My head was on a level with him. I leaned 

 forward nearer the bank. At this he went 

 crazy with his efforts — into a fit, almost. I 

 cannot have been mistaken : it was the first 

 time that I had ever heard a bird sing when in 

 terror ; but I had whistled my way past too 

 many dogs and through too many graveyards 

 at night to be deceived in the note of fear, and 

 in the purpose of this song. That bit of a 

 husband was scared almost out of his senses ; 

 but there he stood, squarely between me and 

 that precious nest and the more precious wife, 

 guarding them from my evil eyes with every 

 atom of his midget self. 



It was as fine an illustration of courage as I 

 ever saw, a triumph of love and duty over fear 

 —fear that perhaps we have no way to measure. 

 And it was a triumph of wedded love at that ; 

 for there were no young, not even an egg in the 

 unfinished nest. It all happened in less than a 

 minute. The female reappeared in an instant, 

 satisfied that all was well with the nest, and both 

 birds sped off and dropped among the briers. 



How would the casuist decide for so sweet, so 

 big, so heroic a deception— or the attempt? 

 [198] 



