118 
FIRST BOOK. 
COFFEE.— I. 
1. '^Do you know what this is, John?" said a 
teacher one day, as he tossed a round, dark-red 
berry into John's hands. 
John felt that the berry was soft, and knew 
that it was a ripe fruit. It is a coffee-berry, 
sir," he said. 
2. " Cut it open," said the teacher. And he 
passed a knife to John. 
This was soon done. John cut through the 
pulp of the soft berry, and within it he found two 
small hard seeds, like little beans. 
3. There are the coflFee-beans," said the teacher 
^' How snugly they were packed in their soft bed, 
with their flat sides close to each other. It is 
from beans like those that we get coff^ee. Here 
is some coffee ready for use. Pass it round the 
class that all may see it." 
4. " The coffee is brown^ and the seeds are not," 
said one boy. 
" And they do not smell like coffee either," said 
another. 
5. That is true," said the teacher. But 
much has to be done to the seeds before the 
coffee is fit for use in the coffee-pot. First there 
is the curing, by which the seeds are cleared of 
the pulp and skin^ and are dried. When that has 
