58 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



shakings and whisperings, even of his nearest 

 kindred, grew insupportable, and he at length dis- 

 appeared from among them, and was seen no 

 more with his white, terror-stricken face. From 

 that time he hid himself in the close thickets, sup- 

 porting his miserable existence on wild fruits and 

 leaves, and spending many hours each day lying 

 in some sheltered spot, gazing up into that blue 

 sunny sky, which was his to gaze on only for a 

 season, while the large tears gathered in his eyes 

 and rolled unheeded down his wasted cheeks. 



At length during this period there occurred an 

 event which is the obscurest part of his history; 

 for I know not who or what it was — my mind 

 being in a mist about it — that came to or acci- 

 dentally found him lying on a bed of grass and 

 dried leaves in his thorny hiding-place. It may 

 have been a gipsy or a witch — there were witches 

 in those days — who, suddenly looking on his up- 

 turned face and seeing the hunger in his un- 

 fathomable eyes, loved him, in spite of her 

 malignant n^iture; or a spirit out of the earth; 

 or only a very v 'se man, an ancient, white-haired 

 solitary, whose lifa had been spent in finding out 

 the secrets of nature. This being, becoming ac- 



