The Portland daily press., 1882-05-22
SIR. X. NJ" in Puck.
A Bird Idyl.

AS they stood together, looking out into the
garden, she raised her eyes softly to his, and,
while an expression of sweet suspense crept
softly over her pretty face, murmured:
'Don't the little birds have nice timer"
"Oh, yes" he answered. "they do that.
They have political sinecures without voting
or having to get Congressman to back them.
And they are in for life, and they can't write
letters that will expose them ten years later,
and they haven't got war records to be sprung
on them at the wrong moment, and they know
nothing about finance to get them into trouble.
Oh. yes, darling, the birds have pretty nice
time of il" =,
ssBut their lives seem to be made of love"
she whispered, family.
eyes: but YOU mustn't bet too heavily on
love. 1 have seen human beings whose lives
seemed to be made up of love; but, when there
was no one around, their home assumed the
character of a Democratic primary, with coca
sized tornado emptied into the free fight. You
mustn't Judge the feelings of a married couple
for each other by the way they act at KETTLE
drum. But then, the birds have the advantage
over men in making love-"
"No jokes on bills and 'notes'f' she broke
NO" he replied, "but because they have a
sure thing. They don't have to go down town
and write poetry and put in coal all day for
four dollars per week, and they never have to
save up money to pay for ice-cream and theatre
parties They never have to buy clothes, and
when they do fall in love they are not talke d
about all over creation, and they don't have to
meander up to the girls father and tell him a
lot of lies, and prime their references to do
| likewise. Oh, yes, the bird in love has pref
ty soft thing
"Do you think they understand each other
when they twitter?"
II don't think there can be any doubt about
that because the male seems to wax mad when
the female gets in all the talk. Now that te-
male over there seems to be in the act OF nall
ing her lord for new silk dress, or command
| ing him not to be looking at that other bird
| over there in the polonaise. OF course they
understand each other, or else they would keep
| STILL"
s.Would you like to be bird?o
"Not much" he REPLIED with sgreat empha-
sis, 81 wouldn't like the idea of getting up at
| five in the morning, and washing in dew on
| soggy flower-bed, and squawking off lot oil
rapture over breakfast of raw worms. Oh.
| no, I don't want any bird in mine l would
| rather sell suspender5 on commlsslon!
HBut, suppose we were both bIrds?'' she said,
| with slight tremor in her voice.
"Then we should have to dodge the cat, and
| boys with guns, and we'd have to live In trees
| and have dull time, and no lemonade through
straws And / shouldn't have to call on you 10
| tight shoes and sWallow-tail coat. And we'd
| sit on a currant-bush, and kiss with our bills
| hard, cold, solidifed bone kisses-just think Of
| it! And l shouldn't have any shirt-front for
| YOU to lay your head on. And, If / reached
| out for handful of waist, wouldn't run the
risk of having yard of my palm torn OF on a
| pin which"
"What becomes of the birds?" she broke in,
while an early-dawn tint suffused her features
$50 South for their health, generally; but,
| if we were birds, we might be knocked down
| with sticks and stuffed to ornament a mantel-
| piece or lady's hat. How would you like to
| be filed with lot of sawdust and chemicals
"Not much. I'd rather be stuffed with ice
| cream and caramels. But / mean, what be.
| comes of the birds at last?" We never ind
| them. Now the flowers fade and blow away
| and we know what becomes of everything else:
| bnt we never find dead birds lying in the gar
| den walk. Do their companions bear them
away and lay them lovingly beneath the leaves:
| L always had an idea that a dainty poetic legend
| could be made of it,
cit could be done, my dear, and it would
| make nice ten-dollar poem. But don't take
any stock in musical valleys and happy spheres
millions of miles away when you figure on
| birds. They don't go to any such place, my
dear. They generally go to the dime-restau
rant, where they are worked into pies, or cast
to play the difficult role of the quail on toast
She sank on the sofa in hutter, and he sale
| he would be around on the morrow to take hel
| to the m at.