MOTHER MAGPIE'S MISCHIEF. 



MOTHER MAGPIE was about the busiest char- 

 acter.in the forest. But you must know that there 

 is a great difference between being busy and being indus- 

 trious. One may be very busy all the time, and yet not 

 in the least industrious ; and this was the case with Mother 

 Magpie. 



She was always full of everybody's business but her own, 

 up and down, here and there, everywhere but in her 

 own nest, knowing every one's affairs, telling what every- 

 body had been doing or ought to do, and ready to cast 

 her advice gratis at every bird and beast of the woods. 



Now she bustled up to the parsonage at the top of 

 the oak-tree, to tell old Parson Too-Whit what she thought 

 he ought to preach for his next sermon, and how dreadful 

 the morals of the parish were becoming. Then, having 

 perfectly bewildered the poor old gentleman, who was al- 

 ways sleepy of a Monday morning, Mother Magpie would 

 take a peep into Mrs. Oriole's nest, sit chattering on a 

 bough above, and pour forth floods of advice, which, poor 

 little Mrs. Oriole used to say to her husband, bewildered 

 her more than a hard northeast storm. 



"Depend upon it, my dear," Mother Magpie would say, 



