A WOODLAND INTIMATE. 39 



speech was as unintelligible to the greenlet 

 as hers was to me. I trust, at all events, 

 that she divined a meaning in the tones, 

 however she may have missed the words ; 

 for I never called without telling her how 

 much I admired her spirit. She was all 

 that a bird ought to be, I assured her, good, 

 brave, and handsome ; and should never 

 suffer harm, if I could help it. Alas ! al- 

 though, as the apostle says, I loved "not in 

 word, but in deed and in truth," yet when 

 the pinch came I was somewhere else, and 

 all my promises went for nothing. 



Our intercourse was nearing its end. It 

 was already the 10th of June, and on the 

 12th I was booked for a journey. During 

 my last visit but one it gratified me not 

 a little to perceive that the wife's example 

 and reproof had begun to tell upon her 

 mate. He happened to be in the nest as I 

 came up, and sat so unconcernedly while I 

 made ready to feed him that I took it for 

 granted I was dealing with the female, till 

 at the last moment he slipped away. I 

 stepped aside for perhaps fifteen feet, and 

 waited briefly, both birds in sight. Then 

 the lady took her turn at sitting, and I 



