SECRETS OF AN OLD GARDEN. 



J 



HIS garden had some small 

 fruit trees thickly covered 

 with leaves, and a tangle of 

 currant bushes and raspberry 

 vines, as well as neatly worked rows 

 of vegetables. There was also a thick 

 clump of tall, feathery grass beside the 

 paling. 



It was well it had these small places 

 of refuge, for it had many perils. Two 

 cats, a white and a gray, patrolled the 

 garden with silent and velvety 

 tread ; boys, who were not silent, 

 used all kinds of small but deadly 

 weapons on the street that ran beside 

 it, and great heavy wagons rumbled 

 up and down all day, making a great 

 noise and dust. 



But how many birds I have seen 

 and heard there ! Red-headed Wood- 

 peckers tapped and called early in the 

 morning on the tall telegraph pole 

 at the corner, and flocks of Crackles, 

 the Bronze, the Purple, and the Rusty 

 Grackles, were fed from the fresh-turned 

 earth. A Catbird hopped lightly in 

 the shadow of the tool-house, and I 

 suspect some Robins of foraging turn 

 with their young families. Sparrows of 

 all kinds dwelt there — flocks of yellow 

 Ground Sparrows, Brown and Gray 

 Sparrows, Clipping Sparrows. I saw 

 one day the funniest Clipping baby 

 with his chestnut cap pushed up into 

 a regular crown almost too big for his 



tiny head, and the brightest black 

 eyes peering at me, as he stood on a 

 clod of earth. Flocks, also, of Gold- 

 finches, glittering like small balls of 

 gold, and Indigo Buntings, blue as the 

 sky, held merry-makings there, and oh, 

 the songs from morning until night ! 

 A Warbling Vireo sang so loud and so 

 splendidly that we thought he must be 

 some big bird of scarlet plumage 

 instead of the wee wood-sprite he was ; 

 and little Wrens and little Indigo Birds 

 fairly bubbled over with songs of joy. 



The nests, the hidden nests, were 

 the old garden's secrets, and the 

 garden kept them well. There was a 

 flutter of wings, the bird floated down, 

 and was straightway invisible. Not 

 the tip of a tail or beak was to be seen. 

 Or up flew the bird and was as quickly 

 lost in the thick screen of interwoven 

 leaves overhead. There were certain 

 gray birds so much the color of the 

 dead wood on which they perched 

 that they might have nested in full, 

 open view, and yet have remained un- 

 seen until they moved. How the 

 little birds did love this garden — the 

 noisy street on one side, the close, 

 dingy houses on the other, and how 

 near its heart did the old garden keep 

 the birds. 



So many and such different birds — 

 yet " not one of them is forgotten 

 before God."— Ella F. Mosby. 



BIRDS FORTELL MARRIAGE. 



Some of the Prussian girls have an 

 odd way of finding out which of a 

 number will be married first. The 

 girls take some corn and make a small 

 heap of it on the floor, and in it 

 conceal one of their finger rings. A 



chicken is then introduced and let 

 loose beside the little heaps of corn. 

 Presently the bird begins to eat the 

 grain, and whichever ring is first 

 exposed the owner of it will be the 

 first to marry. 



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