the ass in the lion's skin; and that he deserved to be treated like that impostor.

lion scholar silly pencil

rubbed folly

copy creature angry cousin cudgel owner

THE JACKDAW.

gen-er-al-ly so-ci e-ty ad-mired. dis-grace-ful

quar-rel-ling police

a-mu-sing im-i-tate

con-stant-ly stee-ple

vex-a-tion com-pan-ion

A JACKDAW is a kind of crow. He generally builds his nest in a church steeple, or some old ruin. He is a lively bird, and fond of society. But I am sorry to say, the whole family is a set of thieves. When building their nests, they pilfer from each other in a most disgraceful way. Yet they do not seem ashamed when found out. They not only steal sticks from each other's nests, but sometimes they occupy some snug corner, where others have begun to build. As they have no policemen to put the rogues in prison, they are constantly quarrelling with each other. At such times, their angry chatter may be heard far off. The jackdaw is easily tamed. He readily learns to imitate our speech. He is a bold bird, and very

amusing with his pert, saucy tricks. You cannot, however, expect to keep a thief in your house, without losing some of your property. If a jackdaw takes a fancy to anything, he will watch his chance, and take it away and hide it. You cannot teach him to look upon thieving as wrong. He seems to take a pride in it.

A long, long time ago, one of these birds was vain as well as dishonest. Now, there happened to be a peacock kept in the same garden as himself. Of course the peacock was very much admired for his beautiful feathers. Jack did not like to be outdone by any bird. So he picked up some feathers which had fallen from the peacock, and stuck them among his own. Then he strutted up and down upon the wall of the garden, as he had seen the peacock do. But instead of being admired for his beauty, he was laughed at for his folly.

The peacock, on seeing him, fell upon him with great fury. He not only pecked out all the gay feathers, but almost stripped the poor bird of his own. The jackdaw returned in this sorry plight to his old companion, who had seen all that had taken place. His old friend turned her back upon him; and in less than a week the vain bird died of grief and vexation.

ruin wrong pilfer stripped fury grief saucy strutted

thieving

thief

thieves

rogues

THE GOLDEN RAIN.

flat-ter-ed

ad-van-tage

pat-ter-ed butch-er

plen-ti-ful peb-bles

val-u-a-ble flat ten-ed

re-fresh-ed

ve-ge-ta-bles cab-ba-ges po-ta-toes

LITTLE HARRY was standing at the window, with his nose flattened against one of the panes, watching the rain as it beat against the glass, and pattered down on the laurel leaves, and bent downwards the flowers after filling their tiny cups. There it hung in rows of bright beads from every plant in the garden.

Now Harry had long wished to be rich. He knew what fine things he could buy, if he only had a pocketful of money. And he knew that gold coins are the most valuable.

So he said to his mother, as his eyes rested on the bright drops of rain, "How I wish it would rain gold coins instead of raindrops!"

"And suppose it should rain gold coins all the year instead of water-drops?"

"Well, then we should be able to buy everything in the world that we wished for. I would buy a pony to ride; and Mary should have that beautiful doll she wants so much; and you, mother, would be able to keep a servant to do all the work."

"But what should we get to eat ?--for without rain nothing will grow."

"Oh! we should have plenty of money to buy all we wanted at the shops."

'Yes; but if nothing grew, nobody would have any food to sell. If no showers refreshed the earth, the ground would be parched, the grass would wither, the corn would shrivel up, and all the vegetables in our gardens would die. So the baker would have no bread to sell, and the greengrocer would have no cabbages or potatoes in his shop. Even the butcher would be obliged to shut up his shop; for all the cattle would die for want of grass."

I see, then," said Harry, "it would not do for it to rain gold always. But wouldn't it be a fine thing it it rained gold coins once a week!"

"I don't think that would be any advantage to us," said his mother; "for in that case gold coins would soon be as plentiful as pebbles. And then if you took a handful of them to the baker, he would say, 'I don't want those common things; I can pick up as many as I like, whenever the gold-shower falls.'"

"I see now," said Harry, "God knows best what to send us."

window grew wither beads baker garden laurel coin shrivel shower grocer servant

ex-treme-ly

neigh-bour

dis-cov-ered

THE MAGPIE.

plu-mage sat-is-fied bal-ance mis-chief im-pu-dent or-na-ment scis-sors se-lects mur-der-cus

THE magpie belongs to the crow family; but its tail is much longer, and its plumage more beautiful-being partly white and partly purple, and extremely glossy. Its tail helps it to balance itself in walking; so that a magpie without a tail walks in a very uncertain way, like a drunken man. The magpie builds its nest with great skill, caution, and care. It selects a lofty tree, and places its nest on a branch that will not bear the weight of a man. While building, it tries in every way to avoid being seen. It is not satisfied with an open nest, like most birds, but constructs a roof of dry thorns, leaving a hole in the side of the nest to serve as a door. This roof is intended as a shelter from the rain, and as a means of keeping off the cats, hawks, and owls, which might try to steal its young.

This bird takes great care of its own young ones, but towards the young of other birds it is a cruel monster. When it has a young family to provide for, it is most daring in its murderous attacks upon the homes of its peaceful neighbours. It is also given to stealing the eggs in their nests; and this it does by driving its bill right into the egg, and so bearing away its prize to its hungry nestlings.