ling of song.

In the course of the years which had drifted by since Andreas came with
his birds to New York that May morning he had not made for himself many
friends. To be a friend of birds a man must have a quiet habit of body,
and great gentleness of nature, and a true tenderness of heart; which
qualities tend also to solitariness, being for the most part harmed
rather than fostered by association with mankind. As suited him well,
his business was not one that called him much abroad, nor that brought
him greatly into contact with his fellows. In his good care the famous
stock of songsters which he had brought with him from the fatherland
had increased prodigiously; and even the sale of nearly all his best old
birds, about the time that Conrad was ill, had worked, in the long run,
to his benefit; for he had taken these birds to one and another of the
great dealers, who thus came to know that in the little shop on Avenue
B were to be found canaries the like of which for tameness and for
rare beauty of note could not be bought elsewhere in all New York.
Thereafter, as his young birds grew up, learning from Andreas himself
the lesson of gentleness, and from his teaching-birds the lesson of
sweetness of note, he had no lack of high-paying customers; so that from
his business he derived an income far in excess of his modest
needs. What went with the overplus was known only to certain of his
country-folk, whose ill venture after greater fortune in America had
proved to be but a fiercer struggle with still greater poverty than they
had struggled with at home; and no doubt the angels also kept track of
his modest benefactions, for such is reputed to be their way.

Many a wounded life was healed by these hidden ministrations on the part
of Andreas; and, as rightly followed, great love there was for him
in many a humble heart. But love of this sort is not friendship,
for friendship requires some one plane at least of equality, and also
association and converse, which conditions were lacking in the case of
Andreas and those to whom he gave his aid; for the shyness of his nature
led him to keep himself apart--save when the demand upon his charity was
for that comfort and sympathy which can only be given in person--from
those whose burdens he lightened; so that, for the most part, while the
needed help was given the hand that gave it remained concealed.

Yet with a few of his country-folk in New York Andreas had established,
in