AN ORPHANED BLACKBIRD 



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to say with Thoreau " We are not wholly involved in 

 Nature." And anxious to give the poor bird a chance 

 by putting him in a sheltered place, and feeding him 

 up, as Ruskin once did in a like case, I set about catch- 

 ing him, but could not lay hands on him, for he was 

 still able to fly a little, and always managed to escape 



AN OEPHANED BLACKBIED 



pursuit among the brambles, or else in the sedges by 

 the waterside. Half-an-hour after being hunted, he 

 would be back on the edge of the lawn prodding the 

 ground in the old feeble, futile way. And the scraps of 

 food I cunningly placed for him he disregarded, not 

 knowing in his ignorance what was good for him. 

 Then I got a supply of small earthworms, and, stalking 



