bird that will stay in your
yard, but not enter your house. It is hardly shyness, for she is not
shy, but more like some strain of wild nature in her that refuses
to be domesticated. One's faith is strained to accept Sylvia's
estimate that Georgiana is deep--she is so light, so airy, so
playful. Sylvia is a demure little dove that has pulled over itself
an owl's skin, and is much prouder of its wicked old feathers than
of its innocent heart; but Georgiana--what is she? Secretly an
owl with the buoyancy of a humming-bird? However, it's nothing to
me. She hovers around her mother and Sylvia with a fondness that
is rather beautiful. I did not mention the subject of Audubon and
her father, for it is never well to let an elder sister know that
a younger one has been talking about her. I merely gave her several
chances to speak of birds, but she ignored them. As for me and
_my_ love of birds, such trifles are beneath her notice. I don't
like her, and it will not be worth while to call again soon, though
it would be pleasant to see those drawings.

This morning as I was accidentally passing under her window I saw
her at it and lifted my hat. She leaned over with her cheek in
her palm, and said, smiling,

"You mustn't spoil Sylvia!"

"What is my definite offence in that regard?"

"Too much arbor, too many flowers, too much fine treatment."

"Does fine treatment ever harm anybody? Is it not bad treatment
that spoils people?"

"Good treatment may never spoil people who are old enough to know
its rarity and value. But you say you are a student of nature;
have you not observed that nature never lets the sugar get to things
until they are ripe? Children must be kept tart."

"The next time that Miss Sylvia comes over, then, I am to give
her a tremendous scolding and a big basket of green apples."

"Or, what is worse, suppose you encourage her to study the Greatest
Common Divisor? I am trying to get her ready for school in the
fall."

"Is she being educated for a teacher?"

"You know that Southern ladies never teach."

"Then she will never need the Greatest Common Divisor. I have
known many thousands of human beings, and none but teachers ever
have the least use for the Greatest Common Divisor."

"But she needs to do things that she dislikes. We all do."

I smiled at the memory of a self-willed little bare foot on a log
years ago.

"I shall see that my grape arbor does not further interfere with
Mis