EN ROUTE 



acquaintance stands foremost among actuating 

 causes. 



This catbird has a history. No doubt the same 

 assertion might be made with regard to every 

 other inmate of the grove, but unusual opportuni- 

 ties have put us in possession of the facts in his 

 case. Early in the season he was picked up 

 wounded, the victim of a successfully aimed sling- 

 shot in all probability. Gasping and bleeding, he 

 was taken to the Hotel des Invalides a cold 

 grapery that has harbored many a wounded mem- 

 ber of the furred and feathered tribes; a crystal 

 palace from whose hospitable shelter many a 

 grateful little convalescent has gone forth to take 

 up anew the life so cruelly interrupted. 



Here it was the catbird learned to know and 

 love the people of the grove, for here it was that 

 his wounds were bathed and dressed, and every 

 wise and loving attention bestowed upon him. 

 At first he received human advances timidly, but 

 after a time he learned to revel in the privileges 

 of invalidism ; and finally, like many a being reck- 

 oned far above him in the scale of development, 

 he became very exacting and seemed to demand, 

 as his due, all the attention which he at first re- 

 ceived with such touching humility. But the ex- 



