Blackbuck

“ Edward got the best of every box. He went on with the unpacking, giving the coat sly twitches from time to time, as he pulled out blouses, skirts, belts, queer female garments, boots, soft felt hats--the green Homburg he put on at once, as who should dare to take it from him--black and brown Trilbys, shooting-caps, gaiters, flannel shirts, pyjamas, and heaven knows what else besides.
The excitement was prodigious, and the floor looked like a bargain sale. Everybody talked at once ”

“ About this time, too, the Blackbird noticed that many of his feathered friends were unusually busy. They seemed to have no time for talk. He met them flying hither and thither with feathers, small pieces of straw, or twigs, in their beaks. About this time also, the Blackbird himself felt a strong desire to have a nest of his own. But how could he build it by himself? He must find a partner to share his labours––and where could he find such a partner? He was almost in despair, so at last he determined to pour out his desire in song, as he perched one morning on the branch of a budding hawthorn. ”

“ Presently she returned with Bob, who looked rather plagued and uncomfortable, with a great slice of cork in one hand and a bottle of gum in the other, and a regular housewife of needles in the lappet of his coat. He was going to mount a specimen of a variety of “devilʼs coach–horse,” which he had never seen before, and whose tail was forked like a trident.
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“Never can let me alone,” said Bob; “just ready to begin I was; and I am sure to spoil his thorax. He is getting stiff every moment.”
Bull Garnet looked at him brightly and gladly, even at such a time. ”

“ The little boy still held the bough in his grasp, the nest was on one side, he stretched out his eager little hand.
The Blackbird scarcely breathed. The boy’s fingers were over the nest; they nearly closed on one of the eggs. Then he suddenly drew back, “No, no, Alice,” he said, “Mamma says I must never rob the poor birds. We won’t rob our own Blackbird.”
Then the branch was slowly released and returned to its place, and the little fellow, who with no small amount of self-denial had conquered the intense desire to take the eggs, stood still gazing at the bush. ”

“ The little bird in his scarlet and brown plumage looked more richly coloured and even more beautiful than usual, as, supported by his slender legs, with his head thrown back and his feathers puffed out, he poured forth his light-hearted carol to the leafless woods.
“How can you sing on this miserable morning?” said the Blackbird, gloomily, and indeed half contemptuously.
“Miserable morning!” replied the Robin in a tone of surprise; “why I don’t think it’s at all a miserable morning,––just look at the beautiful snow.” ”

“ He’s one of the laziest and most unprincipled of creatures. He has only one good point about him, that’s his note, and you must know that well. His ‘twofold shout’ of cuckoo is a welcome sound to every one, for it tells us that Spring is here. As I said, however, that is his only good point,––for, can you believe it? he never builds a nest!”
“Never builds a nest!” exclaimed the Blackbird in astonishment, “then where does he lay his eggs?”
“Why,” said the Rook, “the cuckoos have the impudence, the audacity, to drop them in the nest of 61 some other bird, any nest that takes their fancy. ”

“ The Blackbird could not at all understand it, but as he was well sheltered, and soon got warm in the ivy, he fell asleep and forgot all about it.
The Blackbird on a small white hillock.
The next morning, however, when he woke up and peeped forth from his green canopy, he was much astonished by the sight which met his eyes. Everything was white! The green fields were gone, the lawn where he found his worms, the flower-beds where he caught his insects,––all had disappeared, and a broad, white, sparkling covering lay over everything. ”

“ When he went on deck, Jack thought of a topic as thrilling as this imminent duel between ships and he remarked with joyous excitement:
"Now, Joe, as soon as ever Blackbeard gets his drubbing, we beg a boat and men and gear of Captain Bonnet and go up the creek to fish out the treasure chest and dig in the knoll."
"Hook your fish before you fry 'em," replied the sagacious apprentice-boy. "This scrummage with the Revenge will be no dancin' heel-and-toe. A bigger ship, more guns and men, and a Blackbeard who will fight like a demon when he's cornered. ”

