48 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



sight of the others to hide himself in woods and 

 thickets, to brood alone on such a hateful destiny, 

 and torture himself with vain longings, until he too 

 grew pale and thin and large-eyed, like the boy that 

 had died, and those who saw him shook their heads 

 and whispered to one another that he was not long 

 for this world. He knew what they were saying, 

 and it only served to increase his misery and fear, 

 and made him hate them because they were insen- 

 sible to the awful fact that death awaited them, or 

 so little concerned that they had never taken the 

 trouble to inform him of it. To eat and drink and 

 sleep was all they cared for, and they regarded death 

 with indifference, because their dull sight did not 

 recognize the beauty and glory of the earth, nor 

 their dull hearts respond to nature's everlasting 

 gladness. The sight of the villagers, with their 

 solemn head-shakings and whisperings, even of his 

 nearest kindred, grew insupportable, and he at 

 length disappeared from among them, and was seen 

 no more with his white terror-stricken face. From 

 that time he hid himself in the close thickets, sup- 

 porting his miserable existence on wild fruits and 

 leaves, and spending many hours each day lying in 

 some sheltered spot, gazing up into that blue sunny 

 sky, which was his to gaze on only for a season, while 

 the large tears gathered in his eyes and rolled un- 

 heeded down his wasted cheeks. 



