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

cove flowers were unIoluiilS III piooHh'
beauty had come to earth and JOY to
all earths creatures. Would Happy
Heart come back to me? 1 lived In
hope and watched.
And one morning, just at SUNRISE
there came one with song and, as L
learned a few hours later, a lover
bewitchingly beautiful and shy. only
one greatly befriended by the dear
little feathered pets of earth can
know my delight when I heard Happy
Hearts boisterously sweet greeting as
he sat, half-buried mid the white
blossoms of a pear tree that grew
right beside my window.
I scattered some food on the win
dow ledge and on the ground beneath;
but Happy Heart would not notice IT,
What cared he for the renewal OF my
friendships offering when "all the
world was running over with joy"
What power had bread crumbs, drop
ned from the hand of a friend, to
tempt him when the fields and orch
ards were redundant with cut-worms
and insects of many kinds? "Why,"
he seemed to sing, should I seek a
strangers friendship when l, with
my loyal lover, am dwelling in loves
paradise!"
It was true that Happy Hearts ac-
tions were no promotion to our friend
ship; but he was my friend, even
though he may have been unconscious
of it, inasmuch as he feasted on the
pests of the garden. Often have l
seen him capture a cut-worm that was
fastening itself around some tender
lily or rose to leave 1t, when its work
was done. a wreck of fragrance and
blossom.
AS the days went by Happy Heart
charmed me with his voice; and his
mate interested me intensely. She
was in the scuppernong arbor when
first 1 saw her; and she was working
among the shadows that kept the sun
light from the nest she was building,
unaided by Happy Heart. Though
she, like most female mocking birds,
could not sing, she could build home
worthy the praise Of any singer. AND
1t was because of her diligence at
home building that I named her Busy.
The name was no honor to her; but
the newly completed nest in the SOUP
pernong vines was.
But it seemed to me as If the little
home had at once deprived Happy
Heart and Busy of each others COM
panionship. For l seldom saw Busy
at any place save the little home,
while Happy Heart was taking in all
the world" as it were. He was here
awhile and there awhile, swinging on
the swaying vines, singing in the tree
tops and feeding on the insects which
he found in the garden. Thus occu-
pied he seemed to have forgotten the
little house in the vines and the timid
housekeeper guarding her prospective
family. And even when, a few days
later, Busys frequent trips to the gar
den in search of food betokened that
other mouths-little mouths which
opened hungrily at her call-were to
be filled, Happy Heart went but sell
dom to the nest. Ever he sang-nev-
er weary and never wearisome. Ever
Busy worked-and often wearied al
most to exhaustion. But hers was a
WEAKNESS that brought joy, for she
was a mother.
But though Happy lived as If he
were made for singing only, that was
no proof that he could do nothing
else besides. Perhaps he knew not as
he sat singing on a bough burdened
with blossoms that the care of his off,
spring would devolve upon him, and
that if he sang he would have to sing
however, for a strange mishap befell
industrious little Busy.
One day she was seeking food for
her ever-hungry children, when she
chanced upon a humming-bird's nest
on top of a gnarly old limb Of mag
nolia. The owner Of this unique lit
tie home spied Busy Immediately and,
with the old mother-love strong in her
wee heart. determined, without hesi-
fancy, to protect her possessions
knowing not that Busy was no de-
structive intruder.
Busy had paused for a moment and
was looking at the wee children of
her unknown neighbor when a vari-
cOlored ball of life darted straight at
her, and with such force as to almost
hurl her off the limb. The next in
slant it returned, humming shrilly,
and Busy felt a keen pain in her left
eye. Frightened, she flew towards
her own home; but ere she was half
way there and while in mid-air, the
almost invisible, but never invincible,
body sped downward, swift as a sun
beam, towards her. Ere Busy could
swerve aside and avoid the onslaught,
the trenchant, needle-like bill of the
infuriated humming bird was plunged
into her other eye. Then the swift lit
tie body returned the way it came
hOmeward
But Busy could not find her home.
O. what was the matter? In her
flight she flew against a tree and fell.
stunned and bruised to the ground.
She heard her little one calling for the
unbound food; but she could not go
to them. The bright sunlight had
fled from her as quickly as the awful
darkness had come. She dared not
try to fly, for flight perished from her
wings when confidence in them had
been lost. All was dark, painfully
dark, everywhere she tried to go.
Busy was blind!
Few people, and not all birds, know
that though the by-throated hum
ming bird sucks the honey from
flowers with the touch of it's slender
bill. that it also takes the sight
from the eyes of many birds, in
an attempt to wreak vengeance for an
injury, real or imaginary. and leaves
them to grope out the remainder of
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