The Pageant of the Seasons 



tfMHj^^ ^T^HE pageant begins with 

 .1 music. The full notes are 

 ; 4 <, I Ik tittered by a wren, perched on 



i the rough top of a decayed 

 post ; this is covered with 

 lichen, and green moss hangs 

 from its crumbling sides. The 

 COAL-TIT ^ P os t, which once marked 



a part of the boundary of the 



now deserted wood, is weather - worn ; beetles 

 have bored their tunnels about it, and it forms 

 the home of hundreds of other tiny insects, Here 

 and there the rotting wood has been pecked away, 

 showing where the wren has been "digging" for 

 food. Now he sits and sings on the top of what 

 is a picturesque old post; ivy trails at its base, 

 and will soon quite cover it, and altogether this 

 forms a fitting perch for this, almost the smallest 

 of birds, to open as it were the grandest pageant 

 that man can look upon. Again and again he gives 



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