148 What Birds Have Done With Me 



a wild bird can pay a human creature, perfect 

 confidence. A stranger came out there to see me 

 on business and instantly there was blood on the 

 moon. I took him by the arm and led him away 

 but turned around and took off my hat to the 

 birds, as genuinely touched as I ever was in my 

 life. Five weeks in a darkened room, when your 

 relation with the outer world was by means of a 

 bulletin, giving pulse and temperature of which 

 you know nothing. The head surgeon starting in 

 at zero, no chance then, one in ten, in five thou- 

 sand. Then even; then, on the road to recovery 

 and then, sit up day after to-morrow. But the 

 night before the appointed time, I bribed the nurse 

 to put two pillows under my head, raise the win- 

 dow shade and let me have a look out. It was 

 winter when they carried me into that room, it's 

 spring now and in the park just across from the 

 hospital a pair of Crackles are making a nest. 

 My stately friends had brought the spring and all 

 out-doors, so I could see it from my window 

 nests, new life, called back by two handfuls of 

 straw and mud. 



A psychologist of some note has recently put 

 forth the theory that black is not a color and if 

 the mind is concentrated on this supposed some- 

 thing, that is really nothing, sleep may be in- 

 duced. It certainly is of some benefit in some 

 kinds of insomnia. I started to concentrate on 



