“Blessed be thou,” said the Lord, “thou sharer of my suffering.  Wherever thou goest happiness and joy shall follow thee.  Blue as the heaven shall be thy eggs, and from henceforth thou shalt be the Bird of God, the bearer of good tidings.  But thou,” He added, addressing the Magpie sorrowfully, “thou art accursed.  No longer shall the brilliant tuft and bright feathers of which thou art so proud and so unworthy adorn thee.  Thy color shall be the streaked black and white of shadows, thy life a hard one.  And thy nest, however well builded, shall be open to the storm.”

These were almost the last words which the Saviour spoke.  After that, when the Lord was laid in the sepulchre, the faithful Robin still watched beside Him for those three dread days until He rose on Easter morning, when the little bird rejoiced with all nature at the wondrous happening.  And again on Ascension Day he paid his last tribute to the risen Master, joining his little song with the chorus of the angels themselves in the gladdest Hosanna which the universe had ever heard.

This explains how the Magpie became a restless, noisy, black-and-white bird as we know her to this day, having lost all her brilliant beauty through the wickedness of her heart.  But the pious Robin still wears upon his breast the beautiful feathers stained red with his Master’s blood.  And all that the Saviour foretold of him has come true.  He is the blessed bird whom children everywhere love and of whom they still repeat these old verses:—­

    “The Robin and the Redbreast,
       The Robin and the Wren,
    If ye take out of the nest
       Ye’ll never thrive again. 
    The Robin and the Redbreast,
       The Martin and the Swallow,
    If ye touch one of their eggs
       Bad luck is sure to follow.”

THE ROBIN WHO WAS AN INDIAN

The name of Robin makes us think at once of the jolliest and most sociable of all our little brother birds.  In every land the name is a favorite, and wherever he goes he brings happiness and kind feeling.

The American Robin is not the same bird as his English cousin, though both have red breasts.

It was in a different manner that our little American friend came to have the ruddy waistcoat which we know so well.

There was a time, so the Indians say, a very early time, long, long before Columbus discovered America,—­even before histories began to be written,—­when there were no Robins.

In those days in the land of the Ojibways, which is far in the north of the cold country, there lived an old Indian chief who had one son, named Iadilla.  Now among the Ojibways, when a boy was almost big enough to become a warrior, before he could go out with the other braves to the hunt or to war, there was a great trial which he must undergo.  Other lands and peoples have known similar customs.  You remember