m in an echo sweet and pure as his own song, he fluttered
his wings, peered this way and that, and sang again. Once more the
answering call resounded, true as an image in a mirror.

David now began to move with greater caution than before toward the
little creature, who looked at him with curious glances. Back and forth
resounded the sweet antiphonal, and the bird hopped down a branch or
two. Neither of the actors in this woodland drama removed his eyes from
the other, and the spectator watched them both with breathless interest.

Presently David lifted his hands--the palms closed together in the form
of a cup or nest. The songster bent farther forward on the twig, and
suddenly with a downward plunge shot straight toward them; but just as
his tiny feet touched the fingers, turned as the squirrel had done, and
uttering a loud cry of terror flew away. David dropped his hands and his
eyes.

"I have lost my power," he said sadly.

"You are out of practice, you must exercise it oftener. It will all come
back," Pepeeta responded cheerfully.

They walked slowly and silently back to the place where they had been
sitting, and David began tossing pebbles into the brook.

"Three times to-day," he said, pausing and turning toward Pepeeta, "I
have opened my hands and my heart, and each time the object whose love I
sought has fluttered away from me in terror or repugnance."

"Oh! no, not in terror and repugnance," she said eagerly.

"Am I then incapable of exciting love?" he asked.

"You will break my heart if you speak so. I love you more than I love my
own life."

"I do not believe it. Can I believe that the squirrel and the redbird
love me, when they flee from me? If they had loved me, they would have
come to me and nestled to my heart. And so would you. I have come back
to the old subject. I cannot refrain any longer. Will you go with me, or
will you not?"

"Oh! David," she cried, wringing her hands, "why, why will you break my
heart? Why can you not permit me to finish this day in peace? Wait until
some other time. Why can you not enjoy this present moment? I could wish
it to last forever, if you were only kind. If the flight of time could
be stopped, if we could be forever what we are just now, I could not ask
for any other thing. See how beautiful the world is. See how happy we
are. See how everything hangs just like a balance! Do not speak, do not
move; one unkind word would jar and spoil it all."

"It is imposs