Article April 6, 1907 Issue

PROTECTION AND SUPPLY

JOHN S. CRELLIN.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.—Psalms.

The protecting watchfulness and unselfish tenderness of divine Love was touchingly illustrated to the writer in the early part of last summer, by two robins. At the top of a vine, ornamenting the side veranda of a neighboring cottage, they had builded their nest and hatched out their young. The vine had not climbed rapidly enough, nor high enough—as no doubt the birds had hoped it would—to shelter the nest; not near so rapidly as the summer sun had climbed northward to overlook it; while the slightly projecting eaves barely kept off the rain, but not the burning sun. Before the fledglings had feathered sufficiently to be protected from its rays, there came on a heated spell, during which it seemed as if the big luminary was bent upon destroying the little birds; and for nearly two hours in the middle of the day it appeared to stand still and glare down fiercely on this particular nest.

The parent birds seemed to know just when the big, impudent disk would try to stare into the privacy of their home, and shortly before would place securely at the edge of the nest a plentiful supply of squirming provender. As the grateful shadows fled, and the first fierce rays of the sun began to creep over the sacred confines of her home, the mother-bird, encouraged by the melody of her mate flitting about in a near-by tree, and the twittering of her featherless brood, with wings outspread took up her vigil at the edge of the nest like a living canopy. Thus she formed a perfect shelter from the heat; and thus, for nearly two hours, tirelessly she stood above her peeping children. Stood that the air might circulate freely between them and her protecting wings; stood until the sun, disappointed of his quest, arched over toward the west and left the nest in shade. Then what feasting! and what a joyous chorus of congratulations, as if to say, "It's all right! Love has driven him away, the little ones are safe!" During the interval of protection necessary for their safety and comfort, the little birds were conscious of but one requirement,—supply; while unknown to them, the supply was just at hand, like the very kingdom of heaven, and the protecting wings of the mother-love, most necessary to their safety, were outspread above them.

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