246 



CITIZEN BIRD 



IXDIGt) I'll: I) 



"It is a great fam- 

 il}'," said Rap, who 

 was sitting thinking. 

 " Big birds 

 and little, plain 

 gray and brown, or 

 red, blue, and yellow 

 — some like warm 

 weather and some 

 Avant it cold." 

 '' Sj^eaking of cold, I won- 

 der what became of the ice 

 that Dodo saw Mammy Bun 

 cracking this morning ? " asked 

 the Doctor, looking at Olive. " The very word has 

 a pleasant sound, for it seems to me to be growing 

 warmer and warmer." 



" Toot ! toot I t-o-o-t ! " squeaked a tin horn across 

 the field from the direction of the farmhouse. 



" What's that ? " said Nat, jumping up ; " it's the 

 dinner horn, and it can't be dinner-time." 



" Not more than eleven o'clock," said Rap, looking 

 at the sun after the fashion of those who s^^end much 

 time out of doors. 



" I know what the horn means," said Olive. " It 

 means that the cake, that Nat said jNIammy Bun was 

 going to bake with the ice, is done ! " 



" But that was only nonsense, you know," said Nat. 

 " Ice won't bake anything I " 



" Perhaps not, but ice can freeze something, if you 

 mix salt with it, even on this warm day, and the horn 

 means that mammy has a tin pail full of ice cream, 



