me to him.
Under the nest, around it, and all through the sumac he searched, until
at last, completely baffled, he came back to the edge. The sound was
so much plainer there, that he suddenly leaned, caressing the eggs with
his beak; then the Cardinal knew! He had heard the first faint cries
of his shell-incased babies!

With a wild scream he made a flying leap through the air. His heart
was beating to suffocation. He started in a race down the river. If
he alighted on a bush he took only one swing, and springing from it
flamed on in headlong flight. He flashed to the top of the tallest
tulip tree, and cried cloudward to the lark: "See here! See here!" He
dashed to the river bank and told the killdeers, and then visited the
underbrush and informed the thrushes and wood robins. Father-tender,
he grew so delirious with joy that he forgot his habitual aloofness,
and fraternized with every bird beside the shining river. He even laid
aside his customary caution, went chipping into the sumac, and caressed
his mate so boisterously she gazed at him severely and gave his wing a
savage pull to recall him to his sober senses.

That night the Cardinal slept in the sumac, very close to his mate, and
he shut only one eye at a time. Early in the morning, when he carried
her the first food, he found that she was on the edge of the nest,
dropping bits of shell outside; and creeping to peep, he saw the
tiniest coral baby, with closed eyes, and little patches of soft silky
down. Its beak was wide open, and though his heart was even fuller
than on the previous day, the Cardinal knew what that meant; and
instead of indulging in another celebration, he assumed the duties of
paternity, and began searching for food, for now there were two empty
crops in his family. On the following day there were four. Then he
really worked. How eagerly he searched, and how gladly he flew to the
sumac with every rare morsel! The babies were too small for the mother
to leave; and for the first few days the Cardinal was constantly on
wing.

If he could not find sufficiently dainty food for them in the trees and
bushes, or among the offerings of the farmer, he descended to earth and
searched like a wood robin. He forgot he needed a bath or owned a sun
parlour; but everywhere he went, from his full heart there constantly
burst the cry:

"See here! See here!"

His mate made never a sound. Her eyes were bigger and softer than
ever, and in the