FOR CHILDREN. 163

Then grudge not her temperate meals,
Nor a benefit blame as a theft,

Since, stole she not! all that she steals,
Neither honey nor wax would be left.

Cowper.
QUESTIONS TO BIRDS AND THEIR
ANSWERS,
cuckoo.

Wry art thou always welcome, lonely bird ?
—“The heart grows young again when I am heard;
Not in my double note the magic lies,

But in the fields, the woods, the streams and skies,”

KINGFISHER,
Why dost thou hide thy beauty from the sun ?
— The eye of men, but not of heaven, I shun;
Beneath the rushy bank, with alders crowned,
I build and brood where running waters sound ;
There, there the haleyon* peace may still be found.”

PHEASANT.
Pheasant, forsake the country; come to town !
Ill warrant thee a place beneath the crown.
— No; not to roost upon the throne would I
Renounce the woods, the mountains, and the sky.”

STORK.
Stork, why were human virtues given to thee ?
— That human beings might resemble me ;
! Stole she not—if she did not steal.
? Halcyon—the Greek name for the Kingfisher. The
word generally means, as in this place, quiet and placid,
from the retiring and peaceful habits of the bird.