558 HOMES WITHOUT nANI;S. 



Bird and its darting form reached my senses at the same instant. 

 I was sure I saw it light upon the limb of a small iron-wood 

 tree, that happened to be exactly in the line of my vision at that 

 instant. 



" In about five minutes another chirp and another bird darting 

 in. I saw this one drop upon what seemed to be a knob or an 

 angle of the limb. I heard the soft chirping of greeting and 

 love. I could scarcely contain myself for joy. I would have 

 given anything in the world to have dared to scream, ' I've got 

 you, I've got you at last !' By a great struggle I choked down 

 my ecstasy and kept still. One of them now flew away, and 

 after waiting fifteen minutes, that seemed a week, I rose, and 

 with my eyes steadily fixed on that important limb, I walked 

 slowly down the bank, without, of course, seeing where I placed 

 my feet. 



" But the highest hopes are sometimes doomed to a fall, and a 

 fall mine took with a vengeance ! I caught my foot in a root, 

 and tumbled head foremost down the bank into the river ! I sup- 

 pose that such a ducking would have cooled the enthusiasm of 

 most bird-nesters, but it only exasperated mine. I shook off the 

 water, and vowed that I would find that nest if it took me a 

 week. But how to begin was the question, for I had lost the 

 limb, and how was I to find it among a hundred others just 

 like it? 



" The knot that I had seen was so exactly like other knots 

 upon other limbs all round it, that the prospect of finding it 

 seemed a hopeless one ; biit, ' I'll try, sir,' is my favourite motto. 

 I laid myself down as nearly as possible in the position which I 

 had originally occupied, but, after some twenty minutes' experi- 

 ment, came to the conclusion that my head had been too much 

 confused by the shock of my fall and ducking for me to hope to 

 make much out of this method. Then I went under the tree, 

 and commencing at the trunk, with the lowest limb which leaned 

 over the water, I followed it slowly and carefully with my eye 

 out to the extremest twig, noting carefully everything that seemed 

 like a knot. This produced no satisfactory result after half an 

 hour's trial, and with an aching neck I gave it up in despair, for 

 I saw half a dozen knots, either one of which seemed as likely 

 to be the right one as the other. 



" I now changed my tactics again, and, ascending the tree, I 



