Henry's 
Magpie. 
(») 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
Henry’s Magpie. 
Taken from “ The Fairchild Family.” 
Written by Mrs. SHERWOOD in 1818. 
The evening was very cool and 
pleasant, when Emily and Henry went 
out to play. Mary Bush had given 
Henry a young Magpie; she had taught 
it to say a few words, to the great delight 
of the children. It could say, “ Good 
Morning ! ” “ How do you do ? ” “ Oh, 
pretty Mag!” “Mags a hungry.” 
“Give Mag her dinner.” “A bit of 
meat for poor Mag.” To be sure, the 
bird’s words did not come out very 
clearly; but it was quite enough, as 
Henry said, if he understood them. 
Mag had a large wicker cage, which 
generally hung up on a nail in the 
kitchen; but her master, being very fond 
of her company, used often to take the 
cage down, with the bird in it, and take 
it into his plav-room or his hut, or hang 
it upon the bough of a tree before the 
parlour window, that Mag might enjoy 
the fresh air. Sometimes, too, Henry 
let the bird out, that she might enjoy 
herself a little, for, as the feathers of one 
of her wings were cut close, she could 
not fly; and she was very tame, and 
never having known liberty, she was as 
fond of her cage, when she was tired or 
hungry, as some old ladies are of their 
parlours. 
“ Let us take Mag with us out ol 
doors,” said Henry; and the cage was 
taken down and carried out between the 
two children, whilst Mag kept chattering 
all the way, and was, if anything, more 
pert and brisk than spoiled Magpies 
generally are. They first went to the 
hut, and set the cage on the bench, 
whilst Henry and Emily busied them¬ 
selves in putting a few things to rights 
about the place, which had been set 
wrong by a hard shower which had 
happened the night before. There were 
a few fallen leaves which had blown 
into the hut from some laurels growing 
on the outside, and Henry said, “ I do 
hate laurels; for they are always untidy, 
and scattering about their yellow leaves 
when all the trees about them are in 
their best order.” Whilst the children 
were going in and out after these leaves 
to pick them up and throw them out of 
sight, Mag kept hopping from one perch 
to another, wriggling her tail, twisting 
her head to one side and another, and 
crying, “Oh, pretty Mag! Mag’s. a 
hungry,” in a voice more like scolding 
than anything else. 
“What now, mistress?” said Henry. 
“ She is not in the best possible 
temper,” replied Emily. 
“She wants to be out,” answered 
Henry; “she does not like to be shut 
up.” 
“But,” said Emily, “it would be 
dangerous to let her out here, so far 
from the house, and amongst the trees. ’ 
Henry was in a humour common not 
only to small but great boys on occa¬ 
sions. He chose, just then, to think 
himself wiser than his sister, and, with¬ 
out another word, he opened the cage 
door, and out walked Mag, with the air 
of a person who had gained a point, and 
despised those who had given way to 
her. And first she strutted round the 
inside of the hut, crying “ Oh, pretty 
Mag! ” with a vast deal of importance, 
and then she walked out at the entrance, 
trailing her tail after her, like a lady in 
a silk gown. 
“ She will get amongst the shrubs,” 
said Emily, “ and how shall we get her 
out of them ? ” 
“Never fear,” returned Henry; “you 
know that she cannot fly.” 
One would have thought that the bird 
knew what they said, for, whilst they 
spoke, she laid her head on one side, as 
if turning an ear, stood still a minute, 
and then paraded onwards. I say 
paraded, for if she had been walking at 
a coronation she could not have taken 
more state upon herself. 
