HOME-LOVING WEENLINGS. 181 



Anxious to see everything that went on, we 

 moved our seats nearer, but this so disconcerted 

 the pair that we did not stay long. It was long 

 enough to hear the wren baby-cry, a low insect- 

 like noise, and to see something that surprised 

 and no less disgusted me, namely, every one of 

 those babies hurry back to the tree, climb the 

 trunk, and scramble back into the nest ! the 

 whole exit to be begun again ! It could not be 

 their dislike of the " cold, cold world," for a 

 cold world would be a luxury that morning. 



Of any one who would go back into that 

 crowded nest, with the thermometer on the ram- 

 page as it was then, I had my opinion, and I 

 began to think I did n't care much about wrens 

 anyway; we stayed, however, as a matter of 

 habit, and I suppose they all had a nap after 

 their tremendous exertion. But they manifestly 

 got an idea into their heads at last, a taste of 

 life. After a proper amount of consideration, 

 one of the nestlings took courage to move again, 

 and went so far as a twig that grew beside the 

 door, looked around on the world from that post 

 for a while, then hopped to another, and so on 

 till he encircled the home stump. But when he 

 came again in sight of that delectable nest, 

 he could not resist it, and again he added him- 

 self to the pile of birds within. This youth was 

 apparently as well feathered as his parents, and, 



