late at night, they sat up as long as they were
able to keep their eyes open. This love of parents, and this constant
pleasure _at home_, made them not even think of seeking pleasure abroad;
and they, thus, were kept from vicious playmates and early corruption.

294. This is the age, too, to teach children to be _trust-worthy_, and
to be _merciful_ and _humane_. We lived _in a garden_ of about two
acres, partly kitchen-garden with walls, partly shrubbery and trees, and
partly grass. There were the _peaches_, as tempting as any that ever
grew, and yet as safe from fingers as if no child were ever in the
garden. It was not necessary to _forbid_. The blackbirds, the thrushes,
the whitethroats, and even that very shy bird the goldfinch, had their
nests and bred up their young-ones, in great abundance, all about this
little spot, constantly the play-place of six children; and one of the
latter had its nest, and brought up its young-ones, in a
_raspberry-bush_, within two yards of a walk, and at the time that we
were gathering the ripe raspberries. We give _dogs_, and justly, great
credit for sagacity and memory; but the following two most curious
instances, which I should not venture to state, if there were not so
many witnesses to the facts, in my neighbours at Botley, as well as in
my own family, will show, that _birds_ are not, in this respect,
inferior to the canine race. All country people know that the _skylark_
is a very shy bird; that its abode is the open fields: that it settles
on the ground only; that it seeks safety in the wideness of space; that
it avoids enclosures, and is never seen in gardens. A part of our ground
was a grass-plat of about _forty rods_, or a quarter of an acre, which,
one year, was left to be mowed for hay. A pair of larks, coming out of
the fields into the middle of a pretty populous village, chose to make
their nest in the middle of this little spot, and at not more than about
_thirty-five yards_ from one of the doors of the house, in which there
were about twelve persons living, and six of those children, who had
constant access to all parts of the ground. There we saw the cock rising
up and singing, then taking his turn upon the eggs; and by-and-by, we
observed him cease to sing, and saw them both _constantly engaged in
bringing food to the young ones_. No unintelligible hint to fathers and
mothers of the human race, who have, before marriage, taken delight in
_music_. But the time came fo