. Roof and meadow . he foot of a low-limbed pine, they gather round, anxious for alook at me, close to. Once I remember that achipmunk joined them, and his daring lent themcourage. Then came an inquisitive little chick-adee, behind whom one of the squirrels, nowonly a bundle of curiosity, crept down withinreach of me, flattened himself to the trunk, andbegan a running comment, a speculation as tomy character, in little broken snorts, sniffs,coughs, and snickers, emphasizing it all withjerky gesticulations of his tail.[248] AVhat did lie say about me? Slighting things,I ha^e no doubt; deriding
. Roof and meadow . he foot of a low-limbed pine, they gather round, anxious for alook at me, close to. Once I remember that achipmunk joined them, and his daring lent themcourage. Then came an inquisitive little chick-adee, behind whom one of the squirrels, nowonly a bundle of curiosity, crept down withinreach of me, flattened himself to the trunk, andbegan a running comment, a speculation as tomy character, in little broken snorts, sniffs,coughs, and snickers, emphasizing it all withjerky gesticulations of his tail.[248] AVhat did lie say about me? Slighting things,I ha^e no doubt; deriding me, perhaps, becauseI could not climb trees and bite off dont know. But I do know this, tliat, what-ever he said, I enjoyed having him near me, forI am sure that he half enjoyed my being nearhim. And I like the pines better for his would often be dull and silent if he weregone, for the pines are not companionable is their spirit of lightness, gaiety, and chatter. [249] BIED FRIENDSHIPS. BIRD FRIENDSHIPS I T is not the sight of mere numbers that inter-ests us as the gathering swallows twitterin the skies/ but rather the gathering itself, andthe twittering—the feeling of kinship and com-mon interest which we see in the birds are apparently social creatures ; andsocial feelings are human. By so much are weand the swallow^s one. It shows a very pleasing quality in bird na-ture, this need which leads them to flock ; andit seems sometimes to be a deeper, more humanfeeling than mere bird-of-a-feather interest—something close akin to friendship. The autumn flocking of the swallows and the[253] blackbirds, while far from meaning friendship,means a great deal more indeed than polite so-ciability, a drawing-room gathering. There seem to be snch functions in very select and unspotted company of crowsin my neighborhood meet frequently throughoutlate summer and in the autumn, for no otherreason, apiDarently, than the pleasure of one
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1904
