BOYHOOD AND BIRDS. 
57 
rens* in a gig, witli his wife, wlien he saw a bird which he 
instantly recognized as the mocking bird, fluttering along the 
road-side. His first surprise over, he soon perceived that it 
was a young one, and, as he delightedly supposed, not fully 
fledged. He was a very impulsive man, and without con- 
sidering what might be the consequences, had his horse in a 
gallop in an instant, in the hope of running down and mak- 
ing a captive of the young stranger. 
The startled wife pleaded with him to desist, but he was 
too intent to heed ; and when the bird made a considerable 
flight towards some gnarled and scrubbly black jacks near? 
she screamed most lustily, in her now well-grounded alarm, 
and begged and prayed to be permitted to get out, at least, 
as he wheeled his gig and dashed after it. The only answer 
she could get was — 
" Be still ! Hush dear ! I shall have him directly ! It's 
a real mock — 
Crash — ^went the unlucky gig, into the rough embrace of 
a Briaerus' armed black jack, which tore the gig top, his 
wife's bonnet, and his own straw hat, into shreds, besides 
pitching them both head foremost out, with the shock. 
" Catch old Ball, wife !" sputtered B., as he scampered on. 
Then looking back over his shoulder for an instant, he 
shouted to her in consolation — 
" Don't you be afraid — I'll have that bird yet !" and was 
soon lost to her sight amidst the black jacks, that were fast 
stripping his clothes from him. 
Old Ball, in the meantime, was showing a clean pair of 
heels down the road for home. The poor woman, in this 
melancholy plight, could only set herself to repairing dam- 
ages as best she might, when in the course of fifteen minutes 
* Barrens was the name originally given by the hunters to prairie 
land. What is now sometimes called the Barrens is composed of some 
of the richest land in the world — but the growth, except along the 
streams, is mostly primary and small, and stunted by the constant fires 
in the long grass. 
