The house I live in is an old house with wide eaves. One night I was studying, and suddenly I heard a warm sound of flipping in the gaps in the eaves above the window. I guess there must be sparrows living there. I'm very happy because I'm a person trusted by the sparrow. I think, little sparrow, you have found the right place, I will never hurt you, and I will never let others hurt you.
To confirm, I got up early the next morning and observed the movement under the eaves. Sure enough, two sparrows flew out from there and flew down to the jujube tree branches in the yard, and started to scream. They were resting well and their voices were sweet. They didn't notice my gaze, I felt like they were a young couple who had just left their parents and had just joined. Every evening when I was tired of reading, I felt happy when I watched this pair of happy little sparrows return from outside foraging and entering the nest. I see them as neighbors. I could hear them whispering slight happiness when I read it quietly.
They live in a gap under the eaves, where I can't even put my palms in, but they are very satisfied. How willing I will let them live indoors, I want to tell my wife about this idea. I know that my wife is a person who doesn't love sparrows, and she is surprised to see sparrow shit, but she doesn't know how many insects the sparrows have eaten for us in one summer. This idea should be discussed later when the time is ripe. Now I will definitely disagree. If I don’t do it well, I will drive these two sparrows away.
In the days after that, sparrows always get up before me, and after getting up, they stand on the branches and sing happily. Because the air in the morning is clean, the scream is very crisp and pleasant. When I woke up, my first expression was a smile, a smile from my heart. They flew into the sky after I walked out. I sincerely wish them peace along the way.
A year has passed, they have become strong and their love has matured. In the spring of the coming year, they want children and build their own families. So I became even busier, and brought grass sticks and grass clippings from far away to build a nest. I really couldn't bear to watch them fly around in such a narrow gap, so I found a hammer and a drill, climbed up the wooden ladder and started to dig it out. For the living environment of the sparrows, I would rather harm myself, but my wife saw it and said I was sick.
The nest mouth is bigger, and the sparrows are free to enter and exit. I see that they are no longer as careful as before. Then I heard two sparrows standing on a branch very close to me and screamed happily for a while. They speed up their nesting speed, and sometimes they carry a long grass stick. If they can't get in, they just pull one sparrow in and the other sparrow pushes it inside, looking very beautiful. Women are pregnant for ten months, and I don’t know how many days a sparrow is pregnant. Anyway, I saw one of the sparrows fat, so it must be a mother.
Several days have passed, the small nest has been built, and the mother-made sparrow gave birth on a sunny morning. Because of curiosity, I looked for an opportunity and observed it with a small flashlight. There were six small eggs with numb faces, snuggling together. I knew that the six little sparrows were about to be born from there. In order not to attract the attention of the giant sparrow, I quickly left there. But I was concerned, and I paid more attention to them.
The mother sparrow patiently nurtured the birth of the child, and the male sparrow became even busier. It took the green worms from the vegetable field back home and let the other sparrow eat it. When I saw them eating food, they had a look of considerateness. The male seemed to say, "It's hard for you, and the female seemed to say that you have to work hard, and then they snuggled up with each other as if they understood each other."
Because of them, my study life has become peaceful and down-to-earth, and my heart is no longer impetuous.
■ Text/Excerpted from "Rural Background" (written by Bai Qingguo, Huashan Literature and Art Publishing House)
■The pictures are all pictures except the cover of the book
■Editor/Jia Lifang
■ All rights reserved, and reprinting of
may not be done without permission.
