THE ORCHARD PARTY 47 
using his stout bill with the quick sharp blows of a 
hammer. 
“That? Oh—” said Goldilocks, ‘‘that is another 
birthday surprise that mother and Jake made for me. 
That is, mother planned it, and Jake did the work. It is 
a birds’ lunch-counter, and this winter we are going to 
keep all the different kinds of food on it that the birds 
like, so that they need never leave us because they are 
hungry.” 
“There’s lots of things all around now that they can 
eat,’’ said Tommy Todd. 
“Yes, of course, but we want them to become accus- 
tomed to the table, to know where the food is before they 
need it and think about going away, and wild birds are 
always suspicious of new things,” said Gray Lady. 
There was one more feature of the luncheon, but, as it 
was something that could not be put upon the table, it 
was hung in the tree overhead. This thing looked like 
a great bunch of gayly coloured autumn leaves tied tight 
together, and from it hung a number of red strings, as 
many in fact as there were people at the party. 
Gray Lady explained that each child in turn was to pull 
a string and, as they held back as if in doubt as to the 
result, she herself pulled the first cord and out dropped 
from the ball a long motto in yellow-fringed paper that, 
on being unrolled, contained beside the snapper a little 
paper roll on which was printed, “I am Mazulm, the 
Night Owl,” and when Gray Lady carefully unfolded the 
paper it proved to be a cap with strings, shaped like an 
owl’s head, which seemed to the children to wink its yel- 
low tinsel eyes as Gray Lady placed it upon her fluffy hair. 
