240 EARLY MORNING STUDIES 



of those hours when one can say with Whit- 

 tier, 



" Life's burdens fall ; its discords cease ; 

 I lapse into the glad release 

 Of Nature's own exceeding peace." 



I found that my little lover had taken a 

 house in the top of a gate-post a few feet 

 from my window, and was extremely busy 

 putting in the furnishings for the expected 

 bride. Never was eager bridegroom so blithe 

 and so busy, and never, I 'm sure, was one so 

 bewitching. 



Hours every day I watched him. In the 

 intervals of his labors at nest-making, he 

 sang from the top of the post, the roof of 

 his house, often with mouth loaded with 

 building material, so full of rapture it fairly 

 bubbled over. Then, his strain finished, he 

 whisked over the edge with his load. 



For three days he never tired, singing an 

 hour or more at a time, ever looking eagerly 

 about overhead, turning this way and that, as 

 if fearing she might pass and he not see her. 

 After that he began to seem exhausted, and 

 his voice not quite so clear and ringing as at 

 first, while he stood with tail drooped to the 



