THE BIRD OF THE MORNING. 5 



neighborhood are almost as various as those 

 that salute his ear among people : the laugh, 

 the cry, the scold, the gentle word, the warn- 

 ing, the alarm, and many others. 



When I first took my seat I felt like an in- 

 truder, which the robin plainly considered me 

 to be. He eyed me with the greatest suspicion, 

 alighting on the ground in a terrible flutter, re- 

 solved to brave the ogre, yet on the alert, and 

 ready for instant flight should anything threaten. 

 The moment he touched the ground, he would 

 lower his head and run with breathless haste 

 five or six feet ; then stop, raise his head as 

 pert as a daisy, and look at the monster to see 

 if it had moved. After convincing himself 

 that all was safe, he would turn his eyes down- 

 ward, and in an instant thrust his bill into the 

 soil where the sod was thin, throwing up a lit- 

 tle shower of earth, and doing this again and 

 again, so vehemently that sometimes he was 

 taken off his feet by the jerk. Then he would 

 drag out a worm, run a few feet farther in a 

 panic-stricken way, as though '' taking his life 

 in his hands," again look on the ground, and 

 again pull out a worm ; all the time in an in- 

 consequent manner, as though he had nothing 

 particular on his mind, and merely collected 

 worms by way of passing the time. 



So he would go on, never eating a morsel, 



