"Harry," whispered Nina to her brother, "don't you think that you and I might help Ruth to fill her poor mother's little wood-shed?"
"What! Pick up sticks, and carry them in fagots on our backs? How funny that would look!" exclaimed Harry.
"We should be doing some good," replied Nina. "Don't you remember that nurse said that the wind has its work to do, as we have ours? If it's an ill wind that does nobody good, it must be an ill child that does good to no one."
"That's a funny little tail that you tack on to the proverb," laughed Harry; "but I rather like the notion. The good wind blows down the branches, we good children pick up the branches; so the wind and the children between them will soon fill the widow's little shed."
Merrily and heartily Harry and Nina set about their labour of kindness; Ailsie's back was too stiff for stooping, but she helped them to tie up the fagots. And cheerfully, as the children tripped along with their burdens to the poor woman's cottage, Nina repeated her old nurse's proverb, "'Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good."
A FABLE.
"AH! Poll! Poll!" cried the little spaniel Fidele to the new favourite of the family. "How every one likes you, and pets you!"
"No wonder," replied the parrot, cocking her head on one side with a very conceited air. "Just see how pretty I am! With your rough, hairy coat, and your turned-up nose, who would look at you beside me! Just observe my plumage of crimson and green, and the fine feather head-dress which I wear!"