SOME PEOPLE WE LIKE TO KNOW. 5 
The baby and his mother never forgot the message of 
the mocking-bird. They have loved birds ever since. 
That is why they are writing this book about birds for 
the children. 
CHAE TER IT. 
SOME PEOPLE WE LIKE TO KNOW. 
WE are always interested in our nearest neighbors. 
“Who lives in the next house?” we ask. “Are they 
pleasant persons to know?” and “ How many children 
are there?” 
These are questions one commonly asks. But we 
are not speaking just now of men and women and chil- 
dren who live near us on our street. We are speaking 
of people all about us in our yard, and in your yard 
perhaps, — little, winged, beautiful people, who make it 
so pleasant with song and chirp and flutter, —the birds. 
We like to think of the birds as creatures better and 
more lovable than lizards and worms and other crawling 
66 
things. We know a lady who calls them “ Angels,” 
because they have wings and seem to fly far off into 
heaven. No one ever jumps away from a bird, as some 
foolish people do from a snake or a mouse. Most 
snakes and mice are as harmless as birds, but they do 
not win their way to our hearts as the birds do. 
The yard or field that has the most trees and shrubs 
in it will also have the most and the merriest birds. 
