FOR CHILDREN. 283

THE WREN’S NEST.

Aone the dwellings framed by birds
In field or forest with nice care,

Is none that with the little wren’s
In snugness may compare.

No door the tenement requires,
And seldom needs a laboured roof ;
Yet it is to the fiercest sun
Impervious and storm-proof.

So warm, so beautiful withal,
In perfect fitness for its aim,

That to the kind! by special grace
Their instinct surely came.

And when from their abode they seek
An opportune recess,

The hermit has no finer eye
For shadowy quietness.

These find, mid ivied abbey walls,
A canopy in some still nook ;
Others are penthoused* by a brae?

That-overhangs a brook.

There to the brooding bird, her mate
Warbles by fits his low clear song ;

And by the busy streamlet, both-
Are sung.to all day long..

1 The kind—the wren kind, wrens in general.

* Penthoused—covered by a penthouse or shed.

3 ae Scottish word signifying a: dectivity, the slope
of a hill. :