and in return they probe the lawns most dili- 

 gently for worms, they girdle the apple-trees 

 for grubs, and gallop over the whole wide sky 



% 



" They probe the lawns mo.st diligently f<n- worms." 



for gnats aud flies — squaring their aecount, if 

 may be, for cherries, orchards, and chimneys. 



The very crows, in spite of certain well- 

 founded fears, look upon a new farm — not upon 

 the farmer, perhaps — as a godsend. In the cold 

 and poverty of winter, not only the crows, but 

 the jays, quails, buntings, and sparrows, help 

 themselves, as by right, from our shocks and 

 cribs. Summer and winter the birds find food 

 so much more plentiful about the farm aud vil- 

 lage, find living in all respects so much easier 

 and happier here than in remote, wild regions, 

 [117] 



