V 
REASONS WHY 
Wuen the children had satisfied their curiosity by 
looking about the room at the pictures and stuffed birds 
in cases as much as they wished and were comfortably 
seated, Gray Lady drew a chair into the midst of the 
group and began to talk, not a bit like a teacher in school, 
but as if she had dropped in among them to have a little 
chat. 
“When one has looked at something from one side all 
one’s life it is hard to realize that there is another,” she 
said, smiling brightly at Eliza and Dave, who chanced to 
be sitting together and who looked not only unhappy but 
very sullen. 
“T have always happened to be with people who love 
everything that lives and grows. They have always 
been kind to birds because it never occurred to them to 
be otherwise. In watching them and learning their ways. 
they also learned that these winged beings had another 
value beside that of beauty of colour and song, that by 
fulfilling their destiny and eating many destructive bugs 
and animals they not only earn their own livelihood but 
help keep us all alive by protecting the farmers’ crops. 
“Thus, when I went down to the school at Foxes Cor- 
ners, I took it too much for granted that you all cared for 
birds and would naturally wish to protect them. I thought 
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