trace of her the remainder of that day. The
Cardinal almost went distracted; and his tender imploring cries would
have moved any except a panic-stricken bird. He did not even know in
what direction to pursue her. Night closed down, and found him in a
fever of love-sick fear, but it brought rest and wisdom. She could not
have gone very far. She was too worn. He would not proclaim his
presence. Soon she would suffer past enduring for food and water.

He hid in the willows close where he had lost her, and waited with what
patience he could; and it was a wise plan. Shortly after dawn, moving
stilly as the break of day, trembling with fear, she came slipping to
the river for a drink. It was almost brutal cruelty, but her fear must
be overcome someway; and with a cry of triumph the Cardinal, in a
plunge of flight, was beside her. She gave him one stricken look, and
dashed away. The chase began once more and continued until she was
visibly breaking.

There was no room for a rival that morning. The Cardinal flew abreast
of her and gave her a caress or attempted a kiss whenever he found the
slightest chance. She was almost worn out, her flights were wavering
and growing shorter. The Cardinal did his utmost. If she paused to
rest, he crept close as he dared, and piteously begged: "Come here!
Come here!"

When she took wing, he so dexterously intercepted her course that
several time she found refuge in his sumac without realizing where she
was. When she did that, he perched just as closely as he dared; and
while they both rested, he sang to her a soft little whispered love
song, deep in his throat; and with every note he gently edged nearer.
She turned her head from him, and although she was panting for breath
and palpitant with fear, the Cardinal knew that he dared not go closer,
or she would dash away like the wild thing she was. The next time she
took wing, she found him so persistently in her course that she turned
sharply and fled panting to the sumac. When this had happened so often
that she seemed to recognize the sumac as a place of refuge, the
Cardinal slipped aside and spent all his remaining breath in an
exultant whistle of triumph, for now he was beginning to see his way.
He dashed into mid-air, and with a gyration that would have done credit
to a flycatcher, he snapped up a gadfly that should have been more
alert.

With a tender "Chip!" from branch to branch, slowly, cautiously, he
came with it