Second Bird. I came because I had in my breast
A homesick wish for the dear old nest.
I remembered well how little Goldilocks
Looked on while grandfather nailed a box
For us to build in, against the bough
Ah, me! I see them both there now!
And we've found it this very day
Torn by the cruel wind away.

First Bird. A-chee! a-chee! ke-chee!

My cold grows worse, you see.

There's snow on this tree and no one

knows

Second Bird. Let's sing a little. Chee-ree! che-ree! Trittery-tree! tra-la! Trittery-tree!

FOURTH READER- - 12

That's hoarse. Now, while I try again,
You keep your eye on the window pane;
And if you see something that's sunny
and red,

You may know 'tis the little girl Goldi-
locks's head.

Cheer-ee! cheer-ee!

Bubble-ubble! cheer-ee!

First Bird. I see her, twittery-twee !

She is looking up at me!

And grandpapa, too,

heard

The first bluebird.

they both have

Second Bird. We are safe! We are safe!
It was right to come;

They will soon have ready

A nice new home!

THE BIRD'S NEST1

"Put it back, Robert! Do put it back!"

"Why?" whispered Robert, with a startled glance along the wood path. "Is the master in sight,

Ned?"

"No, but we are in sight of the Master, Robert."

Robert drew a long breath of relief, and put his finger into the open mouth of one of the unfledged blackbirds. "You frightened me for a moment," he said, "but I see you were only talking Sundayschool talk. Of course, since Mr. Grant has forbidden us to touch the nests here, we must take care that he doesn't see us that's all."

"Put it back, Robert, put it back!" pleaded the older boy. "The nest is as much the bird's home as your mother's cottage is yours; and those four little blackbirds can no more live and grow if you destroy it, than your baby sisters could live and grow if they had no home and no mother."

"I'm not harming the mother," said Robert. "But suppose," said Ned, "that your mother should come home some night feeling very happy and thinking of the rest she would have in her own snug little house, with all her children around her 1 1 By Mary Cecil Hay.

- and suppose that, just as she reached the old lilac tree by the gate, she were to look up and see that there were no little ones to meet her, no warm, cheery room to rest in, not even a sign of the dear old house to be seen - if such a thing should happen to your mother, would you say that no one had harmed her?"

"I don't know anything about that," stammered Robert. "What has that to do with the nest? The old bird can make another."

"Yes, so she can; and your mother could find another house. But what heart would the mother have to do that? It would not be the same thing to the bird without her little ones, or to your mother without her babies."

"My mother without her babies!" said Robert; "that's very different."

66

"Not so very different," answered Ned. My father says that the mother birds sometimes die of grief when they find their nests gone. Please put it back, Robert."

"Not very likely, when I have had all this trouble to get it," said Robert, in a surly tone.

"Just put it back for ten minutes," pleaded Ned. "To take it again after that?"

"Yes, if you like."

"What good will that do?"

"Put it back for ten minutes, while I tell you a

story."

Robert put the nest back, and the two boys sat down together among the clover.

"Look, Robert! look!" cried Ned, joyfully. "See that blackbird flying straight to the tree. It is the mother bird. See how happy she is to find her nest and her little ones. Are you not glad that you put the nest back when you did?"