The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-02-17
CITY sPARROwS.

living in the midst of the great New
York; but they have been in the
country every summer of their lives,
and they love flowers and birds and
trees as much as If they were country :.
children.
When the little sparrows first began
to live i'm New York, the children were
very interested in them, and longed to
have some by their own home, that
they might feed and tame them; so,
after a while, their father had little
bird house made and gave it TO Willie
1t was really two houses made in one,
with an opening at each end, to accom-
modate two families of brides. twas
made of pine wood; and a big brother
of the children, whe liked to do all sorts
Of odd Jobs, painted il brown and nailed
it upon the tree in front of the house.
The tree is an allanthus, and does not
have worms on it; but still the chill
dren hoped that some young couple of
sparrows would set up housekeeping
there, since rents are very high in some
places, and they meant to give their
house as q wedding present to the first
young gentleman and lady sparrow
that should apply. Well, the days
went on, and no brides came; the
children grew very impatient, and
wished the sparrows would come.
They put out crumbs very often, and
nailed a bit of cotton to the tree, hoping
in that way to tempt some passer-by,
ON his way to the great bird hotels I'D
Union Square, to stop and try their
lodgings; but for q long while it was all
i'm vain. Some Of their friends, how
ever, assured them that in the early
spring there were to be a great many
weddings in the sparrow world, when
houses would be in great demand for
the young couples; 80 with that hope
they waited all last winter. Alas!
alas! Spring came and went, but the
much lOnged for Mr.. aud Mrs. Sparrow
did not arrive. Summer passed too,
and the children went to the country,
and saw the robins and the yellow
birds and all the rest of the sparrows'
cousins and relatives, but when they
came home their little house was still
| to let, with no prospect of tenant.
| They were almost i'm despair, had al
most come to believe that they were
| too far from the parks and the worms,
and that they never would have any
dear little sparrows of their own, to
| feed and pet, when, early one Novem-
ber morning, there was such twitter-
| ing and chirping in the tree, that not
| only Anna and Willie, but the big
| people, too, went to the windows, and
/ there, at last, were the darling, brown,
speckled, bright-eyed little things
/ three of them, on the branches of the
trees, hopping about, looking into the
/ house, calling to each other, consulting
| one another, discussing all the ques-
tions about situation, neighborhood,
| conveniences, ETC., which always arise
-as happy as young lovers ought to
be-almost as happy as their new land
lord and landlady were in watching
them. OF course they could not move
in that day--in fact, they did not actu-
ally take the house, they only took the
refusal Of it, and then they flew off,
leaving the children in great anxiety,
lest the house should net quite suit
lest in their travels they should see
something more elegant, and be tempt
ed by it.
That same afternoon, however, Viii
lie came in from his play with the other
boys in the street, shouting out before
he fairly got inside Of the house, that
be had seen his brides farther up the
street.-the knew they were the same one
--he would know them anywhere. They
must have been making inquiries
among the neighbors IS to the charac-
ter Of the owners Of the house, and
what Is more, they must have been
satisfied: for in o day or two they moved
in, bag and baggage, and not having to
wait for men to put down carpets and
finish plumbing work, they were very
soon settled in their new quarters,
ready to receive visits from their friends.
The strange thing about it was, that
there were, as I have said, not two
birds-not two pairs-but three birds;
and the question was, Who was the
third? Unfortunately, the children
had not studied bird-language-they
both knew some French, and few, q
very few, words Of German; but spar
row talk was as unintelligible to them
as the Greek declensions which their
brother, who was in college, used to
thunder out at the top Of his voice,
every day. So all they could do was
to guess, and ask the rest Of the family,
who they thought it could be. Well,
some thought one thing and some an
other; one suggested that the brides
mother had come to set them up in
housekeeping; another that it was a
servant, perhaps q French cook who
was specially famous of her fricasseed
worms; others thought it might be an
old bachelor sparrow, or perhaps a
young brother of the groom, who was
engaged to be married, and wanted to
have his house all ready for his bride.
Still, these were only guesses, and the
children can only listen to the birds,
who make plenty Of noise, and try to
get better acquainted with them, in
hopes that some day they will tell them
all their secrets. They give them
plenty to eat, oats and hominy and
crumbs, plenty Of water in little tin
, pie-plate which they keep on their bal
cony, plenty to line their house with,
cotton and wool; and they hope next
spring there will be still younger
couple ready for another house, fol
which there is plenty Of room ON the
next branch Of the old allanthus. They
want me to tell all the children who
! read this, that it Is great deal nicer te
have sparrows in houses out OF doors
than canaries in cages in doors; anc
, they bope all the children will persuade
their fathers to have houses built Tor tht
, birds, and that they won't be discour'
aged il the.house stands empty for evel
|, so long, because, by and by, the brides
! | will surely come.-W0rk and Hny.