. The bird . water-wagtail, equally punctual, is at her post; she fluttersround the washerwomen ; she hops on her long legs into the water,and asks for crumbs ; by a strange instinct of mimicry she raises anddips her tail, as if to imitate the motion of beating the linen, to doher work also and earn her pay. The bird of the fields before all others, the labourers bird, is thelark, his constant companion, which he encounters eveiywhere in hispainful furrow, i-eady to encourage, to sustain him, to sing to him of 238 THE SONG. hope. Espoir, hope, is the old device of us Gauls; and for this reason
. The bird . water-wagtail, equally punctual, is at her post; she fluttersround the washerwomen ; she hops on her long legs into the water,and asks for crumbs ; by a strange instinct of mimicry she raises anddips her tail, as if to imitate the motion of beating the linen, to doher work also and earn her pay. The bird of the fields before all others, the labourers bird, is thelark, his constant companion, which he encounters eveiywhere in hispainful furrow, i-eady to encourage, to sustain him, to sing to him of 238 THE SONG. hope. Espoir, hope, is the old device of us Gauls; and for this reasonwe have adopted as our national bird that humble minstrel, so poorlyclad, but so rich in heart and song. Nature seems to have treated the lark with harshness. Owing to the arrangement of her claws, she-- cannot perch on the trees. Sherests on the ground, close to the_ pool haie and uith no othersheltei than the furrow Howpiecaiious how iiskAil a life, atthe ume of incubation Whatcaies must be heis what mqui-. etudes ! Scarcely a tuft of gi-ass conceals the mothers fond treasurefrom the dog, the hawk, or the falcon. She hatches her eggs in haste ;with haste she trains the trembling brood. \ATio would not believethat the ill-fated bird must share the melancholy of her sad neighbour,the hare ? THE SONG. 239 Tins animal is sad, and fear consumes her. Get animal est triste et la crainte le ronge. La Fontaine. But the contrary has taken place by an unexpected marvel ofgaiety and easy forgetfulness, of lightsome indifference and trulyFrench carelessness ; the national bird is scarcely out of peril beforeshe recovers all her serenity, her song, her indomitable glee. Anotherwonder: her perils, her precarious existence, her cruel trials, do notharden her heart; she remains good as well as gay, sociable andtrustful, presenting a model (rare enough among birds) of paternallove ; the lark, like the swaUow, will, in case of need, nourish hersisters. Two things sustain and animate her: love a
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Keywords: ., bookauthormich, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbirds
