244 LHE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS.

of the hill; where Piety, bethinking herself, cried out, “ Alas! I have forgot what I
intended to bestow upon Christiana and her companions: I will go back and fetch it.”
So she ran and fetched it. While she was gone, Christiana thought she heard, in a
grove a little way off on the right hand, a most curious melodious note, with words
much like these:

‘“ Through all my life Thy favor is
So frankly showed to me,
That in Thy house for evermore
My dwelling-place shall be.’’

And listening still, she thought she heard another answer it, saying:

‘For why? the Lord our God is.good ;
His mercy is for ever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.”

So Christiana asked Prudence what it was that made those curious notes.% “They
are,” said she, “our country birds: they sing these notes but seldom, except it be at
the spring, when the flowers appear and the sun shines warm, and then you may
hear them all day long. I often,” said she, “go out to hear them; we also ofttimes

keep them tame in our house. They are very fine company for us when we are
melancholy ; also they make the woods, and groves, and solitary places places desirable
to be in.”

By this time Piety was come again. So she said to Christiana, “ Look here: I have
brought thee a scheme of all those things that thou hast seen at our house, upon which
thou mayest look when thou findest thyself forgetful, and call those things again to
remembrance for thy edification and comfort.”