I knew it suited exactly by the glad, excited 

 way he came out aud darted off. He soon re- 

 turned with the little shining wife ; and through 

 a whole week there was a constant passing of 

 blue backs and white breasts as the joyous pair 

 fitted up the inside of that pump with grass and 

 feathers fit for the cradle of a fairy queen. 



By the rarest fortune I was on hand when one 

 of the sparrows discovered what had happened 

 in the pump. There is not a single microbe of 

 Anglophobia in my system. But need one's love 

 for things English include this pestiferous spar- 

 row? Anyhow, I feel just a mite of satisfaction 

 when I recall how that sparrow, with the colo- 

 nizing instinct of his race, dropping down upon 

 the pump with the notion that he " had a duty 

 to the world," dropped off that pump straight- 

 way, concluding that his "duty" did not relate 

 to that particular pump any longer. The spar- 

 rows had built everywhere about the place, but 

 that that pump a post, and a post to a pair of 

 bars at that was worth settling had not dawned 

 on them. When they saw that the swallows had 

 taken it, one of them lighted there instantly, 

 with tail up, head cocked, very much amazed, and 

 [253] 



