CHAPTER XVII 



A LAST YEAR'S BIRD'S NEST 



This is a proverbial type of emptiness, but 

 Nature abhors a vacuum and emptiness is speed- 

 ily filled with things visible or invisible. At a 

 first glance, this dilapidated, weather-worn old 

 nest seems as bare as old Mother Hubbard's cup- 

 board, but before you can look twice, a ray from 

 Aladdin's Lamp has gilded and beautified and 

 crowds its emptiness with teeming life. 



Lo ! we are in the presence of a work of art, 

 not made with hands, and of a model to be seen 

 "through the latticed windows of the grove," 

 when Time was young. Yes, bird-craft is greater 

 than hand-craft, for no human creature, using his 

 hands and mouth alone could equal the wonder 

 of this old nest. This Master-Builder could have 

 never been taught Geometry, but he, nevertheless, 

 never fails to produce a perfect circle in the archi- 

 tecture of a nest whose model is unchanging from 

 age to age and whose craftsmen produce nothing 

 that falls short of perfection. 



There is magic here. Aladdin's Lamp is so 

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