A BEWITCHING PAIE. 253 



a day. Would the trim little matron, now so 

 happy in her plans, have any chance of bringing 

 up a brood there in plain sight, where, if the 

 roving eyes of those youngsters happened to fall 

 upon her nest, peace would take its departure 

 even if calamity did not overtake her? 



Looking all about, to make sure that no one 

 was in sight, I seated myself to make the ac- 

 quaintance of my new neighbor. My whole 

 study of the life in and around the plum-tree, 

 carried on for the next two weeks, was of a 

 spasmodic order, for I had always to take care 

 that no spies were about before I dared even 

 look toward the orchard. One glimpse of me 

 in the neighborhood would have disclosed their 

 secret to the sharp boys who knew my ways. 



The little dame was bewitching in her man- 

 ner, and her handsome young spouse the most 

 devoted consort I ever saw in feathers, or out of 

 them, I may say. Although she alone built the 

 nest, he was her constant attendant, and they 

 always made their appearance together. He 

 dropped into a taller tree an apple near by 

 while she, with her beak full of materials, 

 alighted on the lowest branch of the plum, and 

 hopped gayly from twig to twig, as though they 

 were steps, up to the sky parlor where she had 

 established her homestead. Then she went 

 busily to work to adjust the new matter, while 



