ied by the little girl and the other big
brothers, tiptoed quickly but softly down the entry to listen. All was
quiet. She pushed the kitchen door open a little to look at the crocks.
They had not been molested. Then she put her head in. As she did so, the
husky cry of the cowbird came from the bench behind the door.

"Look-see! look-see!" he called, as he walked up and down the eldest
brother from head to foot; "look-see! look-see!"

And the family, entering, beheld the eldest brother stretched upon the
bench--fast asleep.

He was so provoked at having been found napping that, when he heard
their laughter and awoke, he grabbed the cowbird and threw him across
the kitchen. The cowbird lighted upon his feet unhurt, and started
boldly back again. But the little girl was frightened over his bad
treatment, and running to him, took him up tenderly, and carried him to
her room. He was put into the slat cage for the rest of the day, and for
several weeks after that slept in it every night.

It was now autumn. The husked corn filled the cribs to bursting, the
wheat lay in yellow heaps on the granary floor, and the hay, stacked
high, stood along the north side of the low, sod barn in a sheltering
crescent. There was little left to do on the farm before the winter set
in, and the cold mornings found the family astir very late. So one raw
day, when the fields and prairie without lay white in a covering of
thick frost, it was after sun-up before the little girl's mother entered
the kitchen.

It had been so long since the milk had been disturbed that she had
neglected for a week or more to cover the crocks, and did not even give
the shelf a glance as she hurriedly lighted a twist of hay; but as she
stooped to poke it into the stove, a quavering, plaintive, raspy voice
above her made her start back and stare upward.

There on the edge stood the cowbird, his head drooping and his wings
half spread. But he was no longer black. From his crown to his legs he
was covered with a coating of frozen milk that, hiding his glossy
plumage, turned him into a woefully bedraggled white bird; while from
the ends of his once glistening tail feathers hung little icicles that
formed an icy fringe.

"Look-see! look-see!" he mourned, closing his eyes and lifting one stiff
leg from his perch. "Look-see! look-see!"

A moment later, hearing the sound of loud laughter in the kitchen, the
little girl got out of bed and ran to find out what was the ma