DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH 
GLENDALE 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
June S3, 1913. 
Dear Will : - 
The stage is set. , the play is in progress and we 
only await the appearance of the "first walking gentleman" to make 
eveything perfect . I have more than the ordinary array of live things 
to present to you . In the first place a wren(or a pair of them) has 
"built a nest on top of a last-year* s robin* s nest on to p of one of 
the posts at the carriage entrance of the house and their songs 
, as you mav imagine,are ringing through the house a large part 
of the time . I half suspect that this nest is a make-believe and 
that they have another for family use somewhere else , but they are 
certainly fond of this one , perhaps to spite a robin who has brought 
up a brood on the other post six feet away . 
But my great beast is a family of barred owls whose 
stamping ground is the vicinity of the seat upon which you sat 
last year when I cut out the view of the birches up the mountain. 
I first heard one hooting at nine o’clock one morning two or three 
J 
weeks age and gong into the woods a little while afterwards , I 
found him sitting on a branch in plain view . Since then I have 
seen one several times and last evening before it was dark , Marga¬ 
ret and some of her friends saw two and heard , as they said,four 
young ones calling to each other . One of the young men seemed to 
know what he was talking about and it may be true ! The presence 
of these amiable birds may account for the fact that I have not seen 
a red squirrel about the place this summer . 
We see occasional deer and pheasants^and rabbits 
disport them selves on the lawns daily . n-ther birds and beasts are 
about as usual . 
