back of the orchard, until fall,
when he found it housed a pair of fine thrushes; for the song of the
thrush delighted him almost as much as that of the lark. He left a
hollow limb on the old red pearmain apple-tree, because when he came to
cut it there was a pair of bluebirds twittering around, frantic with
anxiety.

His pockets were bulgy with wheat and crumbs, and his heart was big
with happiness. It was the golden springtime of his later life. The
sky never had seemed so blue, or the earth so beautiful. The Cardinal
had opened the fountains of his soul; life took on a new colour and
joy; while every work of God manifested a fresh and heretofore
unappreciated loveliness. His very muscles seemed to relax, and new
strength arose to meet the demands of his uplifted spirit. He had not
finished his day's work with such ease and pleasure in years; and he
could see the influence of his rejuvenation in Maria. She was flitting
around her house with broken snatches of song, even sweeter to Abram's
ears than the notes of the birds; and in recent days he had noticed
that she dressed particularly for her afternoon's sewing, putting on
her Sunday lace collar and a white apron. He immediately went to town
and bought her a finer collar than she ever had owned in her life.

Then he hunted a sign painter, and came home bearing a number of pine
boards on which gleamed in big, shiny black letters:

+----------------------+
| NO HUNTING ALLOWED |
| ON THIS FARM |
+----------------------+

He seemed slightly embarrassed when he showed them to Maria. "I feel a
little mite onfriendly, putting up signs like that 'fore my
neighbours," he admitted, "but the fact is, it ain't the neighbours so
much as it's boys that need raising, an' them town creatures who call
themselves sportsmen, an' kill a hummin'-bird to see if they can hit
it. Time was when trees an' underbrush were full o' birds an'
squirrels, any amount o' rabbits, an' the fish fairly crowdin' in the
river. I used to kill all the quail an' wild turkeys about here a body
needed to make an appetizing change, It was always my plan to take a
little an' leave a little. But jest look at it now. Surprise o' my
life if I get a two-pound bass. Wild turkey gobblin' would scare me
most out of my senses, an', as for the birds, there are jest about a
fourth what there used to be, an' the crops eaten to pay for it. I'd
do all I'm tryin' to for any bird, beca