40 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
for this world. He knew what they were saying, 
and it only served to increa.se his misery and fear, 
and made him hate them because they were 
insensible to the awful fact that death awaited 
them, or so little concerned that they had never 
taken the trouble to inform him of it. To eat and 
drink and sleep was all they cared for, and they 
regarded death with indifference, because their dull 
sight did not recognize the beauty and glory of the 
earth, nor their dull hearts respond to nature's 
everlasting gladness. The sight of the villagers, 
with their solemn head-shakings and whisperings, 
even of his nearest kindred, grew insupportable, 
and he at length disappeared from among them, 
and was seen no more with his white terror- 
stricken face. From that time he hid himself in 
the close thickets, supporting his miserable exist- 
ence on wild fruits and leaves, and spending many 
hours each day lying in some sheltered spot, gazing 
up into that blue sunny sky, which was his to gaze 
on only for a season, while the large tears gathered 
in his eyes and rolled unheeded down his wasted 
cheeks. 
At length during this period there occurred an 
event which is the obscurest part of his history; 
for I know not who or what it was — my mind 
being in a mist about it — that came to or acci- 
dentally found him lying on a bed of grass and 
