ant me
thou'lt be a Colonel thyself one of these days."

And sure enough, five years later, Pierre Dubois was not only a Colonel,
but a General.

[Illustration: READY TO MOVE--MAY-DAY IN THE CITY.]

THE NAUGHTY CUCKOO AND THE BOBOLINKS.

BY AGNES CARR.

Spring had come, with its buds and blossoms, warm bright days and gentle
showers, and the old apple-tree at the end of the garden was putting on
its new spring dress of green leaves and tiny pink buds, which before
long would open into sweet blossoms, and still later turn into ripe
golden fruit, when a pair of Bobolinks came flying through the garden
one fine morning house-hunting, or rather looking for a nice place to
build a nest and go to housekeeping.

"Here is a good spot," said the little husband, whose name was Robert,
perching on a limb of the old apple-tree and poking his bill into a
crotch formed by a crooked branch.

"So it is," said Linny, his wife, "for the leaves will soon be out and
hide the nest from sight:" and they began to chatter so fast about the
nice home they would have there, that it sounded like nothing but
"Bob-o-link, bob-o-link, spink, spank, spink," so that two little girls
who were playing with their dolls under the tree said, "What a noise
those Bobolinks make! what are they chattering so about?"

Soon, however, they saw the little birds flying back and forth, back and
forth, with bits of hair and straw in their bills, and then they said to
one another, "The Bobolinks are building a nest," and they hung pieces
of cotton and bunches of thread on the lower limbs of the tree, and
watched to see Robert carry them off to weave into the outside of the
nest, while Linny made a soft lining of hair inside. And at last the
little home was finished, and three pretty eggs laid snugly inside; when
one day, while Robert and Linny had gone to stretch their wings by a
short flight around the garden, an ugly old Cuckoo, who had seen the
Bobolinks flying in and out of the tree, came and laid a big egg in the
nest; for Cuckoos are lazy birds, and never build houses for themselves,
but steal places to lay their eggs, and let somebody else take care of
their children.

Now Robert and Linny had never been to school, and could not count; so
when they came back they did not notice that there were four eggs in the
nest instead of three, and Linny settled down on them, quite happy,
while Robert sang a merry song to her, all about birds and f