COCKNEY BIRD TRIPPERS 



MY work necessitated long hours in London, 

 and I used to bless the sparrows ; I was 

 never tired of watching them. They lifted 

 my mind from dusty pavements and the 

 smell of motor traffic. A favourite place 

 to see them was a garden adjoining a 

 church in Gracechurch Street; another 

 was by the fountains of Trafalgar Square. 

 About the time of harvest in the country, 

 for which I pined, I used to notice an 

 absence of the winged urchins. Where 

 before a noisy, squabbling party congre- 

 gated in the park or near the pigeons 

 in Trafalgar Square, in August a solitary 

 couple or two hopped quietly. These, I 

 imagined, had not answered the call that 

 came to their dingy brethren, the same call 

 that came to the weary Londoner at that 



period of the year. 



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