36

THE BIRD'S NEST.

Then they pulled the warm nest down away from the tree;

And the little ones cried, but they could not get free;

So at last they all died away,—one, two, and three.

But when back to the nest the poor mother did fly,

Oh, then she set up a most pitiful cry!

So she mourned a long while, and then lay down to die!

A YOUNG GIRL TO HER LITTLE BROTHER.

My pretty baby-brother

Is six months old to-day;
And, though he cannot speak,
He knows whate'er I say.
Whenever I come near,

He crows for very joy ;
And dearly do I love him;
The darling baby-boy.

My brother's cheek is blooming,

And his bright laughing eyes

A YOUNG GIRL TO HER BROTHER. 37

Are like the pure spring violets,

Or the summer cloudless1 skies.
His mouth is like a rosebud,

So delicate and red;

And his hair is soft as silk,

And curls all round his head.

When he laughs, upon his face
So many dimples play,
They seem like little sunbeams
Which o'er his features stray.'
I am sure we all must love him,
He is so full of glee:
Just like a ray of sunshine
My brother is to me.

When in his pretty cradle
He lies in quiet sleep,
'Tis joy to be beside him,

A faithful watch to keep;
And when his sleep is over,
I love to see him lie,
And lift the silken fringes

That veil his sweet blue eye.

1 cloudless, without clouds.

2 stray, wander, move about.

3 fringes, eyelashes, which are like a fringe to the eye-lid.

38 A YOUNG GIRL TO HER BROTHER.

Oh! my dear, dear baby-brother,
Our darling and our pet;
The very sweetest plaything
I ever have had yet.
The pretty little creature,

He grows so every day,
That, when the summer comes,
In the garden he will play.
How pretty he will look,
Among the grass and flowers!

No blossom is so fair'

As this precious one of ours.
Every night before I sleep,

When I kneel to say my prayer,

I ask my heavenly Father

Of my brother to take care.

AUNT MARY.

THE HEN AND CHICKENS.

SEE the chickens round the gate,
For their morning portion3 wait;
Fill the basket from the store,
Open wide the cottage door;

1 fair, here this means beautiful.

2 precious one, one we think a great deal of (precious means of great

THE HEN AND CHICKENS.

Throw out crumbs, and scatter seed,
Let the hungry chickens feed.
Call them ;-now how fast they run,
Gladly, quickly every one;

Eager, busy, hen and chick,
Every little morsel pick.

See the hen with tender brood,

To her young how kind and good;
With what care their steps she leads,
Them, and not herself, she feeds;
Picking here, and picking there,
Where the nicest morsels are.
As she calls, they flock around.
And at night they rest in peace,
All the tiny little things,

Nestling close beneath her wings;

There she keeps them safe and warm,
Free from fear and free from harm.

D. A. T.

THE TWO LITTLE KITTENS.

Two little kittens, one stormy night,
Began to quarrel and then to fight;

One had a mouse, the other had none,

And that was the way the strife1 had begun.

1 strife, quarrel.

39

40

THE TWO LITTLE KITTENS.

"I'll have the mouse," said the bigger cat. "You'll have the mouse! we'll see about that." "I will have that mouse," said the elder one; "You shan't have that mouse," said the little

one.

I told you before 'twas a stormy night
When these two kittens began to fight;
The old woman seized her sweeping-broom,
And swept the two kittens out of the room.
The ground was covered with frost and snow,
And the two little kittens had nowhere to go;
So they laid them down on a mat at the door,
While the old woman finished sweeping the
floor.

Then they crept in as quiet as mice,

All wet with snow and as cold as ice;

For they thought 'twould be better that stormy night

To lie down and sleep than to quarrel and fight.

DON'T KILL THE BIRDS.

DON'T kill the birds, the little birds,
That sing about your door,
Soon as the joyous spring has come,
And chilling storms are o'er.