THE NEIGHBORHOOD SHOW. 129 



uppermost, and there were a thousand disturb- 

 ances between breakfast and bedtime. Indeed, 

 the nest was the neighborhood show ; everybody 

 longed to pull down the branch and look at it. 

 Men, women, and boys ; master, mistress, and 

 maids ; horses, cattle, and birds, conspired to 

 keep up an excitement around the apple-tree. 

 It seemed a magnet to draw to itself all the 

 noise and confusion of that peaceful village. 



There was the man who assumed the office 

 of showman, brought a chair out under the tree, 

 pulled down the branch, and invited every passer- 

 by to step up and look, with the comment, " Big 

 business raising such a family as that! " while I 

 sat in terror, dreading lest the branch slip from 

 his careless fingers and fling the little ones out 

 into the universe, an accident I saw befall a 

 chipping sparrow's brood, as already related. 



There, too, was the horse who halted under 

 the tree and regaled himself with apples which 

 he gathered for himself, jerking his branch vio- 

 lently ; happily not the branch, or there would 

 have been a sudden end to dreams of fairyland. 



Above all, there were the summer boarders, 

 to whom in that quiet rural life any object of 

 interest was a godsend and greedily welcomed. 

 Every day, and many times a day, a procession 

 passed on the way to the " Springs " of odorous 

 not to say odious memory, equipped with 



