--- title: The Magpie's Nest — English Fairy Tales · full text with trees description: The Magpie's Nest, «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme And monkeys chewed tobacco, And hens took snuff to make them tough, And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O! --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/) / The Magpie's Nest # The Magpie's Nest The Magpie's Nest of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs: the whole text, 23 sentences and 430 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/1/) — Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme And monkeys chewed tobacco, And hens took snuff to make them tough, And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O! - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/2/) — All the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/3/) — For the magpie is the cleverest bird of all at building nests. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/4/) — So she put all the birds round her and began to show them how to do it. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/5/) — First of all she took some mud and made a sort of round cake with it. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/6/) — “Oh, that's how it's done,” said the thrush; and away it flew, and so that's how thrushes build their nests. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/7/) — Then the magpie took some twigs and arranged them round in the mud. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/8/) — “Now I know all about it,” says the blackbird, and off he flew; and that's how the blackbirds make their nests to this very day. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/9/) — Then the magpie put another layer of mud over the twigs. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/10/) — “Oh that's quite obvious,” said the wise owl, and away it flew; and owls have never made better nests since. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/11/) — After this the magpie took some twigs and twined them round the outside. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/12/) — “The very thing!” said the sparrow, and off he went; so sparrows make rather slovenly nests to this day. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/13/) — Well, then Madge Magpie took some feathers and stuff and lined the nest very comfortably with it. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/14/) — “That suits me,” cried the starling, and off it flew; and very comfortable nests have starlings. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/15/) — So it went on, every bird taking away some knowledge of how to build nests, but, none of them waiting to the end. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/16/) — Meanwhile Madge Magpie went on working and working without, looking up till the only bird that remained was the turtle-dove, and that hadn't paid any attention all along, but only kept on saying its silly cry “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.” - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/17/) — At last the magpie heard this just as she was putting a twig across. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/18/) — So she said: “One's enough.” - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/19/) — But the turtle-dove kept on saying: “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.” - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/20/) — Then the magpie got angry and said: “One's enough I tell you.” - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/21/) — Still the turtle-dove cried: “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.” - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/22/) — At last, and at last, the magpie looked up and saw nobody near her but the silly turtle-dove, and then she got rare angry and flew away and refused to tell the birds how to build nests again. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/42/23/) — And that is why different birds build their nests differently. - ← previous: [The Fish and the Ring](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/41/) - next →: [Kate Crackernuts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/43/) - ↑ back to [English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/)