Now 'tis pleasant all, and sunny, Bees are busy making honey, You can flit from bough to bough, You can sing and twitter now: Wait till winter comes, you rover, Then your frolic will be over. Cats are on the roof already: Birdie, dear, come back to Freddy. BIRDIE. Peep, peep, peep! CLARA. Peep and peep! What then, deserter? Was there creature ever perter? Mine you are; to me belong; Me you owe each day a song. Darling, here's your cage all clean; Come, I say, and don't be mean; Come, and be once more our pet, And your fault we will forget. BIRDIE. Peep, peep, peep! T'wee, t'wee, t'wee! PAPA. Ha! he takes his merry flight, And the little bird is right. No deserter, child, is he, Who escapes to liberty. Air and sun and open sky Birdie likes, as you and I. Paid to him is now your debt, And I'm glad: so do not fret. IDA FAY. A FISH STORY. COUSIN WILLIE lives on a pleasant island in Chesapeake Bay. He has a boat called the "Nautilus." One morning he was taking a sail in his boat, when he saw a large fish-hawk soaring and wheeling through the air, as though in search of a breakfast for its young nestlings. At length it made a dive down to the water, and brought up a large fish. Just then an eagle that had been watching the fish-hawk from the top of a tree, came swooping down toward the hawk, as if determined to have the fish for his own breakfast. The eagle attacked the hawk; and the two birds fought for the fish until the hawk was forced to let it drop, when the eagle made a rapid swoop, and caught the fish in his talons. Cousin Willie, from his boat, watched the fight of the birds, and thought he would like to make the bold robber give up his prey. So he shot at him with a pistol, and gave him such a fright that he dropped the fish in his turn. Willie picked up the fish, took it home, and laid it upon a table in the kitchen to be cooked for dinner. But a sly old cat saw it on the table, and, as no one was near to prevent, she grabbed it quickly, and stole away with it to give herself and her kittens a breakfast. Thus the cunning puss and her kitties, you see, Got the better of those brave fishers three. COUSIN LUCY. [Illustration] [Illustration] BUTTERCUP'S CIRCUS. FRED and Bertie, two little black-eyed boys, were visiting their Aunt Susan in a beautiful country village. The large, old-fashioned house, under a giant elm-tree, was full of wonders to them; but their greatest delights were in driving the old gray horse, or feeding and petting an Alderney calf which their Uncle Harry was raising.