56 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



leaves, the flowers perished, the birds flew away 

 to some distant country beyond the horizon, and 

 the sun grew pale and cold in the sky; but the 

 bright impression all things made on him gave 

 him a joy that was perennial. The briony, wood- 

 bine, and honeysuckle he had looked on withered 

 in the hedges, but their presentments flourished 

 untouched by frost, as if his warmth sustained and 

 gave them perpetual life; in that inner magical 

 world of memory the birds still twittered and 

 warbled, each after its kind, and the sun shone 

 everlastingly. But he was living in a fooFs para- 

 dise, as he discovered by-and-by, when a boy who 

 had been his playmate began to grow thin and 

 pale, and at last fell sick and died. He crept 

 near and watched his dead companion lying mo- 

 tionless, unbreathing, with a face that was like 

 white clay; and then, more horrible still, he sa^y 

 him taken out and put into a grave, and the he-avy, 

 cold soil cast over him. 



What did this strange and terrible thing mean? 

 Now "for the first time he was told that life is 

 ours only for a season; that we also, like the 

 leaves and flowers, flourish for a while then fade 

 and perish, and mingle with the dust. The sad 



