sorry for her and answered, "We will teach you."
The black-bird said, "Put the twigs on this bough;" the robin said, "Put
the leaves between the twigs;" and the humming-bird said, "Put this soft
green moss over it all."

[Illustration]

"I do not know how," cried the magpie.

"We are teaching you," said the other birds. But the magpie was lazy,
and she thought, "If I do not learn, they will build a nest for me."

The other birds talked together. "She does not wish to learn," they
said, "and we will not help her any longer." So they went away from her.

Then the magpie was sorry. "Come back," she called, "and I will learn."
But by this time the other birds had eggs in their nests, and they were
busy taking care of them, and had no time to teach the lazy magpie. This
is why the magpie's nest is not well built.

WHY THE RAVEN'S FEATHERS ARE BLACK.

Long, long ago the raven's feathers were white as snow. He was a
beautiful bird, but the other birds did not like him because he was a
thief. When they saw him coming, they would hide away the things that
they cared for most, but in some marvelous way he always found them and
took them to his nest in the pine-tree.

One morning the raven heard a little bird singing merrily in a thicket.
The leaves of the trees were dark green, and the little bird's yellow
feathers looked like sunshine among them.

"I will have that bird," said the raven, and he seized the trembling
little thing.

The yellow bird fluttered and cried, "Help, help! Will no one come and
help me!"

The other birds happened to be far away, and not one heard her cries.
"The raven will kill me," she called. "Help, help!"

Now hidden in the bark of a tree was a wood-worm.

"I am only a wood-worm," he said to himself, "and I cannot fly like a
bird, but the yellow bird has been good to me, and I will do what I can
to help her."

When the sun set, the raven went to sleep. Then the wood-worm made his
way softly up the pine-tree to the raven's nest, and bound his feet
together with grass and pieces of birch-bark.

"Fly away," whispered the wood-worm softly to the little yellow bird,
"and come to see me by and by. I must teach the raven not to be cruel to
the other birds."

The little yellow bird flew away, and the wood-worm brought twigs, and
moss, and birch-bark, and grass, and put them around the tree. Then he
set them all on fire. Up the great pine-tree went the flames, leaping
from bough to bo