92 STOKIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



love to do so for tlie sake of my little friends — ■ 

 who loves the birds as well as I do myself, 

 and who has often spent hours together, in 

 their society, watching their movements, tells 

 me the following anecdote : " Some years ago, 

 after a pair of woodpeckers, who occupied a 

 hollow tree near the house where I lived, had 

 left their nest for the season, two beautiful blue 

 birds came, examined the place, and liked it so 

 well as at once to move in. A happier pair 

 never sat on a limb. They seemed satisfied 

 with their house, satisfied with each other, and 

 at peace with all the world. Oh ! what music 

 they made — so soft, so sweet, and so free ! 

 One day I ventured to look in at the door, 

 and a prettier family of little ones were never 

 rocked in a tree. And how busy the old ones 

 were in carrying them food ! and how often 

 did I go to leave them my best wishes for 

 their continued prosperity. But as storms 

 sometimes spring from the clearest skies, so 

 sorrows rise in the happiest families. A wren 

 came — a little, inquisitive, uneasy, noisy fel- 

 low — and in he bolted, without knocking. The 

 old ones were from home — perhaps gone to 

 get their little ones some supj^er. And what 

 should that cruel wren do? I always loved 

 the whole race of wrens before, so full of glee 



