THEIR FIRST YEAR’S MARRIED LIFE. 5 
mit themselves to indulge in. Brown Tlirush, 
although in ordinary times quick at retort, 
could not answer these attacks : he blushed 
visibly, and tried to turn the subject. Miss 
Thrush, who was of the party, also was visibly 
embarrassed, which the other females observ- 
ing, they all turned to her, and the attack 
was general ; for members of the fair sex 
never show each other mercy, if they have an 
opportunity to make them uncomfortable. 
Oh, you sly thing ! ” said old grandmother 
Towhee Bunting. Who would have thought 
you could keep such an affair secret ? Why, 
when my poor dear old Towhe and I were 
engaged, all the birds in the neighborhood 
knew it in less than an hour;” and the old 
lady fairly trembled with her dissatisfaction 
at Miss Brown’s reticence. 
Such secrecy is abominable,” shouted old 
Black Crow, who chanced to be in an oak- 
tree near, and heard the whole discussion. 
It looks bad: something is wrong at the 
bottom of it, you may depend,” he added, 
maliciously. ^^Ah, I’m off. Bah ! bah ! ” he 
