10. So they stepped on the ice, and started to go across the
pond. They had not gone

48 ECLECTIC SERIES.
far before the ice gave way, and they fell into the water.
11. A man who was at work near the shore, heard the
screams of the children, and plunged into the water to save
them. Harry managed to get to the shore without any help,
but poor Annie was nearly drowned before the man could
reach her.
12. Harry went home almost frozen, and told his mother
how disobedient he had been. He remembered the lesson
learned that day as long as he lived.

LESSON XVI.

BIRD FRIENDS.
1. I once knew a man who was rich in his love for birds,
and in their love for him. He lived in the midst of a grove
full of all kinds of trees. He had no wife or children in his
home.
2. He was an old man with gray beard, blue and kind eyes,
and a voice that the

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birds loved; and this was the way he made them his friends.
3. While he was at work with a rake on his nice walks in
the grove, the birds came

close to him to pick up the worms in the fresh earth he dug
up. At first, they kept a rod or two from him, but they soon
found he was a kind man, and would not hurt them, but liked
to have them near him.
3. 4.

50 ECLECTIC SERIES.
4. They knew this by his kind eyes and voice, which tell
what is in the heart. So, day by day their faith in his love
grew in them.
5. They came close to the rake. They would hop on top of
it to be first at the worm. They would turn up their eyes into
his when he spoke to them, as if they said, "He is a kind
man; he loves us; we need not fear him."
6. All the birds of the grove were soon his fast friends.
They were on the watch for him, and would fly down from
the green tree tops to greet him with their chirp.
7. When he had no work on the walks to do with his rake
or his hoe, he took crusts of bread with him, and dropped the
crumbs on the ground. Down they would dart on his head
and feet to catch them as they fell from his hand.
8 He showed me how they loved him. He put a crust of
bread in his mouth, with one end of it out of his lips. Down
they came like bees at a flower, and flew off with it crumb
by crumb.
9. When they thought he slept too long in the morning,
they would fly in and sit

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on the bedpost, and call him up with their chirp.
10. They went with him to church, and while he said his
prayers and sang his hymns in it, they sat in the trees, and
san