BIRDS AND GARDENS 207 



day, however, when his glossy coat was all 

 rough and worn, the end of this nonsense 

 came. The burden was as intolerable as it 

 was unnecessary ; his naturally overbearing 

 character reasserted itself; and, turning on 

 the lusty young humbugs, he pecked them so 

 soundly that they took the warning and 

 supported themselves thenceforth. 



As I allow no gun or trap on the place, 

 the blackbirds and thrushes, despite a few 

 untimely deaths at the hands of the cats, 

 have it pretty much their own way in the 

 garden. And if they do take a few Straw- 

 berries where the nets lie flat round the 

 edges of the beds, well, they are welcome ; 

 for I have enough and to spare. They are 

 sadly cunning, I confess, in creeping under 

 the netting over the Raspberry bed : but even 

 there I hope to circumvent them this year. 

 Their worst crime is in the matter of cherries ; 

 for they will strip a tree faster than ever did 

 Jean-Jacques for Mile, de Graffenried and 

 Claudine Galley on the famous "journie de 

 Thoune" 



