10.  She was a most amusing bird, and could whistle dogs, which she had great pleasure in doing.  She would drop bread out of her cage as she hung at the street door, and whistle a number about her, and then, just as they were going to possess themselves of her bounty, utter a shrill scream of “Get out, dogs!” with such vehemence and authority as dispersed the assembled company without a morsel, to her infinite delight. * * *

11.  How wonderful is that instinct by which the bird of passage performs its annual migration!  But how still more wonderful is it when the bird, after its voyage of thousands of miles has been performed, and new lands visited, returns to the precise window or eaves where, the summer before, it first enjoyed existence!  And yet, such is unquestionably the fact.

12.  Four brothers had watched with indignation the felonious attempts of a sparrow to possess himself of the nest of a house martin, in which lay its young brood of four unfledged birds.

13.  The little fellows considered themselves as champions for the bird which had come over land and sea, and chosen its shelter under their mother’s roof.  They therefore marshaled themselves with blowguns, to execute summary vengeance; but their well-meant endeavors brought destruction upon the mud-built domicile they wished to defend.  Their artillery loosened the foundations, and down it came, precipitating its four little inmates to the ground.  The mother of the children, Good Samaritan-like, replaced the little outcasts in their nest, and set it in the open window of an unoccupied chamber.

14.  The parent birds, after the first terror was over, did not appear disconcerted by the change of situation, but hourly fed their young as usual, and testified, by their unwearied twitter of pleasure, the satisfaction and confidence they felt.  There the young birds were duly fledged, and from that window they began their flight, and entered upon life.

15.  The next spring, with the reappearance of the martins, came four, which familiarly flew into the chamber, visited all the walls, and expressed their recognition by the most clamorous twitterings of joy.  They were, without question, the very birds that had been bred there the preceding year.

Definitions.—­2.  Copse, a grove of small trees or bushes. 4.  Sa-ga’cious, quick in discernment. 6.  Im-per’ti-nent, rude, intru-sive. 8.  Ken’nel, a place for dogs. 10.  Ve’he-mence, force. 11.  Mi-gra’tion, change of place, removal. 12.  Fe-lo’ni-ous, criminal. 13.  Dom’i-cile, the home or residence of anyone.  Ar-til’er-y, weapons of warfare. 14.  Dis-con-cert’ed, interrupted, confused. 15.  Rec-og-ni’tion, recollection of a former acquaintance.

LXXI.  THE RAINBOW PILGRIMAGE. (197)

By Sara J. Lippincott, born at Onondaga, N. Y., in 1823, of New England parentage.  Under the name of “Grace Greenwood” she has written many charming stories for children.  Some of her best sketches are in “Records of Five Years.”