CHILD BIRDS. ot 
they were sometimes scolding good-naturedly. We 
imagine them saying to their children, “We have 
shown you the seeds and the berries, now go to work. 
If you want food, help yourselves; for we have been to 
market for you long enough. Dress yourselves, too. 
See how you each have a bottle of oil. Now be neat 
and careful of your clothes, for it will be a long while 
before you get any more.” 
We have seen young birds make very awkward 
attempts at dressing themselves. Sitting in a tree, 
they try to imitate the old birds, fluttering and turning 
about, and rubbing their small heads on their shoulders, 
and falling off from the branch in their excitement. 
It is this daily care of their clothes that makes birds 
so beautiful. It seems to us that they know very well 
that they will not be able to get a new suit very often, 
and that they must take good care of those clothes they 
have. We have never seen child birds smear their food 
over their faces and clothes, not even when they were 
eating bread and butter and stewed blackberries. It 
may seem funny to you that birds should eat bread and 
butter and stewed blackberries, as if they were cooks 
and housekeepers. But they really do, as you shall 
see by and by. 
Little birds pay attention to what is said to them. 
They learn their lessons well, and they “say their 
pieces’ like any child, and, like children, they seem 
to make mistakes at first. They do not take their 
dinner-pails and go long distances to school. They 
