chickadee appeared. He (I say "he" knowingly; 

 and here he quite redeems himself) had a worm in 

 his beak. His anxiety seemed so real that I began to 

 watch him, when, looking down among the stones for 

 a place to step, what should I see but his mate emerg- 

 ing from the end of a birch stump at my very feet. 

 She had heard the din and had come out to see what 

 it was all about. At sight of her, he hastened with 

 his worm, brushing my face, almost, as he darted to 

 her side. She took it sweetly, for she knew he had 

 intended it for her. But how do I know that ? Per- 

 haps he meant it for the young! There were no young 

 in the nest, only eight eggs. Even after the young 

 came (there were eight of them !), and when life, from 

 daylight to dark, was one ceaseless, hurried hunt for 

 worms, I saw him over and over again fly to her side 

 caressingly and tempt her to eat. 



The house of this pair did not fall. How could it 

 when it stood precisely two and a half feet from the 

 ground ! But that it was n't looted is due to the sheer 

 audacity of its situation. It stood alone, against the 

 road, so close that the hub of a low wheel in passing 

 might have knocked it down. Perhaps a hundred 

 persons had brushed it in going by. How many dogs 



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