246 THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
of the question of Job, put to his pretended 
friends ; ‘ But ask now the beasts, and they shall 
teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they 
shall tell thee; and the fishes of the sea shall de¬ 
clare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these 
that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this ?’ 
“ But let us look at the attractive and beau¬ 
tiful beginning of bird life. The nest, the eggs, 
the patient and contented incubating mother- 
bird, the callow young,—all charm the observer, 
with no intrusive element to mar the enjoy¬ 
ment. The egg from which the bird is evolved 
is like a beautiful jewel; its cradle is a downy 
couch, rocked by the fragrant airs of summer, 
soothed by matin and vesper from the feathered 
choirs of the grove; and thus the young one 
is prepared to take joyous wing and become 
a happy participant in such a beautiful life. 
“In early days, when works of art were al¬ 
most unknown in the frugal homes of our fore¬ 
fathers, the deficiency of adornment was made 
up in some degree by strings of beautiful eggs 
hung in festoons before the looking-glass or 
grouped on mantels and shelves, forming cheap 
but dainty ornaments. Among the earliest re¬ 
sorts of the lads in those days to obtain their 
