o appreciate the
absurdity of her proceeding, for in a moment she returned to her duties,
and remonstrated no more.

* * * * *

How shall I picture the growth and development of the twins in that
cherished home! Where shall I find words delicate and subtle enough to
describe the change as I saw it from day to day, from puny atoms the
size of a honey-bee to fledged and full-grown hummingbirds! Every
morning, watching and waiting till the whole of our little world was at
breakfast, I drew down the fateful branch and indulged in a long, close
look at them, and no language at my command is adequate to describe the
process of unfolding.

At first sight of the two I was lost in amazement. Could those minute,
caterpillar-like objects, covered with scanty and scattering hairs,
lying side by side in the bottom of their miniature cradle, be the
offspring of the winged sprites of the bird-world? Would those short,
wide, duck-like beaks ever become the needle-shaped probers of flowers?
Would wings ever grow on those grub-like bodies? They were at this
time four and five days old; for though they appeared like twins, I
learned from previous watchers that there was a day's difference between
them.

After I had looked and wondered, and returned to my seat behind the
window-blinds to watch, the mother came to feed. It would be pleasant to
imagine that the food brought by that dainty dame, and administered to
her beloved brood, consisted of the nectar of flowers, drawn from the
sweet peas that filled the garden with beauty and perfume, the gay
flaunting scarlet beans over the way, or the golden drops of the
jewel-weed modestly hiding under their broad leaves, in the hollow down
by the bridge. But Science, in her relentless substitution of fact for
fancy, does not allow us this agreeable delusion. Something far more
substantial, not to say gross, we are informed, is required to build up
the muscle and bone of the atoms in the nest. Meat is what they must
have, and meat it was, in the shape of tiny spiders and perhaps other
minute creatures, that mamma was seeking when she hovered under the
maple boughs, now and then touching a twig or the underside of a leaf.
Indeed, one might occasionally see her pick off her spider as deftly as
one would pick a peach.

[Sidenote: _A FEARFUL SIGHT._]

Hummingbird feeding has been graphically described more than once; but
when the food-bearer arrived I seized my gla