166 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



wife, had her grief when she was alone during long 

 hours every day in the house; but when her man 

 came home in the evening she could, and did, throw 

 it off, and was always cheerful, her whole care being 

 to make him forget his sorrow. But it seemed useless; 

 he was a changed man; all his thoughts, all his 

 heart, were with his lost child. He had always been 

 good-tempered and kind, but he had been merry too, 

 full of fun and laughter; now he was what I had seen 

 — a very quiet, still man who smiled a little at times, 

 but who appeared to have forgotten how to laugh. 



