THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST.

"Let me not think an action mine own way,
But as Thy love shall sway,
Resigning up the rudder to Thy skill."

GEORGE HERBERT.


One day, when I was a very little girl (which is a long time ago), I
made a discovery. The place where I made it was not very remote, being
a holly-bush at the bottom of our garden; and the discovery was not a
great one in itself, though I thought it very grand. I had found a
blackbird's nest, with three young ones in it.

The discovery was made on this wise. I was sitting one morning on a
log of wood opposite this holly-bush, reading the story of Goody
Twoshoes, and thinking to myself how much I should like to be like
her, and to go about in the village with a raven, a pigeon, and a lark
on my shoulders, admired and talked about by everybody. All sorts of
nonsense passed through my head as I sat, with the book on my lap,
staring straight before me; and I was just fancying the kind
condescension with which I would behave to everybody when I became a
Goody Twoshoes, when I saw a bird come out of the holly-bush and fly
away. It was a blackbird: there was no doubt of it; and it must have a
nest in the tree, or why had it been there so long? Down went my book,
and I flew to make my discovery. A blackbird's nest, with three young