ing between the two birds. If kingbird were 

 as ugly a neighbor as some that my friends have 

 heard of, the oriole could not have had the 

 heart to perch upon that maple's top — the com- 

 mon front step to their double house— and sing 

 down into his own and the kingbird's home. 

 Yet, up there that moment he sat, utterly care- 

 free, abandoned to happiness, the great maple- 

 tree adrip with his limpid, liquid song. 



A state of things farther removed from a 

 chronic neighborhood quarrel, more like genu- 

 ine friendship, it would be hard anywhere to 

 find. One may certainly be allowed to believe 

 in a friendly agreement between the two birds, 

 to wit : that oriole provide music for the two 

 families, while kingbird guard the premises. 

 Whether the agreement was formally come to 

 or not (and of course it was not), this is exactly 

 what was doing, the fighting for both being at- 

 tended to by the cantankerous kingbird, and 

 the oriole furnishing all the song. 



[ms] 



