Robin Hood's Barn 



to share her province. Indeed, I think she pre- 

 ferred to; for, as she sat spread out above her 

 eggs with the tip of a tail and her shy head show- 

 ing, she would cast a friendly eye upon me as I 

 passed beneath, quite as though I gave diversion 

 to her patient vigil. Sometimes her mate would 

 scold me as I whisked a broom about the porch 

 and from his vantage point on the top maple 

 twig, would flap his wings and give sharp testy 

 squawks. But his displeasure seemed to come 

 from a masculine aversion to my house-cleaning 

 rather than from any personal distrust. And 

 surely on the day the eggs were hatched, I was 

 taken into confidence. There was a tap of the 

 bill, a quick turn of the head to see if I was 

 watching. Then as I betrayed my eagerness, the 

 mother bird would settle to her task again with 

 an upward tilt of the beak that was siu-e reproof 

 to my mere spinster's patience. 



But after that day she had little time for me 

 in the midst of her busy, flurried trips. Her mate, 

 with whom I now made close acquaintance, was 

 far more formal. His advance was methodical 

 and made in calculated stages. Three hops up 



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