Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-03-22
CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER III.
After Happy Heart had saved me
from the old hermits clutches, he was
very intimate with me. The little girl
herself could not have been more
friendly. Often he came to my den
and sang while / read or wrote. In
time, he acted as If the room belong
ed as much to himself as to me.
One day l found several valuable
documents and choice clippings. which
| had stored away in one Of the pig
con holes in my desk, scattered
around in the back yard. l wondered
who had been meddling with the
things / took pains to keep; and l at
once went to my room to investigate.
I found the pigeon holes that l had
put the document in full Of hetero-
geneous mass of trifies. In one of the
pigeon holes l found eight snails, be-
sides several blackberries. In the 9TH
er was stored a number Of wasp nests
and grass-hoppers. Then l knew why
the clippings 1 valued so much were
out in the yard And l knew, also,
why Happy Heart had been so busy
underneath the caves Of the great red
barns. He had been finding and tear
ing away those little homes, whlch
had cost their owners so much toll, to
hoard, miser-like, so that he could
feast on the undeveloped young OF the
wasps and dirt-daubers, that these
nests-these little homes-contained.
felt that Happy Heart had amply
repaid me for the use of the pigeon
holes he was now OCCUPYING, so l did
not dispute the ownership or disturb
the owner in any way.
Happy Heart would have lived nap
pily in his new possessions, had II not
been for q tresspasser.. This danger
Gus trespasser was none other thah
the house cat, that had often attempt
ed to catch Happy Heart. She SEEM
ed not to tire of her uselss attempts;
and one day while Happy Heart was
on top of the desk, and while picking
out the young wasps from nest, she
sprang at him. Terribly frightened,
Happy Heart flew out of the window.
But he was minus a tail; the cat had
that!
After this narrow escape from
death, Happy Heart went to the Or
chard and took up his abode in an old
hollow apple tree. This old tree was
fairly wrapped in caterpillar webs,
which were full of caterpillars that
| were stripping each green leaf from
the old tree. On these caterpillars
Happy Heart feasted; and in a
months time there were but very few
to be found.
This great old tree was a home TO
Happy Heart. The caterpillars FUR
nished him daily bread, and a hollow
trunk of the old tree gave him "shel-
ter sweet from foes and storms"
But the home of others was in the
old tree, also. Fastened between TWO
limbs was a huge hornet nest TINS
caused me to fear that my Happy
Hearts life was endangered, for these
hornets-thousand of them there
must have been-had stung to death
a pair Of mated crows that had build
ed their nest in the fork OF the tree.
| feared that if Happy Heart contin-
ned to have his home so near the
home of the hornets that they would
not be good neighbors. So. In order
TO prevent my singer from going the
way of the poor crows, l sunocated
the hornets with burnt sulphur one
morning when 1t was too cold for
them to fly. There was fully peck
of hornets in the nest. l let them
STAY on the ground just as they had
fallen from the nest, and for week
Happy Heart did not go far to get
dinner. He seemed to relish his new
diet and, when 1t was all gone, he
managed, after considerable prying. to
get a few more from the nest.
took the old nest and hung 1t up
right near my room window. one
afternoon, a few days later. | discov-
cred that Happy Heart had. dug mole
almost through lit. in searching Tor
more hornets. To say he liked hor-
nets-to eat-would be a mild eX-
preston.
But. indirectly. the nest was
source of great sorrow and pain to
Happy Heart. For every time he saw
hornet nest he thought 1t the place
for a feast.
Now. down in the meadow was
great. gray lump, fastened to a gnarly
limb of a maple tree. This lump re-
sembled the one in the old apple tree.
only it was much larger Though In
plain view of every passer-by 1t had
always been unmolested-even more
than Happy Hearts home in the ap-
nIe tree. Beneath it, the harebells
grew untrampled by the feet OF the
COWS. as they roamed the pasture, and
bIossomed unplucked by the hands of
the BOYS and girls. All avoided going
near the nest, which hung so low to
the ground. lest they arouse and bring
from its dark recesses the easily an
eered inmates, whose sinister hum
told. palmer than words, that they
were quick to assail anything that
came near their home.
Happy Heart was the molester or
this home. Unaware that its owners
we're enemies to all and friends to
none. he lit on the nest, and began to
pry for food. Tearing at the nest