“ I am an old bird,” continued the Rook, “but I’ve never known the seasons to fail. We do not ‘sow, nor do we 15 gather into barns,’ but still ‘God feeds us.’ I always look forward, and hopefully too, to every season as it comes––Spring,––Summer,––Autumn,––Winter,––and, my young friends, you will be wise to do the same, for, do you know, this trustful feeling is called ‘faith.’”
The Rook then shut his learned beak, and opened and spread his wide black wings, and slowly sailed away, leaving the Blackbird and the Robin to meditate on all that he had been telling them. ”

“ The opening and shutting of the window had frightened the Blackbird; 18 he had flown to a more distant bush; but as the more courageous Robin only fluttered about for a moment, the Blackbird soon came back, and in less than a minute the Robin was upon the gravel path hard at work picking up the dainty white crumbs. The Blackbird still hesitated on the laurel branch, loth to remain, yet fearful to advance, but at last, impelled by a sudden pang of hunger, he ventured to join his red-breasted friend. ”

“ And in Amersham they hired from the Griffin a rickety old cart, drawn by a still more rickety horse, to drive them to Penn’s Woods. She, with her own money, bought stone-bottle ginger-beer⁠—two bottles. It made her day complete to have those bottles, though unless they had driven she would have done without them. The street was deserted, drenched in blazing sunshine. Rooks were cawing in the elms behind the church. Not a soul was about as they crawled away from the houses and passed upwards between hedges smothered in cow-parsley over the hill. ”

“ The Blackbird settled on a bough close to the Rook, and as he did so he noticed some swallows skimming over the lawn far below them. They were beautiful birds, their blue-black plumage glinted in the sunshine, and now and 41 then a quick turn displayed their brown throats and white breasts. They were darting hither and thither, so rapidly that the eye could hardly follow them, catching the many-winged insects as they flew by. Then they would suddenly dart off to the topmost gables of the old mansion, where their compact mud nests could be plainly seen against the dark gray stones. ”

“ He can chirp—chick, check, chuck, to his little ones as softly as any other bird. But only his best friends ever hear his sweetest tones, for the Blackbirds do not know how to be polite. They all talk at once. That is why most people think they only scream and chatter. Did you ever hear the blackbirds in the cornfields? If the farmers thought about it perhaps they would feel that part of every corn crop belongs to the Blackbirds. When the corn is young, the farmer cannot see the grubs which are eating the young plants. The Blackbirds can. They feed them to their babies—many thousands in a day. ”

“ An uneasy thrill swept the multitude. Each turned to look the other in the eye. Who would accept Father Buck’s challenge? Black Buck hesitated, measuring the sturdy limbs of the leader with his own, and comparing the thick-set neck and head of antlers with those of his immediate neighbors. ”

“ It was cold with one's face to the north wind, but it would be more sheltered in the valley. And it was. By the light of the rising moon he could see a mist-shroud lying thick over the plain. Now that he was in it, all things were hidden as by a veil, save the sparse grass at his feet, dotted by the bits of quartz that had once been bread. The good God had not turned them again this night, anyhow; but the blackbirds would not be hungry, for all that.
He had taken out his loaves, and was about to break them in bits, when out of the grey mist something showed, dim, mysterious, silent. ”

“ I had a fair look at Blackbeard himself, in the stern of the boat,—red ribbons in his whiskers, and his sash stuck full of pistols."
"That old rip isn't an easy man to mistake, Jack. Now the fat is in the fire," replied the Hawkridge lad who, for once, appeared discouraged. "Cap'n Bonnet is a vast sight happier than us. He gets the Revenge without strikin' a blow."
"But Blackbeard gets us," wailed Master Cockrell. "And I helped to chase him through the swamp after we rammed the pirogue into his wherry and capsized the treasure chest. ”

“ But Blackbird, not silenced, then spoke out again;
"I've built my small nest with much labor and pain.
I'm a poor singing gentleman, Sirs, it is true,
Though cockneys do often mistake me for you;
But I keep Mrs. Blackbird, and four little eggs,
And neither e'er pilfers, or borrows, or begs.
Now have I not right on my side, do you see?"
But they flew at and pecked him all down the elm-tree.
Ah! wickedness prospers sometimes, I much fear;
And virtue's not always victorious, that's clear:
At least, not at first: for it must be confessed
Poor Blackbird lost many a stick from his nest ”

