or half an hour the twins, under Aunt Polly's direction, snipped
bread crumbs and suet happily and then busily tied strings to other
pieces of fat.

"We're going to have company, Norah," explained Dot, opening and
shutting her cramped little fingers when the bread and fat were all
nicely snipped.

"Company, is it?" asked Norah, glad to see Dot had stopped crying. "Is
it food for company you're fixing now?"

"Yes, it's their dinner," answered Dot, nodding her head. "Isn't it,
Twaddles? And we're going to set the table. You watch, Norah."

Aunt Polly went down into the cellar and came back, carrying a broad,
smooth board, the top of a packing box. She emptied the bread and suet
crumbs into a paper bag and put the fat tied to the pieces of string in
another. Then Twaddles slipped on his cap and coat, took the two bags
in one hand, tucked the board under his arm, and ran out to the garage.

"Put a chair here in the window, Dot," said Aunt Polly. "There, I'll
pin back the curtains. Now you can see everything they do."

Norah peered curiously over Dot's shoulder, interested, too.

In a few minutes Sam came out of the garage, carrying a hammer and the
little short step-ladder that conveniently turned into a chair if you
knew how to do the trick. He and Twaddles marched over to the
clothespole that Norah seldom used. She preferred to wind her
clothes-line around three, and the fourth pole, to Dot's fancy, always
seemed to feel slighted.

"Now that poor pole won't be lonesome any more," she murmured to
herself.

Sam set up his stepladder, and, taking the board from Twaddles and a
couple of long, strong nails from his pocket, he nailed the board
firmly to the top of the pole.

"See, Norah?" cried Dot.

Then Sam took the bags, and the fat and crumbs of bread he scattered
all over the top of the board. All around the edge of the board he
drove in smaller nails, and to these he tied the pieces of fat, there
to dangle on their strings.

Dot clapped her hands.

"It's our bird table!" she explained to Norah. "Where's Mother? I'm
going to tell her."

Mother Blossom came and admired the bird-table, and the grocery boy,
when he came with the packages, noticed it right away.

"Annabel Lee can't get up there, can she?" he grinned. "Looks like
you'd have plenty of company, Dot."

Indeed, the few sparrows that came first must have told the other
birds, for in less than an hour there was a throng of feathered