SECRETS OF AN OLD GARDEN. 
I HIS garden had some small 
4 I fruit trees thickly covered 
qJ I with leaves, and a tangle of 
currant bushes and raspberry 
vines, as well as neatly worked rows 
of vegetables. There was also a thick 
clump of tall, feathery grass beside the 
paling. 
It was well it had these small places 
of refuge, for it had many perils. Two 
cats, a white and a gray, patrolled the 
garden with silent and velvety 
tread ; boys, who were not silent, 
used all kinds of small but deadly 
weapons on the street that ran beside 
it, and great heavy wagons rumbled 
up and down all day, making a great 
noise and dust. 
But how many birds I have seen 
and heard there ! Red-headed Wood- 
peckers tapped and called early in the 
morning on the tall telegraph pole 
at the corner, and flocks of Grackles, 
the Bronze, the Purple, and the Rusty 
Grackles, were fed from the fresh-turned 
earth. A Catbird hopped lightly in 
the shadow of the tool-house, and I 
suspect some Robins of foraging turn 
with their young families. Sparrows of 
all kinds dwelt there — flocks of yellow 
Ground Sparrows, Brown and Gray 
Sparrows, Clipping Sparrows. I saw 
one day the funniest Clipping baby 
with his chestnut cap pushed up into 
a regular crown almost too big for his 
tiny head, and the brightest black 
eyes peering at me, as he stood on a 
clod of earth. Flocks, also, of Gold- 
finches, glittering like small balls of 
gold, and Indigo Buntings, blue as the 
sky, held merry-makings there, and oh, 
the songs from morning until night ! 
A Warbling Vireo sang so loud and so 
splendidly that we thought he must be 
some big bird of scarlet plumage 
instead of the wee wood-sprite he was ; 
and little Wrens and little Indigo Birds 
fairly bubbled over with songs of joy. 
The nests, the hidden nests, were 
the old garden's secrets, and the 
garden kept them well. There was a 
nutter of wings, the bird floated down, 
and was straightway invisible. Not 
the tip of a tail or beak was to be seen. 
Or up flew the bird and was as quickly 
lost in the thick screen of interwoven 
leaves overhead. There were certain 
gray birds so much the color of the 
dead wood on which they perched 
that they might have nested in full, 
open view, and yet have remained un- 
seen until they moved. How the 
little birds did love this garden — the 
noisy street on one side, the close, 
dingy houses on the other, and how 
near its heart did the old garden keep 
the birds. 
So many and such different birds — 
yet " not one of them is forgotten 
before God." — Ella F. Mosby. 
BIRDS FORTELL MARRIAGE. 
Some of the Prussian girls have an 
odd way of finding out which of a 
number will be married first. The 
girls take some corn and make a small 
heap of it on the floor, and in it 
conceal one of their finger rings. A 
chicken is then introduced and let 
loose beside the little heaps of corn. 
Presently the bird begins to eat the 
grain, and whichever ring is first 
exposed the owner of it will be the 
first to marry. 
16 
