50 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



in a shrill falsetto voice, while his rusty 

 mate flits in and out in agitation. 

 Pull back the bushes and you will find 

 their nest, hanging upon a stalk by 

 twisted strands of sedge, and in its 

 deep, soft bowl are cradled two light 

 blue eggs with umber spots, and two 

 young birds. But now the frantic 

 parents have aroused all their kin, and 

 twenty birds or more are on the wing, 

 screaming at once. 



Look through the button bushes with 

 their feathered balls, here on the sea- 

 ward side. There lie the marshes, 

 and the lane slopes down and bounds 

 them until it melts into the green 

 morass, and all the rest is trackless. 

 What do you see? A cloth of soft 

 warm green stretched toward the sea, 

 a silver thread of water, fold by fold, 

 embroiders it, framing with curious 

 patterns the still, mirror pools. Long 



