108 THE BIRDS OF TERRICK HOUSE. 



unfortunately not common ; would that they were. What a source of rational 

 enjoyment would they open to us ! How greatly might the pleasures of life 

 be thereby increased. How Avell would these interesting little creatures 

 repay us for the trifling expense we should incur in supporting them when 

 the inclemency of the weather has driven them to want. Kindness is rarely 

 thrown away upon birds, wherever else it may be found to have been thrown 

 away. 



One more scene in the life of a Linnet, which, like our own, is chequered 

 with good and evil, with clouds and sunshine, calm and storm, light and 

 shade, joys and sorrows. But whether with us joys or sorrows mostly pre- 

 vail — whether we bask in the sunshine of prosperity or be overshadowed by 

 the clouds of adversity, the three-score years and ten allotted to man upon 

 earth will soon pass away ; and then, ah ! then, high and low, rich and poor, 

 the prince and the peasant, master and servant, maid and mistress, will be 

 laid low together. There will be an end to all earihly distinction then. 

 Neither wealth nor titles will longer avail. Banks and stations will be swept 

 away. Nought will avail us but an interest in that one great and perfect 

 atonement made by the blessed Eedeemer for the sins of the world — the 

 shedding of his most precious blood. God grant we may obtain an interest 

 in that atonement ! 



Winter with its storms and cold has passed away. The frost which pre- 

 vailed in January, and the snow with which it was accompanied, have 

 vanished, not without having left behind them immense benefits to the 

 agriculturist. The action of the frost, followed by the melting of the snow, 

 mellowed " the stubborn glebe," and rendered the task of the husbandman, 

 in pulverizing the soil and preparing it for the reception of the seed about 

 to be sown, a comparatively easy one. The drying winds of March further 

 and most powerfully aided him in the task, and enabled him successfully to 

 complete it. How faithfully kept has been the promise God gave to Noah 

 after the deluge : " While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, cold 

 and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." In 

 all things " He is faithful that promised." The genial showers of April have 

 refreshed the earth, and caused " the tender herb to spring," the grain to 

 vegetate, the grass to grow, and the buds on hedge-row and tree to expand 

 into leaf or blossom. The aconite and snowdrop have come and gone, and 

 the primrose and violet have succeeded them. The daisy, buttercup, and 

 cuckoo-flower bedeck the meads ; the bluebell and wood-anemone the copse, 

 which is also vocal with the notes of the Blackbird, Song-Thrush, Nightin- 

 gale, Blackcap, and other " sweet warblers of the grove." Here the beautiful 

 brimstone Butterfly may be seen flitting about " like an animated primrose," 

 as Miss M. E. Catlow, in her "Account of the Diurnal Lepidoptera of Sussex," 

 published in vol. ii. of The Naturalist, has very happily expressed it, — 

 goodly sized petals, though, tlaat primrose displays. Here, too, worn speoi- 



