been laying an egg. See how proud she is! She calls out in that way to
let the rest know what she has done.'

8. 'Now she is pecking about for food,' said Harry.

Tom said that fowls were always eating.

'They are greedy things,' said Kate.

9. 'Oh, look at this gray hen!' said Harry, 'she picked up a bit of
stone just now and ate it! Does she know no better?'

10. 'It is not for food,' Mary told him; 'she takes it to grind up the
hard seeds she has swallowed. They all go into a strong little bag, and
the stones rub and press on the seeds.'

11. 'I never heard of such a thing! She keeps a mill inside to grind her
food!'

12. The others laughed, and then Mary went in to get some eggs. After
the basket was filled, the two children said good-bye to their friends,
and went home.

THE SPARROW.

shoots
spar'-rows
steal
fruit
thou'-sand
ba'-bies
build
spoil
beaks
ap'-ple
blos'-som
fruit
clean
thirst'-y
wheat
throw

1. 'Mother,' cried Harry, running in one day, 'Jack Denny says he shoots
sparrows!'

'I am very sorry to hear it. Why does he shoot them?'

'"They steal fruit and corn," he says. He wanted me to throw stones at
them!'

2. 'Well, you can tell him about some silly men who killed the sparrows
and other birds, and the next year their fruit and corn were eaten up by
grubs. Even the leaves on the trees were eaten.'

3. 'Is this true?'

'Quite true. They had to send for little birds from other places to live
in their fields and gardens. Do you know that a sparrow kills four
thousand grubs in one day when her babies are in the nest?

4. 'One wise man who grows fruit says that his best friends are the
sparrows, and he makes holes in the garden-walls for them to build in.
Their sharp eyes see the tiny things that would spoil the fruit, and
their sharp beaks nip them up at once.

[Illustration]

5. 'He loves to see sparrows in an apple-tree in blossom-time; he knows
they are saving the apples for him.'

'But Jack says he has seen them pecking at fruit.'

6. 'Yes, they like fruit, just as you and I do. But there would be no
fruit at all, if the birds did not eat the grubs.

7. 'The man I was telling you about puts nets over his trees when the
fruit begins to ripen. And I heard only the other day that it is a good
plan to put pans of clean fresh water close to the trees and bushes.
Then the birds will not go so often