It will be looking on nature, for the most part, for he has fled, at once, among those flowers and thickets: and though he has never, till now, known liberty, never perched upon a tree, nor travelled through the spiritcheering air, yet, believe me, he feels no embarrassment on taking possession of these new and captivating blessings. Some giddiness, I grant, some intoxication of pleasure, may attend the golden runaway's progress; some perplexity, too, may occur, as to which delightful object his first visit shall be paid. As As he was bred in England, he knows not how much a foreigner he is; his ignorance upon this subject may lead him into some blunders. I see him attempting, methinks, to claim acquaintance with that yellowhammer which has alighted near him. The mistake is not unnatural they nearly resemble each other, though the wild bird is the larger for Mira's bird is of mottled feather, such as connoisseurs esteem. He sings, and I can guess the meaning of his lay: noon is near; he asks the linnet, for company-sake, to lead him to a cool asylum;—as thus: ་ Inhabitant of this fair scene, O, guide a stranger bird along, To some deep and shady glen, Dear to peace and dear to song! II. There, while the sun's full glory reigns, CHAP CHAP. II. Innumerous songsters, in the fresh'ning shade their modulations mix Mellifluous. THOMSON. YOU need not be apprehensive, my dear Melanthe, about the bird's subsistence. His excursion having happened in the finest days of summer, he will suffer neither from hunger nor cold: and, depend upon it, stranger as he is to the fields, he will be housed before to-morrow. If you have comforted yourself upon B 3 6 THE CANARY-BIRD. upon that point, I shall continue my story. Having eluded all our search, he is gone in quiet, no doubt, with the yellow-hammer; and I must suppose that he has been introduced to the tenants of yonder grove. The stranger excites general curiosity. From over-hanging boughs, and from all sides, linnets, chaffinches, black caps, sparrows, wrens, red-breasts, cast upon him an inquiring eye. The yellow hammer is taken to task: "Who is this! Who is this !" resounds from a hundred bills. |