n and corn, for the miller always puts
up scarecrows to keep them away."

But before the Doctor could answer the children caught sight of Mammy
Bun coming down from the house carrying a tray. Upon this was a pitcher,
some glasses, and a plate full of cakes, which, when she came under the
tree, they saw were delicious-looking buns, as light and brown as good
yeast and careful baking could make them.

"Ah, mammy, mammy," cried Olive, Dodo, and Nat together, "how did you
know that we should be hungry now, and we are simply famishing?"

"Well, honeys, I jess guessed it, I reck'n. I know'd massa was
a-learnin' you'uns suffin', and it allers 'peared to me that learnin'
was mighty empty work. I know'd Massa Doctor was never a one to keep his
patients holler, and least his own folks!" Mammy gave a big comfortable
laugh as the Doctor took the tray from her hands and the children
thanked her heartily, while little Rap smiled hopefully on seeing that
there were six buns on the plate--that meant one for each and two for
the Doctor, he thought.

"No one can make such buns as mammy," said Olive, old as she was
breaking hers in half, to find the lump of sugar soaked with lemon juice
that she knew was inside. "She used to make them for me when I was a
little girl; that is why I named her Mammy Bun, and we've called her
that ever since."

"I thought it was a funny name," said Rap.

"One for each of us, and one for the dish," said Olive, passing the
plate around. "One for the dish? What do you mean?" said Dodo.

"Mammy says it is always nice to have more food on a dish, than people
are likely to eat, so that they shall see there is enough and the dish
shan't feel lonely. You see, that last bun belongs to the dish."

"This time the dish will have to feel lonely," said the Doctor, who had
noticed that Rap was looking at his bun, and not eating it; "for I think
that Rap would like to take that one home to his mother by and by."

From that day Rap always believed that the Doctor could look into his
head and see what he was thinking of.

"As we have been talking about the insect-killing that Citizen Bird does
in order to pay his rent and taxes, as a good citizen should, I will
tell you of the six guilds in Birdland, into which these citizens are
divided in order to do their work thoroughly."

"What is a guild?" asked Rap.

"A guild is a band of people who follow the same trade or occupation,
and birds are banded together accordi