104 What Birds Have Done With Me 



house in which was a woman and her little daugh- 

 ter, the husband and father, a fresh air tubercular 

 case, in a shack outside; all three found them- 

 selves together, they knew not how, stunned, 

 bruised, despairing. Though not mortally in- 

 jured, they and all their friends united in the 

 feeling that unmerciful disaster had done its 

 worst. It was a case of who has woes like unto 

 my woes and individually and collectively, they 

 looked the part. 



There came into my mind some words that I 

 had learned from a song of doubt that seemed 

 a pretty good expression of my own pessimism: 



"There is no good! There is no God 

 And faith and hope is a heartless cheat 

 Baring the back for the devil's rod 

 And scattering thorns for the feet." 



Then I saw the Robin ! His nest had been hurled 

 from a tree and the eggs all crushed, but he 

 wasn't crushed, far from it. The very embodi- 

 ment of eternal hope, cheerfulness and energy, he 

 and his busy wife were getting ready to build a 

 new nest in a wood-shed that had outstood the 

 storm. 



Your pardon, but I hear a Robin and am going 

 out in the sweet sunshine to get the uplift of a 

 moment's association before the night cometh, 

 with man's closest bird friend. 



