BOYHOOD AND BIRDS. 57 



rens* in a gig, with his wife, when lie saw a bird which he 

 instantly recognized as the mocking bird, fluttering along the 

 road-side. His first surprise over, he soon perceived that it 

 was a young one, and, as he delightedly supposed, not fully 

 fledged. He was a very impulsive man, and without con- 

 sidering what might be the consequences, had his horse in a 

 gallop in an instant, in the hope of running down and mak- 

 ing a captive of the young stranger. 



The startled wife pleaded with him to desist, but he was 

 too intent to heed ; and when the bird made a considerable 

 flight towards some gnarled and scrubbly black jacks near? 

 she screamed most lustily, in her now well-grounded alarm, 

 and begged and prayed to be permitted to get out, at least, 

 as he wheeled his gig and dashed after it. The only answer 

 she could get was 



" Be still ! Hush dear I I shall have him directly I It's 

 a real mock ." 



Crash went the unlucky gig, into the rough embrace of 

 a Briaerus' armed black jack, which tore the gig top, his 

 wife's bonnet, and his own straw hat, into shreds, besides 

 pitching them both head foremost out, with the shock. 



" Catch old Ball, wife !" sputtered B., as he scampered on. 

 Then looking back over his shoulder for an instant, he 

 shouted to her in consolation 



" Don't you be afraid I'll have that bird yet !" and was 

 soon lost to her sight amidst the black jacks, that were fast 

 stripping his clothes from him. 



Old Ball, in the meantime, was showing a clean pair of 

 heels down the road for home. The poor woman, in this 

 melancholy plight, could only set herself to repairing dam- 

 ages as best she might, when in the course of fifteen minutes 



* Barrens was the name originally given by the hunters to prairie 

 land. What is now sometimes called the Barrens is composed of some 

 of the richest land in the world but the growth, except along the 

 streams, is mostly primary and small, and stunted by the constant fires 

 in the long grass. 



