HONEYSUCKLE SCENT
On my way home I stopped at a gate and got down to open it so that I could bring the car through. Close at hand I saw a magnificent honeysuckle plant almost completely covering a thorn bush. It had been raining softly only an hour before and the scent Of honeysuckle was so strong that I felt compelled to pick some and take it home: While gathering the flowers I drew the top of the thorn towards me and was dismayed to find that I had almost brought to grief a chaffinch sitting on her nest in the middle of the bush. The hen left as I pulled the flowers, exposing a blind nestling and three unhatched eggs. I got down quickly and did what I could to pat the bush into its original shape. The chaffinch, I was pleased to see, quickly popped back on to the nest. The honey- suckle was put into a vase at home and I sat in the room with a window open, reading, when a large bumble-bee came flying in and set about probing the flowers just as he would have done had he found them in the hedge, After a while the bee went out again, but before I closed the window the scent of the honeysuckle had attracted another.
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