he moved his knee
quickly the dolls seemed to dance about upon the board.

The boy stopped at the gate, put down his board, placed his dolls upon
it, with the string at his knee, began to play his pipe, and beat upon
his tabor, and, as he played, the dolls danced up and down, and round
and round, first on one side, then on the other, now bobbing down
their heads, now frisking about their feet.

But while this was going on at the gate, the kid heard the pipe and
tabor, and after listening to it a minute, with its head on one side,
suddenly jumped up in the air, gave a great many little kicks, very
quick and funny, then ran frisking round its mother, and at last stood
upon its hind legs, and danced all across the grass plot.

Little Mary, who had been looking at the dolls, happened to turn round
at the moment when the kid was dancing. "O, you little dear, dear
kid!" cried Mary, first running towards the kid, then back to look at
the dolls, then again at the kid, then at the dolls, and the Italian
boy played away with his pipe and tabor, and made his dolls jump up in
the air, and reel, and set, and hop; but it was all nothing to the
jumps in the air of the kid, and its frisking kicks and flings, and
its fun and its fancies.

At last the Italian boy went away, with a large piece of bread and
cheese in his hand, and his dolls and dancing-board at his back; but
playing his pipe and tabor all down the lane. The goat stood looking
after him, with her head raised tall in the air, and a serious face;
but the kid continued to dance as long as the pipe and tabor could be
heard.

The Little Foundling.

In the beginning of June, when the young birds have got nearly all
their principal feathers, but have not yet learned to fly, it is a sad
thing if by any accident one of them tumbles out of the nest. This
misfortune sometimes happens when a nest is too full. Five or six
little birds are a good many for a nest no bigger than a teacup; and
there are often as many as five. We have also to recollect that these
young things are always very wild, and impatient, and unreasonable,
and make a great fluttering together, and scramble and climb over each
other, especially when their mother brings them food in her bill.
There is, of course, not enough food for all of them at once, but they
all try to get it at once, and some of them are naughty and greedy,
and try to get a second morsel before their brothers and sisters have
had a