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I only wish my readers could see my beautiful 

 Redstarts to-day: I am sure they will never believe 

 mere words. I feel in writing about their loveliness 

 just what the Swiss guide did, who had been to stay 

 at a grand place in the West of England, owned by 

 one of his patrons. Nils (that was the guide's name) 

 was never tired of telling, but not to his compatriots. 

 ' It is no good me telling dem what I see in England,' 

 he would ruefully remark, ' dey only t'iuk me a liar ! 



People often say to me, ' Oh, how nice it must be, 

 Mr. Farrar, to keep those pretty softbills ! ' But I 

 often think of the words of Mrs. Poyser, in ' Adam 

 Bede.' " Tlie Miss Irwins allys says, 'Oh, Mrs. 

 Poyser, I envy you your dairy, and I envy you your 

 chickens, and what a beautiful thing a farm house is, 

 to be sure.' An' I say ' Yes, a farm house is a fine 

 thing for them as looks on, an' don't know the liftin' 

 an' the stannin'. an' the worritin' o' the inside, as 

 belongs t' it.' " Softbills require the greatest care as 

 regards diet, or the\' will soon join tlie great majority, 

 and they must have a constant supph' of live insects 

 of some sort — therefore they are expensive to keep ; 

 but, as the old proverb says, ' It is a poor rider that 

 starves his own nag's belly.' Unless, therefore, 

 people are prepared to spend nione}' freely they 

 should let softbills alone. Peameal may be a good 

 solid diet, but it will not suit Redstarts, for example. 



I hope, next year, to get ni}' Redstarts to breed, 

 but, as Socrates said of a good Political Constitution, 

 * this is a thing to be hoped for rather than a proba- 

 bility.' Still, Hope is almost as helpful a companion 

 as Certainty, and the best critic that ever wrote, 

 speaking of some passages of Homer which appear 

 frivolous, says indeed they are dreams, but the dreams 

 of Jupiter. I console myself with the thought that 

 on one has been beforehand with me, at any rate; and 



