7.  But if you would see the purest, the sincerest, the most affecting piety of a parent’s love, startle a young family of quails, and watch the conduct of the mother.  She will not leave you.  No, not she.  But she will fall at your feet, uttering a noise which none but a distressed mother can make, and she will run, and flutter, and seem to try to be caught, and cheat your outstretched hand, and affect to be wing-broken and wounded, and yet have just strength to tumble along, until she has drawn you, fatigued, a safe distance from her threatened children and the young hopes of her heart; and then will she mount, whirring with glad strength, and away through the maze of trees you have not seen before, like a close-shot bullet, fly to her skulking infants,

8.  Listen now.  Do you hear those three half-plaintive notes, quickly and clearly poured out?  She is calling the boys and girls together.  She sings not now “Bob White!” nor “Ah!  Bob White!” That is her husband’s love call, or his trumpet blast of defiance.  But she calls sweetly and softly for her lost children.  Hear them “Peep! peep! peep!” at the welcome voice of their mother’s love!  They are coming together.  Soon the whole family will meet again.

9.  It is a foul sin to disturb them; but retread your devious way, and let her hear your coming footsteps, breaking down the briers, as you renew the danger.  She is quiet.  Not a word is passed between the fearful fugitives.  Now, if you have the heart to do it, lie low, keep still, and imitate the call of the hen quail.  O mother! mother! how your heart would die if you could witness the deception!  The little ones raise up their trembling heads, and catch comfort and imagined safety from the sound.  “Peep! peep!” They come to you, straining their little eyes, and, clustering together and answering, seem to say, “Where is she?  Mother! mother! we are here!”

Definitions.—­1.  A-quat’ic, frequenting the water. 2.  Vo’cal, having a voice. 3.  I-den’ti-fied, united.  Cu-pid’i-ty, eager desire to possess something. 4.  Tus’sock, a tuft of grass or twigs. 5.  Cra’dler, one who uses a cradle, which is an instrument attached to a scythe in cutting grain. 6.  U-surp’ing, seizing and holding in possession by force. 7.  Af-fect’, to pretend. 9.  De’vi-ous, winding.

Note.—­l.  Boreas is the name which the ancient Greeks gave to the north wind.

LVIII.  THE BLUE AND THE GRAY.

1.  By the flow of the inland river,
     Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
   Where the blades of the grave grass quiver,
     Asleep are the ranks of the dead;—­
       Under the sod and the dew,
         Waiting the judgment day;
       Under the one, the Blue;
         Under the other, the Gray.