160 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



so pure was the clear young voice, which had no 

 earthly trouble in it, and no passion, and was in 

 this like the melody of the birds of which I had 

 lately heard so much; and with it all that tender- 

 ness and depth which is not theirs, but is human 

 only and of the soul. 



It struck me as a singular coincidence — and to 

 a mind of so primitive a type as the writer's there 

 is more in the fact that the word implies — that, 

 just as I had quitted London, to seek for just such 

 a spot as I so speedily found, with the passion- 

 ately exclaimed words of a young London girl 

 ringing in my ears, so now I went back with this 

 village girl's melody sounding and following me 

 no less clearly and insistently. For it was not 

 merely remembered, as we remember most 

 things, but vividly and often reproduced, together 

 with the various melodies of the birds I had 

 listened to; a greater and principal voice in that 

 choir, yet in no wise lessening their first value, nor 

 ever out of harmony with them. 



