A nest we will build us up here.

"It's a thing that's close arch'd overhead,
With a hole made to creep out and in;
We, my bird, might make just a bed
If we only knew how to begin."

* * * * *

To the magpie soon every bird went
And in modest terms made their request,
That she would be pleased to consent
To teach them to build up a nest.

She replied, "I will show you the way,
So observe everything that I do:
First two sticks 'cross each other I lay--"
"To be sure," said the crow, "why I knew

"It must be begun with two sticks,
And I thought that they crossed should be."
Said the pie, "Then some straw and moss mix
In the way you now see done by me."

"O yes, certainly," said the jackdaw,
"That must follow, of course, I have thought;
Though I never before building saw,
I guess'd that, without being taught."

"More moss, straw, and feathers, I place
In this manner," continued the pie.
"Yes, no doubt, madam, that is the case;
Though no builder myself, so thought I."

* * * * *

Whatever she taught them beside,
In his turn every bird of them said,
Though the nest-making art he ne'er tried
He had just such a thought in his head.

Still the pie went on showing her art,
Till a nest she had built up half-way;
She no more of her skill would impart,
But in her anger went fluttering away.

And this speech in their hearing she made,
As she perch'd o'er their heads on a tree:
"If ye all were well skill'd in my trade,
Pray, why came ye to learn it of me?"

When a scholar is willing to learn,
He with silent submission should hear;
Too late they their folly discern,
The effect to this day does appear.

For whenever a pie's nest you see,
Her charming warm canopy view,
All birds' nests but hers seem to be
A magpie's nest just cut in two.

Charles and Mary Lamb.

_The Owl and the Pussy-Cat_

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat;
They took some honey, and plenty of money