My Neighbor's Wood-Shed 215 



human pride to be overlooked. I think I 

 could have sympathy for the man who mur- 

 dered because unjustly and persistently ig- 

 nored. It is harder to bear than any physi- 

 cal pain, and to crown all this miserable 

 business, so frequent everywhere, it is gen- 

 erally the genuine worth that has it to bear 

 at the hands of the upstart whom luck has 

 favored. I coaxed my wren to meet me 

 half-way, but my soft words buttered for it 

 no parsnips. Then I made a more substan- 

 tial advance by offering food, and, when I 

 humbled myself to be the bearer of its cup 

 and trencher, then it came within the pale of 

 sociability, and I slowly gained its confidence, 

 but arm-length confidence only, and never as 

 much as contadl with my finger-tips. 



It is the wren, however, that is the im- 

 portant feature of the place, and my person- 

 ality need not be further set forth to public 

 gaze. The wren came and went without 

 let or hinderance, and wherever it chanced to 

 tarry there was gladness, except possibly in 

 the breasts of half-awakened spiders that 

 even in midwinter seemed to be vaguely 

 conscious of what was going on about them. 

 Do they hybernate with a few of their eyes 



