56 , MOTHER MAGPIE'S MISCHIEF. 



more melancholy in its termination ; for one day as he was 

 sitting disconsolately under a currant-bush in the garden, 

 practising his poor old notes in a quiet way, thump came 

 a great blow of a hoe, which nearly broke his back. 



" Hullo ! what ugly beast have we got here ? " said Tom 

 Noakes, the gardener's boy. " Here, here, Wasp, my boy." 



What a fright for a poor, quiet, old Bullfrog, as little 

 wiry, wicked Wasp came at him, barking and yelping. He 

 jumped with all his force sheer over a patch of bushes into 

 the river, and swam back to his old home among the cat- 

 tails. And always after that it was observable that he was 

 very low-spirited, and took very dark views of life ; but 

 nothing made him so angry as any allusion to Mother 

 Magpie, of whom, from that time, he never spoke except 

 as Old Mother Mischief. 



