Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-06-16

.racker FAXED in Malaga wine and
sugar. and brought to them all the
BODYBUILDING flowers that | could
find When brought in a bouquet
they Immediately flew to it, buzzing
joyouSly.
| gave them a Snuffer tray for a
bathing tub. but one of them would
never Voluntarily take his bath, so the
other would chase him around the
room, take him by one leg, drag him
to the tray. and pull him into the
water. He seemed to be doing this
for fun; there was never any quarrel
inc between them. As there was an
open fireplace in the room | always
mad to cover it with a shawl when [
let them ont. but one day | forget to
cover it before opened the cage door
and one Of them took bee line for the
fireplace, bun, rs though frightened at
the dark chasm. he flew quickly back
to me, aighted on my hand and sat
there trembling for some moments.
When / came into the room, after
leaving them for awhile, they would
fly to me. chipping and seeming very
glad to see me. They never showed
any fear of anyone, and seemed to en-
JOY Ewat;n~ on my finger, and would
look in my face very intelligently.
Sometimes they GOT out of the house,
but always returned and usually
ahghted on the comb in my mothers
HAIR.
III the fall after the flowers were
gone they did not seem well. During
Il, L. :
no blossoms but those of a few clover
heads under the apple trees. | was
making a siikweed cape. and as the
feathery stuff was flying about the
house one of them cot some Of it into
his hrOat and died The next day. He
had appeared stupid for some days be-
fore. The other. who had seemed a
little better than this one, grew worse
after the death of his companion and
lived only two weeks longer.
One warm day in the middle of
October, as | was going into the orchard
to Get the few remaining clover bios
SONS. | took the bird in the cage with
me, thinking the air might do him
good. held the cage in one hand and
was picking clover with the other. but
when | was going to put the clover in
the cage found the door open and no
bird there. suppose that the wind
had blown the door open and he had
fallen out and died. | called him by
the pet names which he knew, and if
he had been living he would have
answered me. | searched long and
carefully for him, but never found him.
| think they died for lack of their food,
the honey of flowers. If | could have
taken them to the southern states ear
ly in September | presume they could
have lived through the winter. had
become very much attached to my
beautiful tiny pets and felt their loss
keeniy.
But l have the nest yet, lovely
wonder, of softest butf-brown felt,
covered externally with lichens, and
glued to the remnant of broken twig.
the nest forming one and the twig the
other prong of fork, and the lichen
extending in an unbroken line from
the nest along the twig-a tiny twig,
no larger than straw, supports it from
beneath. Burroughs says: at is an
event in. ones life to find a hunming-
birds nest" | was so much interest.
ed in the still greater event Of finding
and caring for the young birds that
lid not think much about the nest un-
i il was all that remained to me eX-
@ept the memory of my tanned hum
miuL birds.