AN OWL'S HEAD HOLIDAY. 263 



It was pleasant to see how cheerfully he re- 

 sumed work as soon as the alarm was over. 

 This danger was escaped, at any rate ; and why 

 should he make himself miserable with worry- 

 ing about the next ? He had the true philoso- 

 phy. We who pity the birds for their number- 

 less perils are ourselves in no better case. Con- 

 sumption, fevers, accidents, enemies of every 

 name are continually lying in wait for our de- 

 struction. We walk surrounded with them ; 

 seeing them not, to be sure, but knowing, all 

 the same, that they are there ; yet feeling, too, 

 like the birds, that in some way or other we 

 shall elude them a while longer, and holding 

 at second hand the truth which these humble 

 creatures practice upon instinctively, " Suffi- 

 cient unto the day is the evil thereof." 



Not far from this spot, on a previous occa- 

 sion, I had very unexpectedly come face to face 

 with another of the creeper's blood-thirsty per- 

 secutors. It happened that a warbler was sing- 

 ing in a lofty birch, and being in doubt about 

 the song (which was a little like the Nash- 

 ville's, but longer in each of its two parts and 

 ending with a less confused flourish), I was of 

 course very desirous to see the singer. But 

 to catch sight of a small bird amid thick foli- 

 age, fifty feet or more above you, is not an easy 

 matter, as I believe I have already once re- 



