166 THE WILES OF A WARBLER. 



held in an upright fork made by four twigs of 

 the sapling. 



The little creature's body seemed too small to 

 hold her joy; she simply could not bring her 

 mind to leave it. She rushed off a short dis- 

 tance and brought some infinitesimal atom of 

 something not visible to our coarse sight, but 

 very important in hers. This she arranged care- 

 fully, then slipped into the nest and moulded it 

 into place by pressing her breast against it and 

 turning around. 



Thus she worked for some time, and then 

 seemed to feel that her task was over, at least 

 for the moment. Yet she could not tear herself 

 away. She flew six inches away, then instantly 

 came back and got into the nest, trying it this 

 way and that. Then she ran up a stem, and in 

 a moment down again, trying that nest in a new 

 way, from a fresh point of view. This perform- 

 ance went on a long time, and we found it as 

 impossible to leave as she did ; we were as com- 

 pletely charmed with her ingenuous and bewitch- 

 ing manners as she was with her new home. 



Well indeed was it that we stayed that morn- 

 ing and enriched ourselves with the beautiful 

 picture of bird ways, for like many another fair 

 promise of the summer it came to naught. 



We had not startled her, she had not ob- 

 served us at all, nor been in the least degree 



