New-York tribune., 1902-04-26
HEZEKIAH'S WIVES. BY Lille Hamilton French
16mo pp. l16. HougftOn. Mifflin & co.

HEZEkIAIis VINES By Lille ,1e e,! Hamilton French
delightful little book is this as winsome in
its way as the small person whose engaging
character and simple loves it describes One
can but call Hezekiah person. for in traits
ami behavior he was-alas, ''waSi'-most COM
ically human.
With humor and tenderness and a feminine
philosophy sometimes sparkling, sometimes
grave, this distinguished birds friend and house
mate OF years sets forth his biography. Heze-
kiah a joyous little bachelor. a good COM
rade musician of surprising powers. doer of
unexpected and always attractive things. is suf
ficiently interesting, but Hezekiah a husband
the Indifferent husband of the adoring Miss
Goosey the patient and devoted husband of
the domestic Rebecca-thus he is quite
chanting. Miss Goosey. the wife of his early
youth loved him well. and like most peo-
pie hopelessly in love, lacked fine discretion"
have seen her sit for half an hour at time
cuddled up close to him on top of the mirror
wings touching, just under the shadow of the
plaster singing b0y-he all golden yellow, she
a bronze green. and her mouth wide open and
held up toward him. begging for a kiss in the
low notes which birds use in their courtship.
Once in while Hezekiah would turn and give
her little peck on her bill. but ii was always
in bored. perfunctory fashion, and only to
sumo afterward his attitude of Indifference
ignoring the little figure beside him, the open
bill still held up to him, and the pleading voice.
But when that overfond wife was laid away
beneath the rubber tree. and the languid Re
becca,. her successor arrived. who so gallant a
bridegroom, assiduous husband. consci-
entous papa. Hezekiah, He fed sang 70
and amused his whole family of wife and eight
children. and Rebecca sat back complacently
and accepted all his attentions as matter of
course
If Hezek!ah's duties wearied him toward the
last. he let her know it. nor failed in an
expression of devotion. Before June had passed
however l began to have my doubts His de
votion had become too punctilious. This at
least. is what happened:
Ny rubber tree had to he carried to the
florists ard the sofa that had stood before it
pushed nearer the mirror Then, for the
first time, HeZekiah, coming face to face with
his image in the glass without the con-
fusion of intervening leaves between. saw be
fore him lovely yellow bird valiant graceful
beautiful himself the only yellow bird in
the room, his family being all green's and
browns. For three days every one who came to
see me laughed at HeZekiah fghting the vel
low bird in the mirror, whose courage equalled
his own, between battles going back feed
his wife and little ones At the end of the
third day he fell in love with the bird whom he
saw L knew it, though Rebecca did not. for
she was sitting on her nest. happy with her
eight children around her and her prospects of
more ! Hezekiah take bits of cotton
tpulled out of Rebeccas nest, too), and, going
up to the mirror call the yellow beauty to
him. Rchecca. of course. thought when she
heard these notes that they were for her. Some
times she answered them. Then l used to feel
sorry for Rehecca. He would run up and
down before the mirror, with the cotton in his
bill, tipping his little head from side TO side as
ne went. his tiny black eyes shining his feath-
ers ruf1ing while in his sweetest nesting notes
he would try to begue the yellow beauty whose
rlnnd-ttrEs was the uarvel of it-exactly