MY GA RDEN A CQ UAINTANCE. i i 



had chosen a very pretty site near the top of a tall white 

 lilac, within easy eye-shot of a chamber window. A very 

 pleasant thing it was to see their little home growing with 

 mutual help, to watch their industrious skill interrupted 

 only by little flirts and snatches of endearment, frugally 

 cut short by the common sense of the tiny housewife. 

 They had brought their work nearly to an end, and had 

 already begun to line it with fern-down, the gathering of 

 which demanded more distant journeys and longer absences. 

 But, alas ! the syringa, immemorial manor of the catbirds, 

 was not more than twenty feet away, and these &quot; giddy 

 neighbours&quot; had, as it appeared, been all along jealously 

 watchful, though silent, witnesses of what they deemed an 

 intrusion of squatters. No sooner were the pretty mates 

 fairly gone for a new load of lining, than 



&quot;To their unguarded nest these weasel Scots 

 Came stealing.&quot; 



Silently they flew back and forth, each giving a vengeful 

 dab at the nest in passing. They did not fall-to and 

 deliberately destroy it, for they might have been caught at 

 their mischief. As it was, whenever the yellow-birds came 

 back, their enemies were hidden in their own sight-proof 

 bush. Several times their unconscious victims repaired 

 damages, but at length, after counsel taken together, they 

 gave it up. Perhaps, like other unlettered folk, they came 

 to the conclusion that the Devil was in it, and yielded to 

 the invisible persecutions of witchcraft. 



The robins, by constant attacks and annoyances, have 

 succeeded in driving off the blue-jays who used to build in 

 our pines, their gay colours and quaint noisy ways making 

 them welcome and amusing neighbours. I once had the 

 chance of doing a kindness to a household of them, which 

 they received with very friendly condescension. I had had 

 my eye for some time upon a nest, and was puzzled by a 

 constant fluttering of what seemed full-grown wings in it 

 whenever I drew nigh. At last I climbed the tree, in spite 

 of angry protests from the old birds against my intrusion. 



