The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1890-08-22

ton, but a very white face looked back at
me from the mirror, before which l stood. L
believe if anything l brushed my hair longer
than usual that night; then, dividing it in
two parts with great exactness, began plait-
ing it, turning over in my mind all the while
what course of action l should adopt. Sud-
denly remembered that had forgotten to
bring up the basket of silver, which we al
ways kept in our room at night.
"There," l exclaimed aloud, 81 left the sill
yer down stairs. l must ask John to bring
it up with him.
John Oh, John !" l said, going out in
the passage and calling down the steps, "bring
the spoons and forks up with you when you
come"
There was no answer The dining room
door was shut and John was deep in his
book.
"How provokingr I exclaimed. 81 will
have to go down for them myself"
Every detail of that nights adventure seems
craven, as with an iron pen, upon my mind
The very sound of my slippers-loose at the
heel-as went down the bare steps is dis
tinct in my memory.
John" / said. as closing the dining room
door behind me, crossed the room and placed
my hand upon my husbands shoulders,
don't exclaim al what am going to tell you
There is a man under the bed in our ROOM
He doesn't know that / have seen him.
Slip quietly out at the back door and call for
help before he makes his escape" l don't
think ten minutes could have elapsed before
my husband returned, accompanied by two
policemen armed to the very teeth, but it
seemed like hours to me as l stood there
thinking of our little one sleeping 30 I'M
consciously on her bed, and of the villain ly-
ing beneath it. He was big. burly fellow,
it was discovered, when al last he had been
dragged from his hiding place and induced
to assume the perpendicular. On his person,
in addition to my diamond ring. gold watch
and set of pearls, was found a bottle of chic
reform, big knife and loaded revolver
The next day very tremulous heroine was
reading in the morning paper an account of
a brave woman's adventure with burglar
The tremulous heroine was myself. The
brave woman-the account said, she was N.Y.
self, too.-Grdce WillOugh6y.
The Wonderful Nest Of the Baltimore
OriOIe.
W. H Gibson, in July Scribner.
The skilful nests of the vireos have yet
their matchless pattern in the work of that
prince of weavers, the "hang- bird" or Balti-
more oriole, whose swinging, pendulous
nest is a masterpiece, not only of textile art,
but equally of constructive skill, whether
from an engineering or architectural'point of
view. What sagacious perception of means
and intelligent discrimination in their en-
ployment are here disclosed The trite
maxim that ''the strength of chain is only
that of its weakest link" would seem, on
superficial glance at the nest, to be entirely
ignored by the oriole, the attachment of the
nest often seeming to exhibit a daring
dearth of material and in singular contrast to
the elaborate density of the weaving below.
A closer examination, however, shows a
most sagacious compensation in the econ
omy of this apparently weak portion; for
here it will be found in almost every instance
the toughest fibre in the entire nest has been
concentrated. in most cases that have come
under my observation; and in three spec
linens now before me, consisting of remnants
of strings, fsh-line, strips of cloth securely
twisted and Topped around the forked or
dropping twigs, the loose ends below. being
intricately interviewer among the gray hemp
en- fbres of which the nest is composed, the
whole structure being literally sewed through
with long horse-hairs.
Remembering Wilson's investigations into
the similarly compact nest-fabric of the Or
chard oriole, from which he disentangled
strand of grass only thirteen inches long, but
which in that distance was thirty-four times
hooked through and returned in the meshes,
the relation of which fact led an old lady &C.
quantance of his to ask whether sit would
not be possible to teach the birds to darn
stockings" l was led to test the darning
skill of the hapg-bird which uses the horse
hair in true regulation style. With much
labor succeeded in following single hair
through fourteen passes from outside to in
tprinr in, tho lpDuth nF QhOlt ten iOnhPS
which l was then willing to assume as an
average as to the total, which would doubt
less have reached at least thirty stitches.
When this is multiplied by the hundreds of
similar sinews with which the body of the
nest is compacted some idea may be formed
of its strength.