74 PEARLS AND PEEBLES. 



and most substantial first. She selects or rejects this 

 or that, according to her plan and the order to be ob- 

 served — wool that the thorns and bushes have caught 

 from the sheep and lambs ; hair that cow or horse has 

 let fall; grey lichens picked from a wall, and tender 

 green moss from a fallen tree. Taking here a bit and 

 there a morsel, to give strength or elasticity, needful 

 warmth or softness, she weaves all together according 

 to the family pattern. Birds are very conservative, and- 

 deviate very little from the ancestral form or type of 

 architecture. 



Ah, here is one of Nature's mysteries ! Who taught 

 the little bird builder and upholsterer to use the same 

 materials, to shape her nest (possibly the very first one) 

 to the exact size and pattern, to line it inside just like 

 the one her mother and all the goldfinch family had 

 made centuries before she came into the world ? So like 

 is it that no country lad seeing it would ever mistake it 

 for that of a robin or a blackbird or a yellow-hammer, 

 bearing, as it does, in its construction, the unmistakable 

 trade-mark of this particular little architect. 



Are not these things, simple as they may appear, 

 worthy of our attention ? May they not lead us from 

 the nest of the little bird and her ways to the throne 

 of the great All- wise God, who has implanted in His 

 smallest creatures a wisdom that baffles the reason of 

 the wisest of men to understand and explain ? Truly 



" There are teachings in ocean, earth and air; 

 The heavens the glory of God declare." 



