IV. 



WAS IT A SEQUEL? 



After the wren-tit stole in like a thief in the 

 night and broke up the pretty home of the gnat- 

 catchers, I suspected that they took their house 

 down to put it up again in a safer place, and so 

 was constantly on the lookout to find where that 

 safer place was. At last, one day, I heard the 

 welcome sound of their familiar voices, and fol- 

 lowing their calls finally discovered them flying 

 back and forth to a high branch on an old oak- 

 tree ; both little birds working and talking to- 

 gether. Mind, I do not stake my word on this 

 being the same pair of gnats ; but the nest fol- 

 lowed closely on the heels of the plundered one, 

 which was a point in its favor, and, being anx- 

 ious to take up the lines with my small friends 

 again, I let myself think they were the birds 

 of the sand ditch nest. It was such a delight to 

 find them that I deserted the nest I had been 

 watching, and went to spend the next morning 

 with my old friends. The tree they had chosen 

 was a high oak in an open space in the brush, 

 and they were building fifteen or twenty feet 

 above the ground — so high that it was necessary 



