ARDEA'S SOLDIER 



Ardea's Soldier smiled gently, for he loved Heron Camp 

 and shared, in his heart, the joys of their home-coming. 



Ardea and her mate took a pleasant trip, looking for 

 a building place at the edge of a swamp. They did not 

 object to neighbors; which was fortunate, as there were 

 so many other herons in the camp that it would have 

 been hard to find a very secret spot for their nest. After 

 looking it over and talking about it a bit, they chose a 

 mangrove bush for their very own. They had never 

 built a house before, but the}^ wasted no time in hunting 

 for a carpenter or teacher, but went to work with a will, 

 just as if they knew how. It was like playing a game of 

 ^^ five-six, pick up sticks'^; only they did not lay them 

 straight but in a scraggly criss-cross sort of platform, 

 with big twigs twelve inches long at the bottom and 

 smaller ones on top. Then, when it looked all ready for 

 a nice soft lining, Ardea laid an^egg right on the rough 

 sticks. Rather lazy and shiftless, don^t you think? or 

 maybe they did n't know any better, poor young things 

 who had never had a honie before! Ah, but there was 

 another pair of snowy herons building in the bush next 

 door, and they did n't put in anything soft for their 

 eggs, either; and six or eight bushes farther on, a little 

 blue heron was already sitting on her blue eggs in almost 

 exactly the same sort of nest. 



So that is the kind of carpenters herons are! Sticks 



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