Project Gutenberg's The Birds' Christmas Carol, by Kate Douglas Wiggin

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Title: The Birds' Christmas Carol

Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin

Posting Date: July 23, 2008 [EBook #721]
Release Date: November, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIRDS' CHRISTMAS CAROL ***

Produced by Judith Boss. HTML version by Al Haines.

THE BIRDS' CHRISTMAS CAROL

BY

KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN

To

The Three Dearest Children in the World, BERTHA, LUCY, AND HORATIO.

"O little ones, ye cannot know
The power with which ye plead,
Nor why, as on through life we go,
The little child doth lead."

CONTENTS

I. A LITTLE SNOW-BIRD
II. DROOPING WINGS
III. THE BIRD'S NEST
IV. "BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER"
V. SOME OTHER BIRDS ARE TAUGHT TO FLY
VI. "WHEN THE PIE WAS OPENED, THE BIRDS BEGAN TO SING"
VII. THE BIRDLING FLIES AWAY

The Birds' Christmas Carol.

I.

A LITTLE SNOW BIRD.

It was very early Christmas morning, and in the stillness of the dawn,
with the soft snow falling on the housetops, a little child was born in
the Bird household.

They had intended to name the baby Lucy, if it were a girl; but they
hadn't expected her on Christmas morning, and a real Christmas baby was
not to be lightly named--the whole family agreed in that.

They were consulting about it in the nursery. Mr. Bird said that he
had assisted in naming the three boys, and that he should leave this
matter entirely to Mrs. Bird; Donald wanted the child called "Maud,"
after a pretty little curly-haired girl who sat next him in school;
Paul chose "Luella," for Luella was the nurse who had been with him
during his whole babyhood, up to the time of his first trousers, and
the name suggested all sorts of comfortable things. Uncle Jack said
that the first girl should always be named for her mother, no matter
how hideous the name happened to be.

Grandma said that she would prefer not to take any part in the
discussion, and everybody suddenly remembered that Mrs. Bird had
thought of naming the baby Lucy, for Grandma herself; and, while it
would be indelicate for h