to this sign of friendship.
Then Jacquot would slide down to his food-tin, as if to invite the
sparrow to share his breakfast.

Once the parrot was ill for some days. He did not eat: he trembled with
fever, and looked very sad. The sparrow tried in vain to cheer him up.
Then the little bird flew out into the garden, and soon returned,
holding in his beak some blades of grass. The parrot with great effort
managed to eat them. The sparrow kept him supplied with grass; and in a
few days he was cured.

Once, when the sparrow was hopping about on the grassplot near the
parrot's perch, a cat sprang out from some bushes. At this sight,
Jacquot raised a loud cry, and broke his chain to fly to the aid of his
friend. The cat ran away in terror; and the little bird was saved.

[Illustration]

UNCLE CHARLES.

THAT FOX!

A LITTLE gray fox
Had a home in the rocks,
And most of his naps and his leisure took there;
But, one frosty eve,
He decided to leave,
And for a short absence began to prepare.

A letter he wrote;
And he brushed up his coat;
And he shook out his tail, which was plumy and fine:
At first break of day
He galloped away,
At some distant farm-house intending to dine.

How gay he did look,
As he frisked to the brook,
And gazed at himself in the water so clear!
He looked with delight
At the beautiful sight;
For all was so perfect, from tail-tip to ear!

That noon, our gray fox
Called on good Farmer Knox,
Where some of the fattest of poultry was kept,
And, sly as a mouse,
Lay in wait by the house;
Or, peeping and watching, he stealthily crept.

He felt very sure
He should shortly secure
A fat little chicken, or turkey, or goose;
And his eyes were as bright
As the stars are at night,
As he tried to decide which his foxship should choose.

[Illustration]

From his sharp-pointed nose
To the tip of his toes,
He was all expectation!--when, suddenly "_Snap