THE REDWING 
One of the thorn-trees was cased in, and dis- 
torted by hairy ivy arms. At its roots these, 
arching, had formed a little cave which some 
bygone rat had mined into a twelve-inch shaft. 
Shacaim found it out on the first day, and for 
that night, and for many afterwards, he roosted 
inside, out of sight of the rats. 
The cabbage-patch nominally belonged to Mrs. 
Maguire, but actually to Spideogue the Robin. 
Spideogue never left the cabbage-patch, even 
to go into the wood. He roosted in the ivied 
tree by the skeogh (a storey above the red- 
wing). He fed with the hens, and kept the 
cabbage-beds and the paths scrupulously free 
from worms. By day he patrolled his domain 
up and down,and if a stranger entered, Spideogue 
abused him at sight. In fact, one might well 
believe that Spideogue regretted the coming of 
night, because he was then obliged to go to 
roost, and leave the rats in possession of his 
cabbages. For the first three days of Shacaim's 
sojourn by the cabin in the Glen, Spideogue 
abused him every time that he saw him slip 
through the hedge, and at mealtimes jostled 
him aside to snatch food from under his timid 
bill ; but gradually he became accustomed to 
this addition to the ranks of his fellow-pen- 
sioners, and bullied him less unduly. 
There were many thrushes and blackbirds in 
'55 
