Coal is dug out of the ground, like stone, clay, chalk, and rock-salt. We call it a mineral; the great deep hole in the earth, where the men dig it up, is a mine; the men who dig it are miners. We use coal for fuel, because it burns well, and gives out great heat.
Coal
Ⅱ
"You know," said Fred, "that coal is mineral; it is dug out of deep mines.""Yes," said Norah, "so are clay, and stone, and sand, and iron, and rock-salt.
"But," said Fred, "these things We always in theground. Coal was not always in the ground. Teacher has been telling us fine stories of a time when the coal-beds were great forests of trees.""Yes," Willie joined in, "and he showed us somepieces of coal, with the shape leaves and ferns on them.""The forests some time or other sank down and got buried, and now they are changed into coal," added Fred.
"How strange!" said his sister, "And is it all true?" "Yes, teacher says it is quite true.""Would you like to see something very funny?" Fred went on.
"That I should," said his sister.
" T h e n w a t c h m e , " hesaid.
He brought out, in a very sly way, one of his father"s clay pipes, with a l o n g s te m . He h a d filled the bowl with small dusty coal, and closed it up with clay, just as he had seen teacher do.