HOME OF THE HUMMING BIRDS. 109 



ing. They liked my house so well that they stayed 

 several days on the iirst visit, during which they in- 

 spected the group of palms around the house, and 

 finding there one with a hole in it to their liking, took 

 up their abode without further ado. I am going to 

 relate their doings in due course, and shall be obliged 

 to tell what a bad reputation Psittacus had before he 

 came under the civilizing influence of my household. 

 It all came out, as they say bad doings always do, and 

 in a most curious manner. 



But again I must beg pardon for delaying my trip 

 to the woods. By the time I enter the shade the sun 

 is shooting his first beams over the mountain ridge. 

 He is a good marksman and accurate, but the first 

 rays are spent in ethereal space, shot over the heads 

 of mortals on this orb terrestrial and above the tree- 

 tops even of the somber forest. As if suspecting 

 that his ammunition may be wasted, old Sol pops up 

 out of the water to see for himself, with rosy, beam- 

 ing face, red hot from his exertions since I saw him 

 last. Heralds of his coming were not wanting in 

 roseate flushes of the cloudlets along the horizon, 

 deepening rapidly into crimson blushes and beauty 

 spots. I had watched Sol as he dropped beneath 

 the western sea the night before, and could have 

 sworn that he winked at me wickedly, shooting out a 

 parting gleam, as much as to say, " I'll see you to- 

 morrow, my dear." JS'ow he was up again, after his 

 journey half around the world, and the manner in 

 which he shot his darts at me, whenever an opening 

 occurred in the bushes, fully justified me in the sur- 



