1 8 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



man, and against the unpitying force 

 of purely natural law. The hair-bird 

 builds in the garden near the house; 

 in your brier-rose, perhaps, that the 

 vagrant cow-bird may not lay an egg, 

 unnoticed, in its nest. The catbird 

 chooses a syringa bush by the walk, 

 that he may chide and chat as you pass 

 by. The robin takes for his abode 

 the arbour, or the vine that wreathes 

 the door; the sparrow tribe lie low 

 upon the ground, in bush or hedge, 

 blending with earth, to cheat the 

 sparrow hawk. 



But if you would have the complete 

 brotherhood of birds, come to the 

 orchard. The old orchard, where the 

 trees, long past their prime, are gnarled 

 and bent and moss-grown toward the 

 north, where different grafts on the 

 same trunk are marked by different 

 blooms, where vines conceal the walls, 



