pped gayly
from twig to twig, as though they were steps, up to the sky parlor where
she had established her homestead. Then she went busily to work to
adjust the new matter, while he waited patiently during the ten or
fifteen minutes she thus occupied. Sometimes he seemed to wonder what
she could be about all this time, for he came and alighted beside her,
staying only an instant, and then flying with the evident expectation
that she would follow. Usually, however, he remained quietly on guard
till she left the nest with her joyful call, when he joined her, and
away they went together, crying, "te-o-tum, te! te!" till out of sight
and hearing. There was a joyousness of manner in this pair that gave a
festive air to even so prosaic a performance as going for food. The
source of supplies, as I soon discovered, was a bit of neglected ground
between a buckwheat patch and a barn, where grass and weeds of several
sorts flourished. Here each bird pulled down by its weight a stalk of
meadow or other grass, and spent some time feasting upon its seeds.

But madam was a timid little soul; she reminded me constantly of some
bigger folk I have known. She wanted her gay cavalier always within
call, and he responded to her demands nobly, becoming more domestic than
one would imagine possible for such a restless, light-hearted sprite.
After the young house-mistress settled herself to her sitting, she often
lifted her head above the edge of her nest, and uttered a strangely
thrilling and appealing cry, which I think is only heard in the
nesting-time. He always replied instantly, in tenderest tones, and came
at once, sometimes from the other side of the orchard, singing as he
flew, and perched in the apple-tree. If she wanted his escort to lunch,
she joined him there, and after exchanging a few low remarks, they
departed together. Occasionally, however, she seemed to be merely
nervous, perhaps about some other bird who she fancied might be
troublesome, though, in general, neither of the pair paid the slightest
attention to birds who came about, even upon their own little tree.

Often when the goldfinch came in answer to this call of his love, he
flew around, at some height above the tree, in a circle of thirty or
forty feet diameter, apparently to search out any enemy who might be
annoying her. If he saw a bird, he drove him off, though in a
perfunctory manner, as if it were done merely in deference to his lady's
wishes, and not from an