316 THE MAGPIE 



are few children who have not heard the lines which 

 run, albeit with many variations : 



" One for sorrow, 

 Two for mirth, 

 Three for a wedding, 

 Four for a birth, 

 Five for Heaven, 

 Six for Hell, 

 Seven for the de'il's own sell." 



A bad look-out, you may say ; but some of the 

 variations of the later lines, as for instance : 



Five for a fiddle, 

 Six for a dance, 

 Seven for England, 

 Eight for France," 



put a different complexion on the matter, and make 

 the bird to be, on the whole, one of good rather 

 than of bad omen. All versions however agree that 

 if you see a single magpie, you must look out for 

 storms. Wordsworth himself, a close observer and 

 a great admirer of the bird, who sings how " the 

 magpie chatters with delight," and again, how " the 

 jay makes answer, while the magpie chatters," would 

 have been sorry on his " Excursion " to meet with a 

 solitary specimen of the magpie. 



" I would readily rejoice 

 If two auspicious magpies crossed my way." 



