2. "Ah, here he comes!" and then they cry, "Go away, you baker-boy!

You've come to spoil our pretty nest

Our birdies to destroy.

We do not like your looks at all;
Your face is much too fat.
You've got a ragged jacket on,
Besides a torn old hat."

3. The baker-boy looks up

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and laughs,

For he is kind and good:

"I would not hurt your nest," he says,

Nor take away your brood."
And as he walks away, the wrens
Sing out with noisy glee-

"Chip, chip!" they cry, "this baker-boy's
Afraid of us, you see!"

1. A PARROT is a bird that can talk. It

says, "Pretty Polly!" Sometimes it says,

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Polly wants a cracker!" Little Emma Gray had a parrot, which she kept in a cage. Sometimes Emma would let it out of the cage into the room. Then it would sit on her arm and talk all the time.

2. If Emma gave it a nut, it would say, "Thank you, Emma." Then the parrot

stood with one foot on Emma's arm, and with the other foot it took the nut. It used that foot like a hand.

3. Emma had five fingers on her hand, but Polly had only four toes on its foot. But with its four toes it could hold the nut very well. With its thick, hard bill it gnawed a hole through the shell. Then it came to the kernel, which was inside of the nut. The kernel was good to eat. So bit by bit Polly picked all the kernel out of the shell and ate it. But the shell it threw away.

4. Emma had some little friends. They were Susan, and Mary, and Anna, and Jane. Sometimes they came to see Emma. And such a carrying on as there was then! The girls would romp and play, and talk so loud, that Emma's mother would say to them,

"Don't make so much noise, children! You make so much noise, nobody can hear himself talk."

5. One day Emma's mother was away. But all the little girls were there together. And such a time as they had! The noise got to be so great at last that the parrot could stand it no longer, and from his cage he shrieked out in a loud voice, "Don't make so much noise, children! You make so much noise, nobody can hear himself talk!"

6. Then all the little girls laughed. And Emma said, "Polly knows more than we do. We ought to behave better. We make too much noise. Let us play nicer." So they were more quiet.

7. When Polly saw the little girls playing so nicely, he said to them in his sweetest way, "Now, that's what I like to see! That's the way children ought to play!" And that was just what the mother always said to them when she was at home.

8. Parrots are not the only birds that can talk. The starling, the magpie, the raven, and the mino bird can be taught to speak.

Even canary birds have been taught to talk a little. The blue-jay, too, is a pretty good talker.

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1. AN old woman was sweeping her house, and she found a little crooked sixpence. What," said she, "shall I do with this little sixpence? I will go to market, and buy a little pig." As she was coming home again, she came to a stile; the pig would not go over the stile.

2. She went a little farther, and she met a dog. So she said to the dog, " Dog! dog! bite pig. Pig won't go over the stile, and I sha'n't get home to-night." But the dog would not.

3. She went a little farther, and she came to a stick. So she said, "Stick! stick! But the stick would not.

beat dog."

4. She went a little farther, and she came So she said, "Fire! fire! burn But the fire would not.

to a fire. stick."

She went

a little farther, and she came to some water. So she said, "Water! water! quench fire." But the water would not.