When she had sat on the eggs, and the young ones were hatched, she fed them with the most attentive care.  The corner of my window had become a stage of moral action, which fathers and mothers might come to take lessons from.  The little ones soon became large, and this morning I have seen them take their first flight.  One of them, weaker than the others, was not able to clear the edge of the roof, and fell into the gutter.  I caught him with some difficulty, and placed him again on the tile in front of his house, but the mother has not noticed him.  Once freed from the cares of a family, she has resumed her wandering life among the trees and along the roofs.  In vain I have kept away from my window, to take from her every excuse for fear; in vain the feeble little bird has called to her with plaintive cries; his bad mother has passed by, singing and fluttering with a thousand airs and graces.  Once only the father came near; he looked at his offspring with contempt, and then disappeared, never to return!

I crumbled some bread before the little orphan, but he did not know how to peck it with his bill.  I tried to catch him, but he escaped into the forsaken nest.  What will become of him there, if his mother does not come back!

August 15th, six o’clock.—­This morning, on opening my window, I found the little bird dying upon the tiles; his wounds showed me that he had been driven from the nest by his unworthy mother.  I tried in vain to warm him again with my breath; I felt the last pulsations of life; his eyes were already closed, and his wings hung down!  I placed him on the roof in a ray of sunshine, and I closed my window.  The struggle of life against death has always something gloomy in it:  it is a warning to us.

Happily I hear some one in the passage; without doubt it is my old neighbor; his conversation will distract my thoughts.

It was my portress.  Excellent woman!  She wished me to read a letter from her son the sailor, and begged me to answer it for her.

I kept it, to copy it in my journal.  Here it is: 

“Dear mother:  This is to tell you that I have been very well ever since the last time, except that last week I was nearly drowned with the boat, which would have been a great loss, as there is not a better craft anywhere.

“A gust of wind capsized us; and just as I came up above water, I saw the captain sinking.  I went after him, as was my duty, and, after diving three times, I brought him to the surface, which pleased him much; for when we were hoisted on board, and he had recovered his senses, he threw his arms round my neck, as he would have done to an officer.

“I do not hide from you, dear mother, that this has delighted me.  But it isn’t all; it seems that fishing up the captain has reminded them that I had a good character, and they have just told me that I am promoted to be a sailor