et, to
wait for what might come. Suddenly, with almost startling effect,

"A bird broke forth and sung
And trilled and quavered and shook his throat."

It was a new voice to us, loud and clear, and the song, consisting of
three clauses, sounded like "Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar!" then a
pause, and the same repeated, and so on indefinitely. It came nearer and
still nearer, and in a moment we saw the bird, a tiny creature,
red-brown on the back, light below--the image of the little sitter in
the stump, as we remarked with delight; we hoped he was her mate. He did
not seem inclined to go to the nest, but stayed on a twig of a dead
branch which hung from a large tree near by.

While the stranger was pouring out his rhapsody, head thrown back, tail
hanging straight down, and wings slightly drooped, I noticed a movement
by the nest, and fixed my eyes upon that. The little dame had stolen out
of her place, and now began the ascent of the sapling which started out
one side of her small stump. Up the trunk she went with perfect ease,
running a few steps, and then pausing a moment before she took the next
half-dozen. She did not go bobbing up like a woodpecker, nor did she
steady herself with her tail, like that frequenter of tree-trunks; she
simply ran up that almost perpendicular stick as a fly runs up the wall.
Meanwhile her mate, if that he were, kept up his ringing song, till she
reached the top of the sapling, perhaps seven or eight feet high, and
flew over near him. In an instant the song ceased, and the next moment
two small birds flew over our heads, and we heard chatting and
churring, and then silence.

Without this hint from the wren we should rarely have seen her leave the
nest; we should naturally have watched for wings, and none might come or
go, while she was using her feet instead. She returned in the same way;
flying to the top, or part way up her sapling, she ran down to her nest
as glibly as she had run up. The walnut-trunk was the ladder which led
to the outside world. This pretty little scene was many times repeated,
in the days that we spent before the castle of our Carolinians; the male
announcing himself afar with songs, and approaching gradually, while his
mate listened to the notes that had wooed her, and now again coaxed her
away from her sitting, for a short outing with him. Sometimes, though
rarely, she came out without this inducement, but during her sitting
days she usually went only upon