limits of one short walk five little innocents de- 

 liberately act out the coolest of falsehoods, one 

 cannot help wondering if it is not true that the 

 whole creation needs redeeming. 



The first of these five was a yellow warbler. 

 I was trying to look into her nest, which was 

 placed in the top of a clump of alders in a 

 muddy pasture, when she slipped out and flut- 

 tered like an autumn leaf to the ground. She 

 made no outcry, but wavered down to my feet 

 with quivering wings, and dragged herself over 

 the water and mud as if wounded. I paused to 

 look at her ; , and, as long as I watched, she played 

 her best to lure me. A black -snake would have 

 struck at her instantly ; but I knew her woman's 

 ways and turned again to the nest. As soon as 

 she saw that her tears and prayers would not 

 avail, she darted into the bushes near me and 

 called me every wicked thing that she could 

 think of. I deserved it all, of course, though I 

 was only curious to see her cradle and its hold- 

 ings, which, had she been a human mother, she 

 would have insisted on my stopping to see. 



On the way to Lupton's I climbed a sharp, 

 pine-covered hill, where the needles were so 

 [188] 



