THEIR FIRST YEAR’S MARRIED LIFE. 19 
and thoughtful advice, for which the young 
couple, of course, returned their thanks, the 
guests departed, when Brown, proud of the 
good opinion the neighbors had for his wife, 
insisted that she should not commence the 
duties of incubation immediately, but that the 
remainder of the day should be passed in call- 
ing on one or two of the neighbors, who had 
lately been similarly blessed with themselves, 
and in visiting some of the pleasant places 
that they frequented in the days of their early 
marriage. 
We will not follow them in their visits; but, 
while they are away from the nest, we will see 
whom they had for neighbors, and where and 
how they lived. We already know that the 
Cat Birds resided in the barberry thicket close 
by ; their next nearest neighbors were old Mr. 
and Mrs. Towhee Bunting, who had a nest on 
the side of a little hill within a few rods’ dis- 
tance. In a cedar-tree near the birch-grove, 
the Robin family were living, and in a liollow 
branch of an oak, that shaded the whole neigh- 
borhood, an old couple named Chick-a-dee had 
