The little pigeons with their coo, coo, coo,
Are better company for me than you."
So saying, Peacock haughtily withdrew.
The price of corn soon after this rose high,
The people fear'd there'd be a scarcity.
The farmer said, ""Tis fit we send away
All fowls but such as for their keeping pay."
The dame surveyed them all :-"I cannot spare
My goodly geese, they well deserve their fare:
Their plumes produce the pens with which you
write,

And line the bed on which you rest at night.
The ducks and hens so many eggs supply,
'Twere hard their scanty dinner to deny.
But one alone, of all our feathery train,
Does us no good, but only eats our grain-
The Peacock."—"Yes," the farmer quick replies
"Before to-morrow's dawn the Peacock dies;
And truly he's so noisy and so cross,

I think we shall be gainers by the loss."
Thus the proud peacock fell, while useful geese,
And humble chickens ate their grain in peace.

TO A BUTTERFLY.

I've watch'd you now a full half hour,
Self-poised upon that yellow flower;
And, little butterfly! indeed,

I know not if you sleep or feed.

How motionless !—not frozen seas
More motionless!-and then,

What joy awaits you when the breeze

Hath found

you out among the trees,

And calls you forth again!

This plot of orchard ground is ours,
My trees they are, my sister's flowers;
Here rest your wings when they are weary
Here lodge as in a sanctuary!

Come to us often, fear no wrong;

Sit near us on the bough!

We'll talk of sunshine and of song,
And summer days when we were young;
Sweet childish days that were as long
As twenty days are now.

THE WOLF.

THE Wolf is in general of a larger size than the dog, though bearing a considerable resemblance to it in several respects. His colour varies much in different parts of the world; but it is usually of a pale grey, with a yellowish cast. His hair is long, of a rough and hard consistence, and blended towards the roots with a kind of ash-coloured fur. His eye opens slantingly upwards in the same direction as the nose. In length he measures from three and a half to four feet. He is powerful for his size, his strength lies chiefly in his teeth

and jaws; and he can carry off a sheep with ease. He lives to the age of twenty.

In disposition, the wolf is naturally dull and cowardly; but when impelled by hunger he is bold and fierce, and will attack not only the smaller animals, but even women and men. Sometimes wolves collect in droves, and thus assembled hunt down deer and other animals like dogs, with hideous howlings. They have also been known to satisfy their craving appetite with the dead bodies which they have torn from the grave.

Wolves are found in almost all the cold and temperate climates. They have been completely extirpated, however, from the British islands, which long ago were much infested with them, and in which their destruction became a matter of public concern and royal reward. They are rarely met with in the inhabited parts of America. In Sweden, they are poisoned by means of stuffing the carcass of a sheep with a species of lichen, mixed with pounded glass, and exposing it as a bait in the places which they haunt. During winter, they often go out in great numbers on the ice, in search of seals, which they surprise asleep. This enterprise frequently proves fatal to them; for the ice carries them imperceptibly out to sea, where they are lost, and in this way whole districts have been cleared of them in one season.

Notwithstanding the ferocity of their nature,

wolves have been tamed. The natives of North America, before the introduction of dogs, employed them in hunting, and made them quite obedient to command. And in the East, they are trained to dance and play a variety of tricks; but they are almost always found to be wholly incapable of attachment, and, as they advance in life, commonly contrived to escape to their native woods. Some instances, indeed, have occurred, of wolves having been tamed to an uncommon degree of kindness and humanity. A lady in Switzerland had a tame wolf, which seemed to have as much attachment to its mistress as a spaniel. She had occasion to leave home for a few weeks; the wolf evinced the greatest distress after her departure, and at first refused to take food. During the whole time she was absent he remained much dejected: on her return, as soon as the animal heard her footsteps, he bounded into the room in an ecstasy of delight. Springing up, he placed a paw on each of her shoulders, but the next moment he fell backwards and instantly expired.

THE MONKEY.

Monkey, little merry fellow,
Thou art nature's punchinello!
Full of fun as Puck could be;
Harlequin might learn of thee!

Look now at his odd grimaces!
Saw you e'er such comic faces?
How like learned judge, sedate;
Now with nonsense in his pate!

Nature, in a sunny wood,
Must have been in merry mood,
And with laughter fit to burst,
Monkey, when she made thee first.

How you leaped and frisked about, When your life you first found out How you threw in roguish mirth, Cocoa nuts on mother earth;

How you sate and made a din,
Louder than had ever been,
Till the Parrots, all a-riot,
Chattered too to keep you quiet.

Look now at him slyly peep!
He pretends he is asleep;
Fast asleep upon his bed,

With his arm beneath his head.

Now that posture is not right, And he's not yet settled quiteThere! that's better than before, And the knave pretends to snore !