saw both of
them feed the young, the male flying into the hole straight from the
fence post.

It seemed such hard work finding worms out in the hot sun that I
wondered if birds' eyes ever ached from the intentness of their search,
and if there were near-sighted birds. Perhaps the intervals of feeding
depend on the worm supply rather than the dietary principles of the
parents.

Gretchen's mother was bending over her wash-tubs out under the oaks, and
I called her attention to the pretty birds brooding in her door-yard,
telling her that they were good friends of hers, eating up the worms
that destroyed her flowers and vegetables. "So?" she asked, but seemed
ready to let the subject drop there, and hurried back to her work. A
poor widow with a large family of children and a ranch to look after can
find little time, even in beautiful California, to enjoy what Nature
places in her door-yard.

Three weeks later Gretchen came riding down to tell me that there were
eggs in the tree again. The bluebird bid fair to be as hardworked as the
widow, at that rate, I thought, when I went up to look at them. The
children showed me the nest of a goldfinch, near the ground, in one of
the little orange-trees in front of the house. They also pointed out
linnets' nests in the vines by the door, and the oldest child said
eagerly, "When we came home from school there was a hummingbird in the
window, and we caught it," adding, "I think it must have been a father
hummingbird." "Why?" I asked, "was it pretty?" "Yes, it just shined,"
she exclaimed enthusiastically.

When the family were at home, their puppy would bark at us furiously,
and follow us about suspiciously, but when he had been left on the
ranch alone he was glad of our society. Then when I watched the
bluebirds, he came and curled down by my side, becoming so friendly that
he actually grew jealous of Billy, and turned to have me caress him each
time that the little horse walked up to have the flies brushed off his
nose, or having pulled up a bunch of grass by the roots, brought it for
me to hold so that he could eat it without getting the dirt in his
mouth.

Going home one day, Billy came upon a gopher snake. Now Canello had been
brought up in a rattlesnake country, and was always on his guard, but
Billy was 'raised' in the mountains, where snakes are scarce, and did
not seem to know what they were. He had given me a good deal of anxiety
by this indifference--he had stepped over