Page:Rural Hours.djvu/397

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AN AFFECTIONATE ROBIN.
357

found in the “Gleanings” of Mr. Jesse, occurred in England, and is vouched for by Mr. Jesse himself. A gentleman had directed a wagon to be packed with hampers and boxes, intending to send it some distance; its departure was delayed, however, and it was placed under a shed, packed as it was. While there, says Mr. Jesse, “a pair of robins built their nest among some straw in the wagon, and had hatched their young just before it was sent away. One of the old birds, instead of being frightened away by the motion of the wagon, only left its nest from time to time, for the purpose of flying to the nearest hedge for food, for its young; and thus alternately affording warmth and nourishment to them, it arrived at Worthing. The affection of this bird having been observed by the wagoner, he took care, in unloading, not to disturb the robin's nest; and my readers will, I am sure, be glad to hear that the robin and its young ones returned in safety to Walton Heath, being the place from whence they had set out. Whether it was the male or the female robin which kept with the wagon, I have not been able to ascertain, but most probably the latter, as what will not a mother's love and a mother's tenderness induce her to perform? The distance the wagon went in going and returning could not have been less than one hundred miles.”

Tuesday, 31st.—About a mile from the village, there runs a little stream whose waters are darker in color than others in the neighborhood, and called, on that account, the Red Brook—the first humble tributary of a river which may boast many a broad and flowing branch, ere it reaches the ocean. It comes toward the highway through a narrow ravine thickly shaded by forest-trees, and then passing beneath a bridge, winds through open meadows until it joins the river. This little stream turns a saw-