Robin Hood's Barn 



fastidiously, for all the world like old aristocrats 

 who in their old age have been forced to indulge 

 in gainful toil. There is a delicate melancholy 

 about their companionship, a dignity and reserve 

 to their silent mood. Do they never communi- 

 cate? Is theirs the silence born of understand- 

 ing, or was their courtship one of those late make- 

 shift affairs, based not on passion but respect? 

 I think pleasantly of the jolly companionship of 

 robins, their fresh undisciplined squabbles, their 

 frank approaches and am sure that my elderly 

 couple would take as lack of breeding, so much 

 chatter of vituperation and acknowledgment of 

 a mistake. 



Nor is their formality exacted only of each 

 other. I, too, have paid my tribute of immobility 

 and of respect. One evening as I sat late in the 

 twilight, I was surprised to see a pair of great 

 wings saihng towards me and a figure settle on 

 the very pillar of the porch, wobbling there for 

 a moment on ungainly leg. No hint did the bird 

 give of his surprise at finding me, no ill-mannered 

 squawk of embarrassment or of rebuke. With 

 lank neck held erect, he accorded me an eye of 



[90] 



