ch
other playfully on the wing, dancing idly with joy and pleasure at the
coming spring, when one of them accidentally knocked against another,
and fell into the river below. In an instant a chorus of distress was
raised; the birds hovered over their friend, as he struggled in the
water, with cries of sorrow and alarm, and seemed to be giving him
advice in some fashion of their own. At any rate, urged by their voices,
he sprang into the air, and by one strong effort managed to reach a
point of rock. The shouts of joy at his safety echoed far and wide.

[Illustration: "The robin came back with a worm."]

Much tenderness is shown by grown-up birds to helpless orphans in need
of their aid. A redbreast was mentioned lately in _Science Gossip_ as
doing a deed of kindness towards a young starling one bitterly cold
morning. The starling had left the nest, and was sitting frightened and
shivering in a cellar, whither it had crept, too weak and hungry to fly.
In vain kindly human hands offered it bread; it refused all food, till a
little hungry robin came down on his daily visit to the house and spied
the baby-bird, sitting on one leg, calling his absent mother. Off he
went, and soon came darting back with a worm, which was gratefully
accepted. When the beggar-bird had been fed, both flew away. Seagulls
have been seen assisting a wounded comrade over the wave, and a crane,
seeing one of its fellows shot, placed itself under the sufferer in such
a way as to prevent his falling to the ground; then, weighted as he was,
he bore him away beyond gun-shot.

In sickness, too, not only monkeys, dogs, cats, and the higher animals,
but the lowest also, as well as birds, show good feeling. On a salt lake
in Utah lived an old and completely blind pelican, which was very fat,
'and must,' says Darwin, 'have been well fed for a long while by his
companions.' Crows feed their blind friends, and so do rats, and a case
is on record of a barn-door cock who did the same thing. These and
similar facts, which could be multiplied by thousands, prove how
beautiful a spirit is that which our great Creator breathed into even
the humblest of His creatures, and how worthy, for His sake, they are of
our reverence and regard.

EDITH CARRINGTON.

[Illustration: "They stumbled along, supporting the stranger as best
they could."]

IN THE SNOW.

'Step out, Jack! There's a mile yet before we get to the station.'

'Yes; and a mile in this snow cou