52 MOTHER MAGPIES MISCHIEF. 



the old music-teacher, Dr. Bullfrog. The poor old Doctor 

 was a simple-minded, good, amiable creature, who had played 

 the double-bass and led the forest choir on all public occa- 

 sions since nobody knows when. Latterly some youngsters 

 had arisen who sneered at his performances as behind the 

 age. In fact, since a great city had grown up in the vicinity 

 of the forest, tribes of wandering boys broke up the simple 

 tastes and quiet habits which old Mother Nature had always 

 kept up in those parts. They pulled the young checker- 

 berry before it even had time to blossom, rooted up the 

 sassafras shrubs and gnawed their roots, fired off guns at 

 the birds, and, on several occasions when old Dr. Bullfrog 

 was leading a concert, had dashed in and broken up the 

 choir by throwing stones. 



This was not the worst of it. The little varlets had a 

 way of jeering at the simple old Doctor and his concerts, 

 and mimicking the tones of his bass-viol. "There you go, 

 Paddy-go-donk, Paddy-go-donk umph chunk," some ras- 

 cal of a boy would shout, while poor old Bullfrog's yellow 

 spectacles would be bedewed with tears of honest indignation. 

 In time, the jeers of these little savages began to tell on 

 the society in the forest, and to corrupt their simple man- 

 ners ; and it was whispered among the younger and more 

 heavy birds and squirrels, that old Bullfrog was a bore, and 

 that it was time to get up a new style of music in the 

 parish, and to give the charge of it to some more modern 

 performer. 



