BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 5 



the face flushed with color, the eloquent brown 

 eyes sparkling, the pressed palms, the sudden 

 spontaneous passion of delight and desire in her 

 tone. The picture was in my mind all that day, 

 and lived through the next, and so wrought on 

 me that I could not longer keep away from the 

 birds, which I, too, loved; for now all at once 

 it seemed to me that life was not life without 

 them; that I was grown sick, and all my senses 

 dim; that only the wished sight of wild birds 

 could medicine my vision; that only by drenching 

 it in their wild melody could my tired brain re- 

 cover its lost vigour. 



