BIRD PARADISE 35 



the wide channel was a bright green, and as the 

 water flowed along it seemed to play with the 

 spears of grass as though they were living crea- 

 tures. I half fancied that the gurgling sounds I 

 heard were the commands issued to the rippling 

 cohorts, and I noticed that they were obeyed 

 implicitly. Below where I stood the scattered 

 waters joined their forces and I heard that pe- 

 culiar sound of the wandering streamlet that 

 always seems to me one of the sweetest sounds 

 in the great Temple of Nature. From where I 

 stood I could see the channel for quite a distance, 

 but the story it told came from the heart of the 

 brook wandering far beyond my sight — all of it 

 the perfect gentleness of a waitress in the halls 

 of the "great king." I parted with the vision, 

 the words of the wise man giving form to the 

 lesson, "The well-spring of wisdom, as a flow- 

 ing brook." 



It is not ofben that a member of the hawk 

 family visits my lawn. It is only occasionally 

 that I see them in the village. This week, how- 

 ever, was the hawk's opportunity, and he im- 

 proved it after the spirit of his tribe. I heard 

 the robins and smaller birds sounding their loud 

 warning cries and knew that some serious trouble 



