5 Me by 3 A WIDOW AND TWINS. 
as the reader, if he have patience enough, 
may presently discover for himself. 
As I sat upon the piazza, in the heat of 
the day, busy or half busy with a book, a 
sound of humming-bird’s wings now and 
then fell on my ear, and, as I looked toward 
the honeysuckle vine, I began after a while 
to remark that the visitor was invariably a 
female. I watched her probe the scarlet 
tubes and dart away, and then returned to 
my page. She might have a nest somewhere 
near; but if she had there was small like- 
lihood of my finding it, and, besides, I was 
just now not concerned with such trifles. 
On the 24th of June, however, a passing 
neighbor dropped into the yard. Was I in- 
terested in humming-birds? he inquired. If 
so, he could show me anest. I put down 
my book, and went with him at once. 
The beautiful structure, a model of artis- 
tic workmanship, was near the end of one of 
the lower branches of an apple-tree, eight or 
ten feet from the ground, saddled upon the 
drooping limb ata point where two offshoots 
made a good holding-place, while an upright 
twig spread over it a leafy canopy against 
rain and sun. Had the builders sought my 