“ The Blackbird had changed his position––he had done it several times: he had moved from a birch to an elm, and then to a beech-tree. But it was of no avail, the little cold droppings seemed to pursue him wherever he went, and it was not till quite late in the night that he found real shelter, and got a little rest in a thick mantle of ivy which completely covered a wall near the stables.
What were these cold droppings? He could not imagine. He knew well enough they were not rain; rain always made a sharp pelting noise as it struck against the trees. ”

“ The black begged and prayed of me not to ride after the brute; and Mr Neal, who was some distance off, shouted to me, as loud as he could, for Heaven’s sake, to stop; that I did not know what [Pg 21] it was to chase a wild horse in a Texan prairie, and that I must not fancy myself in the meadows of Louisiana or Florida. I paid no attention to all this—I was in too great a rage at the trick the beast had played me; and, jumping on the negro’s horse, I galloped away like mad. ”

“ He was a meek and solemn fellow really. Nature had dressed him in black, and he respected her taste by repeating it in his clothes. Even his expression was funereal, though his black eyes twinkled.
The servant-girl at once brought in his plate of soup, and he tucked the napkin beneath his chin and began to eat. From twelve to two the post was closed; his recreation time was precious, and no minute must be lost. After dinner he took his coat off and did the heavy work of the garden, under the merciless oversight of the Widow Jequier, his sister-in-law, the cash-box ever by his side. ”

“ And Gray Eagle did not need a spy-glass to show him that the prisoner was his daughter.
Red Pine did not care, now, for the lives that had been lost. He forgot for the moment his habitual stoicism, and danced for joy.
"Waugh! the Blackfoot squaw has bad luck!" he said. "The warriors of Red Pine have killed the Pawnees, and there is now no help for her. The Queen of the Blackfeet shall yet sit in the lodge of a Sioux chief."
"Never!" exclaimed Snowdrop. "My people are near, and they will sweep the Sioux from the earth." ”

“ And he meant the world to take this attitude without delay. He dressed accordingly, knowing that of every ten people nine judge value from clothes, and hat, and boots--especially boots. His patent leather, buttoned boots were dazzling, with upper parts of soft grey leather. And his shiny 'topper' wore a band of black. Minks, so far as he knew, was not actually in mourning, but somebody for whom he ought to be in mourning might die any day, and meanwhile, he felt, the band conveyed distinction. It suited a man of letters. ”

“ In the Central States, especially in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they are much more abundant, and render themselves conspicuous and dreaded by the farmers through the extent of their depredations on the crops. The evil [Pg 217] deeds of all birds are ever much more noticed and dwelt upon than their beneficial acts. So it is, to an eminent degree, with the Crow Blackbird. Very few seem aware of the vast amount of benefit it confers on the farmer, but all know full well—and are bitterly prejudiced by the knowledge—the extent of the damages this bird causes. ”

“ When morning came, the King said to his men, "Go, fetch the carcass of that insolent bird, and give the Chickens an extra bushel of corn." But when they entered the henhouse, Blackbird was singing away merrily on the roost, and all the fowls lay around in heaps with their necks wrung.
They told the King, and an angry King was he. "To-night," said he, "you must shut up Blackbird in the stable." So Blackbird was shut up in the stable, among the wild Horses.
At midnight, when all the world was asleep, Blackbird said—
"Come out, Rope, and come out, Stick,
Tie the Horses lest they kick ”

“ None of these birds are at all closely allied to the Bower-birds of Australia, but in the Thrush and the Blackbird we, at any rate, get a good deal nearer to them. With regard to the Blackbird, I have seen one clear instance of an apparently quite capricious abandonment of an almost finished nest in order to build another; nor is it in the least likely that I happened here—any more than in the case of the Grebes—to come upon a pair of very exceptional birds. It is the rarest thing, I think, speaking generally, to meet with a real exception. ”