A Street Troubadour 



resisting. I suspect that he really weakened for 

 the sake of peace. In the scuffle and general 

 upset the egg— their first arrival— was unfortu- 

 nately tumbled out with the stick, and fell down 

 to lie below, in porcelain fragments, on a wet 

 yellow background. The Sparrows did not 

 seem to trouble about the remains. Having 

 dropped from the nest, it had dropped out of 

 their world. 



IV 



After this the pair got along peaceably for 

 several days. Egg after egg was added to the 

 nest. In a week there were five, and the two 

 seemed now to be quite happy together. Randy 

 sang to the astonishment of all the neighbor- 

 hood, and Biddy carried in more feathers as 

 though preparing to set and anticipating a bliz- 

 zard. But about this time it occurred to me to 

 try a little experiment with the pair. Watching 

 my chance, late one evening, I dropped a 

 marble into the luxurious nest. What happened 

 at once I do not know, but early the next morn- 

 ing I was out on Fifth Avenue near the corner 

 of Twenty-first Street. It was Sunday. The 



i 2 3 



