uppose, when we lifted the lid,
To see if you knew how to fly,
You'd all flutter off in a moment, and bid
The basket for ever good-by!

Come down, and we'll feast you on insects and seeds;--
You sha'nt have occasion to roam--
We'll give you all things that a bird ever needs,
To make it contented at home.

Then come, pretty Doves! O, return for our sakes,
And don't keep away from us thus;
Or, when your old slumbering master awakes,
'Twill be a sad moment for us!

"We can't!" said the birds, "and the basket may stand
A long time in waiting; for now
You find out too late, that a bird in the hand
Is worth, at least, two on the bough.

"And we, from our height, looking down on you there,
By experience taught to be sage,--
Find, one pair of wings that are free in the air
Are worth two or three in the cage!

"But when our old master awakes, and shall find
The work you have just been about,
We hope, by the freedom we love, he'll be kind,
And spare you for letting us out.

"We thank you for all the fine stories you tell,
And all the good things you would give;
But think, since we're out, we shall do very well
Where nature designed us to live.

"Whene'er you may think of the swift little wings
On which from your reach we have flown,
No doubt, you'll beware, and not meddle with things,
In future, that are not your own."

=Edward and Charles=.

The brothers went out with the father to ride,
Where they looked for the flowers, that, along the way-side,
So lately were blooming and fair;
But their delicate heads by the frost had been nipped;
Their stalks by the blast were all twisted and stripped;
And nothing but ruin was there.

"Oh! how the rude autumn has spoiled the green hills!"
Exclaimed little Charles, "and has choked the bright rills
With leaves that are faded and dead!
The few on the trees are fast losing their hold.
And leaving the branches so naked and cold.
That the beautiful birds have all fled."

"I know," replied Edward, "the country has lost
A great many charms by the touch of the frost,
Which used to appear to the eye;
But then, it has opened the chestnut-burr too,
The walnut released from the case where it grew;
And now our _Thanksgiving_ is nigh!

"Oh! what do you think we shall do on that day?"
"I guess," answered Charles, "we shall all go away
To Grandpa's; and there find enough
Of turkeys, plum-puddings, and pies by the dozens,
For G