FIRST LESSON IN NATURAL 



HISTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 



SEA-ANEMONES AND CORALS. 

 MY DEAR LlSA AND CONNIE, 



I was thinking, the other day, of the pleasant times 

 we passed together at the sea-shore last summer, and 

 remembering how often in the evening, when your 

 playtime was over, and we were sitting in the quiet 

 twilight waiting for your bedtime, you used to beg for 

 stories ; and it occurred to me that, in the long and 

 snowy winter, I might prepare some stories for next 

 summer ; and then, when you come after tea, and say, 

 " Now, Aunt Lizzie, tell us a story," I shall have one 

 all ready, and need not answer, as I often used to do, 

 that my brain was empty, and, hunt as I would, I could 

 not find a story in any corner of it. But there is one 

 thing you may not like about the stories I think of 

 writing for you : they are to be true stories, and not 

 about little boys and girls, but about animals. Do 

 you recollect the nets we made last summer, and ho\t 



