PEEPERS AND CHEEPERS 



123 



THE CHICKADEE 



" I see them, I see them, lots of 

 them ! " almost screamed Dodo, 

 growing so excited that Nat and 

 Olive each grabbed one of her 

 hands to keep her from clapping 

 them, and so driving the Chicka- 

 dees away. 



" I never saw a strange new 

 bird so near by," explained Dodo, 

 " and if my eye Avas only a photo- 

 graph machine I could take his 

 picture." 



^' You can make a word-picture 

 instead, by telling us how the 

 bird appears to you," said the 

 Doctor in a low voice, " but you 

 need not whisper, for whispering 

 is an unnatural use of the voice 

 other people suspicious, and is more likely to attract 

 attention than a quiet low tone." 



"That is what mother said when she was sick last 

 winter and the neighbors came in to sit with her. If 

 they talked softly she stayed asleep and didn't mind, 

 but if they whispered she said she dreamed that the 

 room was full of geese hissing and always waked up 

 frightened," said Nat. 



The Chickadees did not mind tlie conversation in the 

 least, l)ut kept on flitting in and out of the spruces, 

 swinging from tlie little pink buds tliat Avould grow 

 into cones by and by, doing a dozen pretty tricks, and 



Chickadee. 



it makes birds and 



