7THE KINGFISHER AND THE WREN. 93

hardly large enough to contain half that No wren sat alone in the hedge,
number. When asleep the wrens would A-pouting and peckingin spite;
 But each one, as well as he could,
let the box be opened, and themselves Expressed his unbounded delight.
handled without trying to fly away.
These little creatures became so tame And alntso t fancied begged me
 To notice their innocent joy;
that they would come to the garden and 'Twould have touched, if anything could,
crowd around the saucer containing food The heart of a birds'-nesting boy.
placed there for them. Kindness will
always secure friends, and even dumb MORAL.
creatures are not forgetful or ungrateful Young friends, from these verses observe
 Sl a o When children are kind and agree,
for little acts of love. They're not only happy themselves,
 Some boys, one day in their rambles, But please all their friends who may see.
discovered a young cuckoo that evidently
had got out of the nest, and was lying And some one else has shown his in-
unfed, and would soon have died. They terest in one of these little birds, that
therefore resolved to take it home and is feeding her young, in the following
try and bring it up themselves. They verses:
put it into an old parrot's cage, and fed In yonder brake there is a nest,
it with chopped meat; but on the second But come not, boy, too nigh,
day, on its being hung out-doors, two Lest the poor mother, frightened thence,
pretty little wrens got through the bars Should leave the young and fly.
of the cage and fed it, and continued to Think with what toil, through many a day,
do so day by day, even while they were Soft moss and straw she brought;
 And let your own dear mother's care
building their own nest close by. What e present your thought.
a beautiful instance of sympathy towards
the suffering do these little wrens furnish And think how her poor heart mustache,
 And faint with grief and pain,
US If those she reared, and nursed, and loved,
 Some lover of the birds, and especially She ne'er should see again.
of the merry little wrens, has written
these simple verses about a happy family A lady in England has written a very
of these little pets, as follows: pretty story about the golden-crested
 wren, in which we think all our readers
 One morning, alone as I walked, will be interested. It is as follows :
 The hedge-row seemed all but alive; The golden-crested wren is the small-
 Besides the old wrens, at the least,
 Were four pretty chicks, if not five. est bird in England. It is a tiny little
 creature, whose body is about the size
 They chirped, and they hopped in and out, of a sparrow's egg. It is, when fully
 Not waiting momentto rst; fledged, nearly three inches and a half
 O'er glad to be tenants of air,
 Escaped from the dangerous nest. long from the end of the beak to the end