n6 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



was thrown back, his arrow-spotted throat 

 thrust forward and quivering with emotion, 

 wings slightly drooping and his feet keeping 

 time. O that rolling, rollicking, rippling melo- 

 dy, so sweet and plaintive and beautiful and 

 penetrating. I seemed as one transported, my 

 very soul glowed in ecstasy as if it had heard 

 angelic songs. I must have stirred, for he fled 

 but I could not rise, the charming spell was up- 

 on me. And how it lives to this day so sacredly 

 sweet ! 



Our garden-world is a daily wonder and 

 grows more wonderful. There is so much life 

 in it that hourly we discover new beauties and 

 hear new sounds and sniff new fragrances. 

 Every faculty is alert for new experiences. New 

 birds come and alight and sing, and each note 

 is a wonder and each strain a mystery. Oft- 

 times their love-lyrics are wild and mastering, 

 throbbing with more than Sapphic intensity 

 and abandon. Were I but gifted with the very 

 genius of fine writing, so that what I know 

 about birds and their happy lives could by some 

 magic, all its own, eke out of my pen, what a bit 

 of charming and poetic, and withal truthful 

 writing I could put in these pages. But alas! 

 so great is the distance between their ravishing 

 song, their graceful ways on wing and branch, 



