XIII 
TREE-TRUNK BIRDS 
Woodpeckers — Nuthatches and the Brown Creepers 
By the time November came in but few birds were to 
be seen about the schoolhouse at Foxes Corners. For 
until Gray Lady came, no one had taken an interest 
either in the appearance of the schoolbuilding itself or 
the ragged bit of ground upon which it stood. Now 
four sugar-maples had been transplanted from the near-by 
woods, and set where they would shade the windows in 
the warm days of early summer and fall and yet not 
interfere with winter sunshine; and Gray Lady had 
promised that by spring there should be some benches 
along the north fence, where there was shade from the 
white birches in the wood-lot beyond. That is, she had 
promised the wood for the benches and Jacob’s aid in 
their planning; for the rest, the boys were to do the work 
themselves, for after Thanksgiving four or five large boys 
would come to school,—Tommy Todd’s brother Everett, 
who was sixteen, and the two Judds, his cousins, — Walter, 
also sixteen, and Irving, fourteen, — being among them. 
All of these boys knew something about the handling 
of tools, and, if they chose to join the Kind Hearts’ Club, 
would be valuable allies. Sometimes, however, big 
boys, even though they are not cruel, laugh at such 
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