10 AN ACCIDENT IN THE FAMILY. 



ing and pluming, tried to fly. But alas he was 

 held ! Two or three times he renewed the at- 

 tempt, his struggles always ending in failure, 

 and I feared I should see a tragedy. Half an 

 hour later the mother returned, and whether 

 she pushed him down, or merely advised him 

 to go back and try again, I cannot say. The 

 fact is that he did disappear in the nest, where 

 he remained for two or three hours, for it is 

 probably safe to assume that the urchin who 

 came up later was the same. This time, with- 

 out delay upon the brink, he climbed upon a 

 twig, hopped about a little, and before long 

 flew several feet, alighting on a small branch of 

 the same tree. Hardly had he established him- 

 self safely and resumed his ordinary call, when 

 down upon him from above came a robin, who, 

 strange to say, had a nest in one of the upper 

 branches of the same tall maple. This robin 

 had always recognized the right of the oriole 

 parents to their share of the tree, but the young 

 one was a stranger, and he fell upon him ac- 

 cordingly. He knocked him off his perch ; the 

 unfortunate little fellow fell a few feet, then 

 gathered himself, fluttered and caught at the 

 outside of a clump of leaves on the end of a 

 twig, where after frantic struggling he managed 

 to secure a hold. Perhaps the robin saw his 

 mistake, for he paid no more attention to the 



