THE ORIOLE BABIES 1 HOME. 193 



through, up and clown, to make a firm struc- 

 ture. Around and against it hung still six 

 apples, defrauded of their manifest destiny, and 

 remaining the size of hickory-nuts. Three twigs 

 that ran up were cut off, but the fourth was left, 

 the tallest, the one sustaining the burden of the 

 nest, and upon which the young birds, one after 

 another, had mounted to take their first flight. 

 This pretty hammock, in its setting of leaves 

 and apples, still swinging from the apple boughs, 

 I brought home as a souvenir of a charming 

 bird study. 



