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Mr. S. It would be a new play for you to-morrow to make one of your party King Charles, and let him hideyou can all try to find him; but don't give him a crown to discover him, as he has in the picture.

Mrs. S. Make the crown for him afterwards-a crown of oak-leaves.

F. Yes, yes; and perhaps Tom will be our king.

Mr. S. But remember not to hurt the oak-trees or break the boughs. I should not like it, if they were mine.

Stories of Birds' Nests.

ONE of the pleasures of the spring is to hear the birds singing, and to watch them when they are so busy building their nests and feeding their young. Persons who

took great pleasure in watching the curious and pretty ways of the birds have written accounts of them, which are very amusing to read. Some of these stories shew how careful the birds are of their young ones; and some of them shew us that, if they are kindly treated, they will trust us, and lose their natural shyness.

Some children once carried home a nest with four young linnets, meaning to bring them up and tame them. The old ones heard the chirping of their young, and flut tered round the children till they reached the house, and placed the nest outside of a window up-stairs. The old birds soon afterwards came to the nest, and fed their family without seeming afraid. This being noticed, the nest was placed on a table in the middle of the room, and the window left open. The parent birds came boldly in, and fed their young ones as before. Yet further to try their affection, the nest was placed in a cage; still they returned, went boldly into the cage, fed their brood, and, towards evening, perched upon the cage, in spite of the noise of the children around them. This continued for several days, when an unlucky accident put an end to it. The cage had been again set outside of the window, and was unfortunately left out in a sudden and heavy fall of rain, so that all the young birds were drowned in the nest. The poor parents continued hovering about the house, and looking wistfully in at the window, for several days, and then disappeared.

A pair of titmice, commonly called tomtits, built their nest in the upper part of an old pump, fixing it on the pin in which the handle worked. It happened that during the time of building and laying the eggs, the pump had not been in use; when again set going, the hen was sitting, and it was supposed that the motion of the pumphandle would drive her away. The young brood, however, were hatched safely, without any other misfortune than the loss of a part of the hen-bird's tail, which was rubbed off by the motion of the pump-handle.

A robin redbreast once tried to build in the library of a gentleman's house-at least, so it was suspected, from dried leaves, &c. having been sometimes found among the shelves, without any one being able to find out from whence they came. As these were swept away, the bird began to build in the dining-room; and as the family never went into it till luncheon-time, she had it all to herself from the moment when the housemaid left the room in the morning with the window open. One day a servant happened to move one of the window-curtains, and found within the folds the robin's nest.

Another pair of robins took possession of a hole in a bookshelf in a school where seventy children assembled every day. The hole was at the farthest end of the room, just over the heads of the youngest class of little girls, who, much to their credit, never disturbed the bird. There she laid and hatched five eggs. One of the young ones died in a few days, and the body was carried off by the parent birds. The other four were regularly fed by the old ones whilst the children were in school; and when these were fledged and gone, the old bird mended up her nest, and laid three more eggs, which she attended to with the same success; and about twelve years afterwards, a pair of robins built in the same hole.

A few years ago, a pair of robins took up their abode in the parish church of Hampton, in Warwickshire, and fixed their nest to the church Bible, as it lay on the readingdesk. The clergyman would not allow the birds to be disturbed, and therefore read the lessons from another Bible.

A like instance happened at Collingbourne Kingston church, in Wiltshire, on the 13th of April, 1834:-the clerk, on looking out the lessons for the day, perceived

something under the Bible in the reading-desk, and in a hollow place made by the Bible resting on a raised ledge, he found a robin's nest, with two eggs in it. The bird, not having been disturbed, laid four more, which were hatched on the 4th of May. The cock-bird brought food in its bill, and fed the young brood during the service; and none of the parishioners, not even the boys, interfered with the birds, or attempted to take away the eggs.

They must have been reminded of that verse in the 84th Psalm, "Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, and the swallow a nest, where she may lay her young: even Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God. -From Rev. Edward Stanley's History of Birds.

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THE Saviour lends the light and heat
That crowns His holy hill;

The saints, like stars, around His seat
Perform their courses still.

The saints above are stars in heaven ;-
What are the saints on earth ?-

Like trees they stand, whom God has given
Our Eden's happy birth!

The dew of heaven is like Thy grace

It steals in silence down;

But where it lights, the favour'd place

By richest fruits is known.

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IT would take up too much time to tell you at length how Olive went regularly for six weeks to Mr. Morton's, twice in each week, to be prepared for confirmation and communion. Two or three other girls always went at the same time. Her business all the while was to go out bird-keeping. As she walked round and across the field, or sat under the hedge, she had time for learning by heart the things Mr. Morton set her, and time too for thinking about them.

When Mr. Morton first spoke to her about receiving the sacrament the first Sunday after confirmation, she was surprised and startled. But she

talked to her good friend Mrs. Payne, who told her she must be safe in trusting entirely to Mr. Morton. He could best judge whether she was fit. And after he had talked to her about it, she felt anxious herself for it.

It was after her confirmation in June, and when she had been admitted to the blessing of receiving the Lord's Supper, that she ventured to mention to her grandfather about going to church, and at last persuaded him to go with her there.

That fine summer morning when she went with her grandfather to church was the happiest day of Olive's life. The day of confirmation, when she made her vows in the presence of the congregation, was full of fear and trembling; and that of her communion was an awful time, though her heart was full of joy and thankfulness. But now, not only admitted herself to the fellowship of the saints on earth, but allowed to see the strongest wish of her heart fulfilled, and the old man, for whom she had prayed so fervently, at last brought into the sanctuary of God-and this by her means, unworthy as she knew herself to be-she thought she need not mind troubles now. And as they walked slowly to church, in the beauty of a bright summer morning, she seemed to be lifted above any trouble. As they came near the gate, the girls of the Sunday-school passed them, Mrs. Payne walking by the side of the little pairs, and watching them anxiously; every now and then quietly touching some straggler from the line, or checking, by a look or an uplifted finger, some rude action or loud voice. This was a sight to make Olive very thankful too, for her little cousins Jane and Harriet were among the scholars, wearing the frocks she had contrived for them; and they smiled at her as they passed. She had been the means of their attending, which Molly at first objected to. "She did not see," she said, "why the poor things should be made to learn on Sundays as well as working-days, instead of going to play."

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