and pointed.
It has pretty, white blossoms, which grow in thick clusters close to
the branches. Its fruit looks a little like a cherry; and within it
are the coffee berries, two in each cherry.
When ripe, the red fruit turns to a deep purple and is sweet to the
taste. In Arabia the fruit is allowed to fall on mats placed under the
trees; but in other countries it is commonly gathered as soon as it is
ripe, and it is then dried by being placed on mats in the sun.
After the outside part has been removed the berries are again dried.
They are then put in sacks and boxes to be sent into other parts of the
world.
LESSON IV
OUR NATIONAL FLAG
There is a national flag. He must be cold indeed who can look upon its
folds rippling in the breeze without pride of country. If he be in a
foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself with all its
endearments. Who, as he sees it, can think of a state merely? Whose
eyes, once fastened upon it, can fail to recognize the image of the
whole nation? It has been called a "floating piece of poetry."
Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it
represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence. It is
a piece of bunting lifted in the air, but it speaks sublimely, and
every part has a voice.
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