THE ENGLISH SPARROW: 

 A DEFENCE. 



"And He that doth the ravens feed, 

 Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, 

 Be comfort to my age." 



— Shakespeare. 



Harmless, persecuted, despised, reviled sparrows, who 

 is brave enough to take your part? Who will take you 

 under a sheltering wing and say a word in your behalf? 



I dare so to do, setting at nought the torrent of invec- 

 tive which is sure to fall on my defenceless head. 



It was " Don't Care, that came to the lions." So ran 

 the awful warning for wilful folk that I used to pore 

 over with childish credulity in Doctor Fenning's Spell- 

 ing Book, an ancient volume out of which I learned my 

 first lessons, and where villainous type, hideous pictures, 

 bad paper, and the use of / for s puzzled the brain and 

 confused the eyes of the little scholar of three years 

 of age. 



Well, I " don't care " if I do come to the lions, I will 



