HOURS. WITH NATURE. 



and sensible to make light of a boy's troubles. On the 

 contrary, he remarked that that was the right way 

 to look at things, and took occasion to explain to me 

 that there were a great many other trees, such as the 

 oocoanut, the date palm, and the common supari (areca 

 nut) which had bare branchless stems, and in which the 

 leaves, though differing in size and form, were arranged 

 in a circular head. 



This knowledge about the difference in the forms 

 of stems was crude and elementary, but as a mental 

 discipline it stood me in good stead afterwards. But 

 that is another story. Despite good Janardan's explana- 

 tion, the puzzle of the palm tree remained unsolved 

 with me ; as, however, there were other things to occupy 

 my mind I did not trouble myself much about it until 

 Svamiji let me into the secret of the matter. It came 

 about in this way. 



There were a number of very large and very lofty 

 palmyra trees in Svamiji's grounds. Every year large 

 numbers of weaver birds (baya) resorted to them for 

 nesting, and from May to August a great many of tjiose 

 long, elegant, retort-shaped nests could be seen depend- 

 ing from every one of these trees. I was very fond of 

 watching the tiny architects the weavers, at their 

 work, and often spent hours, sometimes alone, but more 

 frequently in company with Janardan, near the palmyra 

 grove. One of the nests was nearly finished ; the hen 

 bird had taken her seat inside ; the cock bird was 

 working outside, pushing the fibres here and there, and 



