58 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



if eagle's eyried on the cliff, I told it when I saw them stealing 

 quickly in. 



It was no mystery to me where the shy Flame Bird hid its 

 eggs nor could the artist Hummer, with all its matchless 

 skill, deceive me for the moss-cloaked bulb that seemed so 

 like the gradual swelling of a natural knot upon the twig, 

 revealed its delicate secret to my sharpened eye. 



The cunning, noisy crow, with all its loud-mouthed gam- 

 mon, never could mislead me, and even the subtle mocking- 

 bird had to give in to my untiring watchfulness. As for Bob 

 White, I heard him daily call " wife-e ! wife-e !" to nest in 

 the deep clover; and the meek, simple dove, I patronized, 

 especially, and visited her each day, to watch, lest some rude 

 boy or prowling cat had marked the low and exposed nest 

 where the silly thing had placed it on an apple-tree limb, 

 right across the orchard path; and respecting the wren, 

 Miss Kitty, the jade ! I believe she would have built in my 

 coat sleeve, had I given her half a chance ! 



The blue martin and I knew each other's faces. Spring in, 

 and Autumn out ; for many a friendly and familiar gossip did 

 we hold together from my attic window, that overlooked the 

 little painted palace on a pole I had set up for it outside. 



Ah, that fatal structure, with its red walls of painted brick ! 

 its mimic turrets, saw my first foul deed of wanton murder ! 



These purple martins I most dearly loved, because they 

 brought me from the farthest south the first news of Spring 

 in their glad, low twitterings, and I placed this gorgeous house 

 there in lofty state for them to occupy in welcome to their 

 weary wings ; but then, the little warlike blue bird would 

 take possession first, and cruelly buffet the tired wanderer 

 when it came to claim its own ; then my blood boiled to wit- 

 ness the inhospitable deed, for the blue bird was no stranger, 

 and lived here through the winter. 



I plead now with my father for a gun, and by one tremen- 

 dous effort, learned to say my multiplication table backwards, 



