NEST AMONG THE EOSES. 121 



trills; then suddenly, as Lowell delightfully 

 pictures him, 



" Remembering duty, in mid-quaver stops, 



Just ere he sweeps o'er rapture's tremulous brink, 

 And 'twixt the winrows most demurely drops, 

 A decorous bird of business, who provides 

 For his brown mate and fledglings six besides, 

 And looks from right to left, a farmer mid his crops." 



Nothing less attractive than a cardinal family 

 could draw me away from these rival allure- 

 ments, but I went on. 



The cardinal's bower was the prettiest of the 

 summer, built in a climbing rose which ran riot 

 over a trellis beside a kitchen door. The vine 

 was loaded with buds just beginning to unfold 

 their green wraps to flood the place with beauty 

 and fragrance, and the nest was so carefully 

 tucked away behind the leaves that it could not 

 be seen from the front. Whether from confi- 

 dence in the two or three residents of the cot- 

 tage, or because the house was alone so many 

 hours of the day, the occupants being stu- 

 dents, and absent most of the time, the birds 

 had taken no account of a window which opened 

 almost behind them. From that window one 

 could look into, and touch, if he desired, the 

 little family. But no one who lived there did 

 desire (though I wish to record that one was a 

 boy of twelve or fourteen, who had been taught 

 respect for the lives even of birds), and these 



