Little folks of many lands
ONA'S home is in a warm country. We must go halfway round the earth to reach it .
When the sun is over our heads it is night where she lives . She is fast asleep.
Tona is a little Filipino girl . She lives on an island . The water is all around it.
She has never seen the ground white with snow . In her land the grass is always green. Many pretty flowers bloom there . Some are as large as plates . 83
One kind has a leaf that looks like a cup. This leaf has a lid and will hold water.
Let us take a trip over the island . In the forests are monkeys and wild animals. Ferns grow as tall as trees .
There are many birds on the island .
Some build strange nests . These nests are sold to the There Chinese , who make soup of them . are parrots and doves also .
The children like to hear the story of how the dove was once a child .
The child was playing in the hut. The mother would not give it a small rice cake she had just made.
The child was sad and ran from the hut. It made two wings out of palm leaves . Then it turned into a dove and flew away. The dove still cries for the rice cake .
Rice and sugar cane grow in this country . The children like to chew the fresh sugar cane . Boys and girls help in the rice fields .
Coffee is raised here . The plants have pretty white flowers . The coffee berries are picked when they are red .
Each berry has two seeds . They are the coffee beans .
These tall trees are coconut trees . They have large leaves near the top . In the leaves are clusters of coconuts .
The children like to eat these nuts . They drink the water that is found inside.
Tona's mother uses coconut oil in her lamp . She puts water in a bowl. Then she puts oil on the water and burns a a wick in it .
Sometimes the light burns all night.
Many kinds of fruit grow on this island . Some we have never seen .
Bananas grow around Tona's home . She likes to eat this fruit .
