62 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
tenpenny nails should be driven on the outside edge at 
intervals, like the spokes to a wheel, and the whole neatly 
painted to match the pole. 
‘“Then each week we will ask Miss Wilde to appoint a 
child as Bird Steward, his or her duties being to collect 
the scraps after the noon dinner-hour and place them 
neatly on the counter, the crusts and crumbs on the shelf 
and the meat to be hung on the spikes. 
“Nothing will come amiss — pine cones, beechnuts, 
the shells of hard-boiled eggs broken fine, apple cores, 
half-cleaned nuts; and if the children will tell their parents 
of the counter, they will often put an extra scrap or so in 
the dinner pail to help the feast. Or the fortunate chil- 
dren whose fathers keep the market, the grocery store, 
or the mill, may be able to obtain enough of the wastage 
to leave an extra supply on Friday, so that the pensioners 
need not go hungry over Sunday. 
‘* All the while the flag will wave gayly above little Citizen 
Bird, as under its protection he feeds upon his human 
brothers’ bounty. 
‘“‘Here is the story of one of these lunch-counters that 
proved a success. It was written to encourage others, 
and I will read it so that you may know that bird lunch- 
counters belong to real and not to fairy tales. 
AN ADIRONDACK LUNCH-COUNTER 
In the Adirondacks in March, 1900, the snow fell over 
four feet deep, and wild birds were driven from the deep 
woods to seek for food near the habitation of man. It 
occurred to me that a lunch-counter with “meals at all 
