Queen Honey Dew. 



i6 



If the cock crows going to bed, 



He's sure to rise with a watery head. 



If the cock moults before the hen, 



We shall have the weather thick and thin. 



If the hen moults before the cock. 



We shall have weather hard as a block. 



Once more, there is a common idea that 

 if the cock stays on the roost longer in the 

 morning than usual, and crows there, it is a 

 sign of wet weather. Fowls again have their 

 weather lore, and a well-known rhyme re- 

 minds us how, 



If fowls roll in the sand 

 Rain is at hand, 



and a popular couplet in Scotland is to the 

 following effect: 



When ducks are driving through the burn, 

 That night the weather takes a turn. 



In Scotland there is a superstition that if 

 the raven cries first in the morning, it will 

 be a good day; if the rook the reverse. 

 Thus the subjoined rhyme: 



The corbie said unto the craw, 

 "John, fling your plaid awa." 

 The craw said unto the corbie, 

 "Johnnie, fling your plaid about ye." 



Swans have generally been considered 

 good weather prophets: 



The swans that sail along the silvery flood, 

 And dive with stretching necks to search their food. 

 Then lave their backs with sprinkling dews in vain. 

 And stem the stream to meet the promised rain. 



The cuckoo, too, is not without its omens, 

 as is shown by the subjoined piece of ad- 

 vice to the farmer: 



When the cuckoo comes to the bare thorn, 

 Sell your cow and buy your corn; 

 But when she comes to the full bit, 

 Sell your corn and buy your sheep. 



The screaming of the owl is a bad sign, 

 being supposed to prognosticate stormy, 

 tempestuous weather. Lastly, when spar- 

 rows chirp a great deal, and robins do not 

 venture to go far from houses, rain may be 

 considered near at hand. 



There is a legend common in Scandin- 

 avia that a dishonest handmaiden of the 

 Blessed Virgin purloined her mistress's sil- 

 ver scissors, and that she was transformed 

 into a lapwing for punishment, the forked 

 tail of the bird being a brand of the theft, 

 and that the bird was doomed to a contin- 

 ual confession of the crime by the plaintive 

 cry, "Tyvit, tyvit!" that is, in Scandinavian, 

 "I stole them! I stole them!" 



QUEEN HONEY DEW. 



ONCE upon a time a little queen lay 

 quietly in her cradle wondering when 

 it would be time for her to slip out of her 

 silken baby robes, and turn into a grown- 

 up queen; for in Beedom, where she lived, 

 the royal babies did not have to wait years 

 and years to grow up, but as soon as they 

 left the nursery they became full-grown 

 almost instantly, and thus there was no 

 time wasted, and they were ready at once 

 to enter upon the duties of sovereignty. 



This saved much expense in the way of 

 tutors and governesses, lawyers and prime 

 ministers, and seemed such a very wise 

 plan altogether, that the inhabitants of that 

 country often wondered why the rest of the 



world did not follow their example; but 

 they were such an industrious race that 

 they never had time to go abroad and 

 spread their ideas, and could only hope that 

 every one would grow wise enough some 

 day to do just as they did, not only about 

 queens, but about everything else. 



And they really were such wonderful 

 creatures that they were perhaps excusable 

 in thinking their own ways almost perfect; 

 for every great traveler has admitted that 

 nowhere in the world exists a happier and 

 more perfectly governed kingdom than 

 Beedom. 



The queen is so revered and beloved 

 that it is not even necessary to provide her 



