How do I tell when a directory is empty in a script?

[Michael Harris]

When I am running a shell script, how can I tell when a directory is empty?
I tried looking at the output of ls -a but it includes . and ..
Suggestions anyone?

 __   _ ___ ___   Michael Harris - harris at catt.ncsu.edu      //        _    
|    / \  | |    Computer and Technologies Theme Program    // /||\/||/ _ /|
|__ / /_\ | |        North Carolina State University      \X/ /-||  ||\_|/-|