82 Nightingales 



So the box was fetched, and her breakfast was 

 served, all alive o' ; so good, and much the same to 

 birds, I should think, as oysters are to human beings, to 

 those at least who like them. People shudder when 

 they see my tin of wriggling mealworms, but they're- 

 much cleaner feeders than oysters, and they don't jump 

 about more than frogs or shrimps and the like, all of 

 which are very good to eat. 



" Yes, but then we don't eat them alive ! Ugh !" 

 Yes, dear lady, we do ; that is to say, in the case of 

 oysters, at any rate. 



Whether little Miss Nightingale — I have to call 

 her " little " to distinguish her from the great one — 

 whether she managed to migrate or not, I cannot say ; 

 anyhow she disappeared some time in August, and I 

 saw her no more. 



While she lasted, she was like a newly-blown 

 Gloire de Dijon — very sweet and very charming ; but, 

 like the Gloire, she was but for a time, and then she 

 faded out of sight. 



It used to astonish men and women to see me 

 followed by my nightingale, along walks that were 

 bordered by the jewels of flowerland, where in due 

 succession there marched in pure array a glorious 

 company : a company which often to me seemed to 

 foreshadow and typify a greater and a still more glorious 

 one, when human souls and bodies, redeemed from 

 sin, will be gathered together, shining forth in varied 

 grace, yet each one so beautiful in its own fashion, 

 arising to newness of eternal life. In such wise can 

 one " consider the lilies of the field." 



