If the male was before "ruffled with
whirlwind of his ecstasies," he was now in danger of being rent
asunder. He inflated his throat and caroled as wren never caroled
before. And the female, too, how she cackled and darted about! How
busy they both were! Rushing into the nest, they hustled those eggs
out in less than a minute, wren time. They carried in new material,
and by the third day were fairly installed again in their old
headquarters; but on the third day, so rapidly are these little dramas
played, the female bluebird reappeared with another mate. Ah! how the
wren stock went down then! What dismay and despair filled again those
little breasts! It was pitiful. They did not scold as before, but
after a day or two withdrew from the garden, dumb with grief, and gave
up the struggle.
The bluebird, finding her eggs gone and her nest changed, seemed
suddenly seized with alarm and shunned the box; or else, finding she
had less need for another husband than she thought, repented her
rashness and wanted to dissolve the compact. But the happy bridegroom
would not take the hint, and exerted all his eloquence to comfort and
reassure her.
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