2 
THE BROWN' THRUSHES : 
down and scattered its materials over tlie 
ground. Every tiling else, however, was as 
he remembered it, and he soon felt perfectly 
at home. For a few days he rambled about 
the neighborhood, without any particular pur- 
pose, other than enjoyment. He found an 
abundance of nice beetles and worms for food, 
and the clearest and coolest water in a spring 
near by, for drink, and of course he could not 
but enjoy himself. But, after a while, he be- 
came tired of living by himself, for he had no 
intimate friends, as nearly all his neighbors 
liad wives, and were making preparations for 
housekeeping, and wdien he met them and 
proposed a little jaunt or excursion, they in- 
variably told him they were busy ; and their 
ladies often looked coldly upon him, for they 
suspected that he was trying to lead their hus- 
bands from them ; and they declared that he 
ought to marry and settle down ; ” some of 
them adding, “ such a fine-looking, smart 
thrush as he.” So, after a little while, he 
began looking about for a mate. The scandal- 
mongers among the birds in the neighborhood, 
