Alice and Beatrice

								

and the church!’
‘I can see two churches,’ said Beatrice; ‘and what a lot of ships!’
‘Please, grandmamma,’ said Alice, ‘come up higher. Pray, dear
grandmamma, make haste, there is a great smoke on the sea; it comes from
a ship. Is the ship on fire?’ she asked a little anxiously.
Their grandmamma was soon by the children’s side.
‘That is a steamer or steamship, dear Alice; it has a fire in it that
causes the smoke, but it is not on fire, and you can see that the smoke
comes out of a tall black chimney. You have seen the train come and go
often, and you know how much smoke it makes.’
‘Yes, I know; but the smoke from the train is not black like that, and
why is that?’
‘You are right, dear child, it is not black; but that is because they
burn a different kind of coal, called coke, in trains. Trains and
steamers are made to move by the same means, which is by steam. Some
clever man made steam turn wheels and raise heavy beams up and down, and
thus it is that ships and trains are made to move. Steam is made to
grind corn, and to make biscuits, and to saw wood, and steam helps to
make nearly everything we wear.’
‘Oh! grandmamma, how wonderful! I do not understand how steam can do all
that. The man must have been very clever to have thought of this. Do you
know his name?’
‘James Watt was his name; he made the first good and useful
steam-engine, I believe, about seventy years ago; but he was not the
first man who had found out that steam could be made useful, or who made
the first engine.’
When they came to the top of the hill they saw several cows feeding on
the grass.
‘Will these cows hurt us?’ asked Alice.
‘No, my dear, they will not, unless you tease them.’
‘But why do people run away when they see cows?’
‘It is very foolish of any one to run away. When a poor cow or ox has
been treated ill by naughty boys or cruel men, and frightened and made
angry, it runs about; sometimes people have been tossed and hurt. But if
you will treat a cow kindly, I am sure that it will never hurt you.’
The little girls walked through the green meadow when the cows were
feeding, and the cows did them no harm. They soon came to a nice little
cottage, with a few trees close by, and a little garden.
Their grandmamma spoke to an old woman who was sitting outside the
cottage door, and said to her that she was glad to see her up and
looking better; and the old woman replied that the warm weather had done
her a great deal of good, and that she was very glad to see her and the
little children.
Whilst their grandmamma was talking to the old woman, Alice and Beatrice
looked about them, and examined with wonder a cushion that the old woman
had had on her lap when they came.
They then played with a little kitten that was in the garden till their
grandmamma had finished talking. Then Alice asked, ‘What is this cushion
for, with all those little sticks hanging down on each side of it, and