dame was at that moment working upon it. She was so deeply
absorbed in her occupation that she did not even notice us, and we
studied her movements with interest, till the haymakers came with wagon
and oxen, and much talking and shouting, to gather up their fragrant
loads, which on that side of the field stood in small stack's all ready.

Once again, in spite of long experience, I was amazed to see how deaf
and blind are people to what goes on about them. "We see only that which
concerns us," says some one, and since the farmer, with whole mind bent
upon making a firm and symmetrical load, did not concern himself with
bird affairs, goldfinch work went on without hindrance. The half-loaded
wagon paused under the chosen branch, where the man could have laid his
hand upon the nest, but the small builder went in and out, calling and
fluttering around as freely as if he were not there. As a matter of fact
he was not, for though his body was near, he was down in the hay, and he
never heard or saw the bird.

We kept watch of the fateful branch, ready to protect it if necessary,
till the train moved off, and then we went home congratulating ourselves
on possessing the goldfinch's precious secret, planning to spend a part
of every morning in studying her ways.

"Man proposes," but many things "dispose." The next morning revealed
another tragedy. The dainty nest, so laboriously built, was found a
wreck, the whole of one side pulled out and hanging over the branch,
while the soft cushion of silky white thistle-down, an inch thick, lay
on the grass below. The culprit we could not discover, for he had left
no trace. It might be a squirrel; it certainly looked like the work of
his strong claws; but, on the other hand, it might be the sparrow-hawk
who had made the meadow his daily hunting-ground since the mysterious
disaster to the kingbird's nest had deprived us of the police services
of that vigilant bird. Probably a squirrel was the culprit, for the hawk
appeared only after the grass was cut, and grasshoppers and other
insects were left without shelter, and he seemed to give his entire
attention to the grass at the foot of the flagpole on which he always
perched.

Whoever was guilty of the cruel deed, it added one more to the list of
ravaged nests, and of all that we watched that summer exactly half had
been broken up or destroyed.

I am happy to say that the little pair were not utterly discouraged,
for a day or two later we