The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-13
WOUNDED FRENCH SOLDIER GAVE
 NIGHTINGALES AS GIFT TO U. s. Yankee Nurse Received Birds and Arranged For Their Journey to America-Frenchman Now
 Awaits Letter Telling of Their Arrival.

his beak and feet are flesh colored. His eyes are large, he needs them to see well at night When I kept watch over the cows, I used to catch night -ngaIes to eat them.
 You did that?'
 T stopped it because my mother wouldn't waste money cooking them. She was right; they are only good to listen to. He's not very clever either about his nest; he builds in the white thorn bush well within 4e reach of weasels and bobcats. He sings fiji teen days and fifteen nights. He is jealous of his song, jealous as the violinist of Miramont who hanged himself when he found his master. a Partisan who could play better than he. I have heard it said that if a young girl having a sweet, lovely voice, yourself, perhaps, Mademoi- selle-
 No, no, Barbarin, have no voice Were to sing for a quarter of an l hour near his nest, the nightingale. 1 oue of pure jealousy, would fall dead No one would ever hear him fall ! but you would hear him no more I ! am telling you only what has been | told me. He's a gossipy bird. He i comes at a whistle, at the moving of a cat, at the sound of a grass blade | ~-C 'ii tJSbNN SCIi I44S pS1IIIlS ana you
 catch him on almost any snare. The , hard part is to keep him alive once i you have put him in a cage l Miss Florence looked for an instant ' at the wounded soldier as if she in { tended to ask him a question, but | she kept silence. Three steps farther i on, the conversation turned to an- i other subjects.
 ] The week following Toussafnt re- q
 | away to his farm in the heart of the
 real country, and had hardly finish ed his first fifteen minutes in his house, when he hurried up a thread like path which led to the mill of Maitre Hennebique
 ed' -oE> pieFa7- Ineed?'
 worms
 An, my brave gars, you can have
 plenty if you want them
 When he had gone down again f~-
 to the plains, Toussaint chose 2. spo1
 neither too far from the house nor
 too near it, where three eIms, stand
 ing in triangle on the edge of inc
 meadow plunged their roots into the depth of well into the rich soil They were straight-stemmed, wi hE rounded foliage through the interE stlces of which the light filtered. I Either I don't know anv+1,7,,g gS
 about it, or that's nightins,1c.sl ; roosting-place,' he said to himself, A
 bird singing here would be heard everywhere'
 With that he turned over a so1Jare , haf metre of ground between the trees. scattered crumbs over it and faked it. Before dark he struck q
 short, peeled branch right in the t itllddle' With two worms fastened to : the top of it.
 s At daybreak he found that the bait . had been eaten. The nightinga1e
 having come once would s71re1-[ "a s turn He was caught in snare the . following night, and before the end
 o1 the week, three others of his sDe-
 l cies joined in the cage which was l placed in the cellar well sheltered I with a lining of green linen inside l the bafs- Almost at once, despite the responsiveness of his parents, who nao no Idea what he was about, Bar q barln left his home, and made the
 best of his way to the hospital. When : he appeared there, cage in hand, Miss 6 Florence said to him: 9 It's nice of you to come and see
 me- But what have you there for your comrades?'
 D you
 l Whatever it is, I must not take it.
 r mean, a present for America r Tn that case I will accept it. f He half lifted the canvas cover g An! guess what it is; four night e i ingaIes, four singing souIsI Ton are
 very, very French. Barbarin I shall [ never forget it.
 I Faith said the young fellow. q : don't know whether they're males or S females; that's chance you have y to take But my mother told me only g yesterday that they made such a : racket that for three nights in the :. spring she couldn't sleep = II required fully half an hour to s explain all the precautions that must ] | be taken for the journey-hory to feed
 them. and when to open the cage,
 preferably on a mild, cloudy day : l and also to come to an understandfng . on the subject of the climate which
 is best for nightingaIes; for the Unit : ed States is a vast empire y have no idea which state will ob- n tain the four trapped singers. know Il simply that they started across the n | ocean; that the captain had in his y hands three pages of directions, writ ,. ten in a bold, firm hand; that a col s onel, a millionaire manufacturer, and
 a naturalist were advised of their |, dispatch; that Miss Florence Dolly :. gave them orders that a, cable should e be sent her on their arrival in port;
 and that she had to start before she t received it.
 Toussaint Barbarin, who has gone e back to his trade, awaits every day = the promised letter postmarked Phil
 adelphia, New York. or San Antonio, = Texas. He is patient and hopeful. He
 however, says sometimes:
 T like the Americans, and I gave
 them a, present that nobody else had
 thought of giving them. If the ship e didn't arrive, whether they were four }, females, or even four males that I 5, put in the cage, it would be bad luck
 for America
 # DENY STRIKE REPORT