網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

A FORTRESS-CATHEDRAL OF SOUTHERN FRANCE

941

attitude was from that of some attendants in some stores not far from Broadway. And then the hotel! Madame, our landlady, was greatly interested in her guests, and manifestly pleased that Albi's attractions had brought the tourists to her house to stay overnight. And the rooms! Large red tiles, instead of rugs or carpets, decorated the floors, and the quaint old furniture waits for some covetous connoisseur-and long may it wait.

The next morning a visit to the great Archevêché, or archbishop's house, adjoining the cathedral, was in order. Through vast rooms and halls in this great ecclesiastical fortress of the thirteenth century we went, through gloomy dungeons that had held unhappy prisoners during the Revolution, through wine cellars that testified to the good taste in such matters of the early occupants of the place--and then to the quiet, tree-shaded cloisters that overlooked the river and furnished an ideal place for meditative exercise. Here indeed was a retreat for souls that wished to renounce the world.

But we did not wish to renounce it, and so we drifted back to the world as it was represented in Albi's delightful market. On the way a curious thatch-like sign over an old house was noted, and a passer-by was asked as to its significance. There, he said, dwelt a dealer in wine, and that was his trade symbol. It was, of course, as we might have known, the traditional "bush" of the wine merchant; and its presence proved that the proverb, Good wine needs no bush," was not accepted in this land of good wine and buyers and sellers thereof.

Why is it that the food in French markets looks so much more attractive than that in our own? Perhaps it is because the French are fastidious in matters of cookery, and will not accept the things that our housewives are willing to pay for. At any rate, the strawberries and cherries of Albi were altogether too tempting for the visitors to resist, and the generous measures of each which were handed over for a few sous were disposed of then

and there, amid the sellers of fruit, cheese, vegetables, and notions of a decidedly French flavor, and all seemingly delectable. And the polite venders of these good things did not even smile at the eagerness of the appreciative tourists.

Are the French people naturally kindly and courteous to all, or have they an especially warm corner in their hearts for Americans? We had gone down to the river to see the women washing clothes on its banks, after the old fashion, and when we were returning to the heights a sudden shower overtook us. While we were standing undecided whether to seek shelter or to brave the downpour, a pleasant-faced little woman who was sewing in her doorway invited us to come in out of the unpleasantness. We gladly complied, and soon she was telling us her little history. She had been a Swiss girl, and still longed for her native mountains; but she had married an Albigensian, a good man, and here for many years her home had been on the heights above the river. Was there much rain here? was a natural question. Oh, yes, was the answer, and in the winter there was snow. Last winter, especially, the snow was piled high on the streets of Albi, and the Tarn was frozen. Would we like to see her little house? Of course we should! The fine old hall clock was a wedding present; so was that curious chest of drawers; but the big stove came to her only last year, and it was a treasure, for it had kept them warm through the bitter winter. Everything in the dear little house was spotlessly neat and clean, and the visit offered a charming glimpse into the home life that makes the French the least given to emigration of any modern And why should any one ever want to leave the delightful town of Albi for a necessarily less delightful abode? At least one person, who visited the old home of the Albigenses by chance, remarked to another, "Don't you think you could persuade your company to transfer their business from New York to Albi-for I want to stay there the rest of my life!"

race.

[graphic][merged small]
[graphic]

A COVEY OF MASSACHUSETTS QUAIL FED UNDER THE AUTHOR'S DIRECTION AND SAVED DURING A WINTER WHEN NEARLY ALL THE QUAIL IN THE STATE DIED FROM STARVATION

FEEDING WILD BIRDS BY SIMPLE METHODS'

BY ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES

E

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR

LSEWHERE I have shown how to feed the winter birds by means of food houses, window-boxes, food trolleys, food trees, and other devices. Each of these is attractive and has its own peculiar advantages; but if for any reason we cannot have any of these things, we can get along very well without them. And, though it may mean a little harder work on our part, the birds will probably be just as well satisfied.

We may begin by putting out some suet for the insectivorous birds. I believe in having rather large pieces, weighing, say, about a pound apiece, at a few principal points, and a number of smaller pieces scattered more widely, in order to attract the attention of as many birds as possible and guide them to the larger lumps. If our final object is to attract the birds to the house, or to some point near it, let us first select the side of the house to which we wish to bring them. If we try to attract them to all sides, we can probably do it, but shall not have as many in any one place. Usually people like to have them come to points where they can be seen from the principal living-rooms. Suppose, then, that we decide on this plan. Let us look out of the wir.dow and see if we can find a tree, say, seventy-five or a hundred feet away to which we can tie one of our large lumps of suet. Let us suppose that we see such a tree, and that there is a well-exposed branch from eight to twelve feet from the ground. We fix that branch in our minds, and, suet in hand, we go out to the tree. Perhaps we can easily climb to the branch; but, if not, we can get a ladder. We should have three or four pieces of soft string of convenient length, and with one of these tie the suet at just the place and in just the position we want it. It is well to have it either on top of the branch or on the side of it; if it is fastened underneath, certain birds which like suet would find it hard to get. If it is fastened on the side of the branch, of course it should be on the side nearer the house where it can be seen. The other pieces of string

This article will be included in "Bird Guests and How to Entertain Them," by Ernest Harold Baynes, to be published shortly by E. P. Dutton & Co.

should now be crisscrossed back and forth, and should bite into the suet a little at each turn, so that it may be left snug and tight. The object of having several strings is to prevent a squirrel from detaching the suet by simply cutting one string with his teeth. The loose ends of the string may now be cut off and the feeding station is complete.

Next let us go to a tree, say, from ten to twenty feet from the window, and there we will tie a second piece of suet at a point a little higher than the window itself. A third piece we will tie either to the window-sill or to a stick or a board which may be fastened to the window-sill. Those three we will call our main suet stations. Smaller pieces of suet we will tie in trees and shrubs out in all directions from the house and farther away from it. These distant ones will probably be visited first, and as the birds gain confidence they should approach nearer and nearer until they come to the window itself.

To encourage those who may think it a difficult matter to gain the confidence of our feathered neighbors, I give the following list of twenty-one kinds of birds which have come to feed at windows in the village of Meriden, New Hampshire, where we have been feeding for the past three years. Those marked with a star have visited our own window:

*Hairy woodpecker, *downy woodpecker, *ruby-throated humming-bird, *blue jay. *pine grosbeak, *purple finch, *white-winged crossbill, *redpoll, *pine siskin, vesper sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, white-throated sparrow, tree sparrow, chipping sparrow, junco, song sparrow, *myrtle warbler, *winter wren, white-breasted nuthatch, red-breasted nuthatch, *chickadee, *Hudsonian chickadee. This is probably the largest list for any one town or village.

The red-bellied woodpecker, snow bunting, fox sparrow, brown creeper, and hermit thrush have also been known to feed at the windows of houses, but they have never done so in Meriden, though we have them all here with the exception of the woodpecker.

If it becomes necessary to put out more suet during the intensely cold weather, we shall find it a good plan to bring some ́short

[graphic]

A DOORWAY IN WINTER (MERIDEN, NEW HAMPSHIRE) One hundred and thirty-three redpolls and pine siskins feeding on hemp seeds

[merged small][graphic][merged small]
« 上一頁繼續 »