FAMILY Fr.'ngillldx. 



enough, too, this last melody begins with three accented 

 notes in a way remarkably like the Sparrow's song; in- 

 deed, on one occasion I heard the second bar given note 

 for note exactly as it occurs in Verdi's tune, but the 

 little bird had tacked on a finale or cadenza all his own: 



m 



suggestion tf Rigoletto. 

 He had a mind above such a commonplace thing as an 

 operatic score! But we have not yet measured the scope 

 or the character of the little musician's repertoire. He 

 has the ability to render a motive in both the major and 

 the minor keys, just exactly as Verdi has done in the 

 ninth and eleventh bars of the Di Provenza (be sure 

 to read them). I had grown quite familiar with a bit of 

 melody coming from a bird nesting near my boat-land- 

 ing on the river, which ran thus: 



( I must admit the words in the arrangements which fol- 

 low are drawn from the imagination.) But before long 

 there came a day when the sun refused to shine, and the 

 clouds hung dull and gray over the river meadow. I 

 was at work on the piazza next my studio listening, as 

 usual, to the sparrows, when a pathetic strain caught my 

 ear from the direction of the boat-landing; it was the 

 >ame familiar melody, hut strangely enough rendered in 

 tlit- minor key. What did that mean? Was it the same 

 bird or another? I dropped my paint-brush, seized my 

 opera-glass, and ran down on the meadow to investigate. 

 Yes, there was the bird in his customary position on the 

 top t\vig of the bush next * to the one in which his mate 

 had built a nest not far from the ground. Then I 

 looked for the nest; it was there, too, but there was no 

 nniti'. " . \h-ha! " I said to myself, " a case of domestic 



* H<- \\-is.-ly r.-iY.um-.l from singing in the same bush which cun- 

 taini'd (In- nrst, for that might lead to discovery. 



116 



