Vireo, Red-Eyed. "The Preacher" 



What are the materials of this basket hanging here in 

 the fork of the maple! Let us unravel it. . . . Here 

 are strips of white and yellow birch bark, aster calyxes, 

 cobwebs, a blue-bottle fly, spider-egg silk tufts, slender 

 roots, bits of pith, skeletonized leaves, pine needles, old 

 cocoons of the tussock-moth, grass, caterpillar hairs, dande- 

 lion seeds, moss, and feathers. A broad piece of mottled- 

 gray paper-like substance forms the outside base of the 

 nest. We might have been certain of finding this a 

 fragment of hornet's nest, one of the favorite fabrics of 

 all the vireos. And what is this white weather-beaten 

 fragment which crops out beneath it? A bit of newspaper! 

 Further unravelling shows a number of similar pieces. 

 .... In most of them the print was worn and illegible, 

 and in others so fragmentary as to be without sense. But 



at length I came upon the sentiment the 



only perfect sentence to be found in all the print my 

 " preacher's" text "have in view the will of God." 



GIBSON. Sharp Eyes. 32 



No other .... speaks so clearly in our own tongue 

 or seems so much to imply a listener. "Verily, verily: 

 you know it: you see it: cheery are we": we cheer you." 

 Such is the melodious witness that seems to descend from 

 heaven through the maple tree above us. "You are 

 weary: we see it; listen to me: meekly: cheery are we: 



O why is it: verily verily: there we owe it: 



believe me: 'tis real; we know it: Selah!" 



Mr. Beecher once remarked to me. . . . "That little 

 fellow has found a land of plenty up there, and he says 

 grace like a little Christian at every mouthful." 



GIBSON. Starlight and Sunshine. 33 



163 



