an advertisement or two in the news- 

 papers; but depend upon it the time 

 will come when very few who buy 

 books will be without it." 



The village was far less attractive 

 than our imaginations would depict it 

 to have been, and the traveler who 



would " view fair Selborne aright," 

 according to a contemporary writer, 

 should humor the caprices of the 

 English climate and visit it only when 

 its fields and foliage are clothed in 

 their summer verdure. 



— Charlks C. Marble. 



A FRIEND OF BIRDS 



T is told of George H. Corliss, the 

 famous engine builder of Prov- 

 idence, R. I., that when build- 

 ing a foundry at the Corliss 

 works, some Blue Birds took 

 the opportunity to build in some holes 

 in the interior framework into which 

 horizontal timbers were to go. The 

 birds flew in and out — as Blue Birds 

 will — and went on with their house- 

 keeping, until in the natural course of 

 things the workmen would have 

 evicted them to put the apertures to 

 their intended use of receiving timbers. 

 But Mr. Corliss interfered and showed 

 how the particular aperture the birds 

 were occupying could be left undis- 

 turbed until they were done with it, 

 without any serious delay to the build- 

 ing. So the pair came and went in 

 the midst of the noise of building and 

 brought up their little family safely, 

 and after they had flown away, and 

 not until then, that particular part of 

 the framework was completed. 



At another time, Mr. Corliss waa 

 working on a contract with the city of 

 Providence to supply a steam pumping 

 apparatus, power house and all, at 

 Sockonosset, and the time was short, 

 and there were forfeitures nominated 

 in the bond for every day b^ycnd a 

 a specified date for its completion. 



The power house was to be upon 

 virgin soil where were rocks and trees 

 — little trees growing among rocks. 

 In blasting and clearing the necessary 

 place for the foundations of the build- 

 ing, a Robin's nest was discovered in 

 a little tree within the space where the 

 upheavals were to be made. When 

 Mr. Corliss knew this he had the work 

 transferred to the other side of the 

 square or parellelogram around which 

 the digging and blasting were to go, 

 saying that it was just as well to do 

 the other side first. 



But it proved that when the work- 

 men had got clear around and back 

 to the Robin's tree, the young birds 

 were still not quite ready to fly. This 

 called for a new exercise of an invent- 

 or's power of adapting means to a 

 worthy end. Looking at the little 

 tree with its nest and little birds high 

 in the branches he bade the men sup- 

 port the tree carefully while it was 

 sawed through the trunk a little above 

 the ground, and then carry it in an 

 upright position to a safe distance and 

 stick it into the ground with proper 

 support. 



The Robin family continued to 

 thrive after this novel house-moving 

 and all flew away together after a few 

 more days. 



43 



