MY GARDEN ACQUAINTANCE. 13 



Three of the young had contrived to entangle them- 

 selves in it, and had become full-grown without being 

 able to -launch themselves upon the air. One was un- 

 harmed ; another had so tightly twisted the cord about 

 its shank that one foot was curled up and seemed para- 

 lyzed ; the third, in its struggles to escape, had sawn 

 through the flesh of the thigh and so much harmed 

 itself that I thought it humane to put an end to its 

 misery. When I took out my knife to cut their hempen 

 bonds, the heads of the family seemed to divine my 

 friendly intent. Suddenly ceasing their cries and 

 threats, they perched quietly within reach of my hand, 

 and watched me in my work of manumission. This, 

 owing to the fluttering terror of the prisoners, was an 

 affair of some delicacy ; but erelong I was rewarded by 

 seeing one of them fly away to a neighboring tree, while 

 the cripple, making a parachute of his wings, came light- 

 ly to the ground, and hopped off as well as he could with 

 one leg, obsequiously waited on by his elders. A week 

 later I had the satisfaction of meeting him in the pine- 

 walk, in good spirits, and already so far recovered as to 

 be able to balance himself with the lame foot. I have 

 no doubt that in his old age he accounted for his lame- 

 ness by some handsome story of a wound received at 

 the famous Battle of the Pines, when our tribe, over- 

 come by numbers, was driven from its ancient camping- 

 ground. Of late years the jays have visited us only at 

 intervals; and in winter their bright plumage, set off 

 by the snow, and their cheerful cry, are especially wel- 

 come. They would have furnished ^Esop with a fable, 

 for the feathered crest in which they seem to take so 

 much satisfaction is often their fatal snare. Country 

 boys make a hole with their finger in the snow-crust 

 just large enough to admit the jay ! s head, and, hollow- 

 ing it out somewhat beneath, bait it with a few kernels 



