THE SPARROW'S HOLIDAY 221 



And what a delightful atmosphere they keep in 

 the country ! And how pleasantly few are the 

 human bipeds to the square mile those worries 

 of the sparrow life of the towns. Sometimes a 

 farmer stalks the hawthorn -tree, with a gun well 

 loaded with scattering shot ; and if he gets within 

 forty yards well, it is not nice to be shot. It 

 is not even nice, though not by any means so 

 sore, to have some of your relatives and friends 

 shot. But as a matter of reassuring fact so a 

 philosophical sparrow would proceed it most 

 providentially happens that farmers are exceed- 

 ingly busy just when the corn is ripe, and have 

 little time to fool about with guns. And if the 

 farmer should be so malicious that he will go 

 gunning in sparrow holiday -time, sparrows have 

 still a very good chance of coming out of the 

 ordeal all right. They know how to look about 

 them, and it is a poor flock which cannot keep 

 an eye on more than fifty yards. 



