68 OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS. 
CHAPTERS XY, 
UMBRELLAS AND OTHER THINGS. 
THERE is more fun than you can imagine in watch- 
ing the birds in your yard for just one single day. If 
you are a sick child and cannot go to school, the day 
will never seem long when once you have begun to get 
acquainted with these dear little people. If you look 
a bird straight in the eye when you have a chance to 
hold one in your hand, you cannot hurt him if you have 
a bit of a kind heart in your jacket. 
Birds’ faces are sweet and happy and beautiful, even 
if they are covered with feathers. You will notice 
that they have different expressions at different times. 
But a bird’s eye, whether it is black, or red, or white, 
will tell the story of its fear or happiness as plainly as 
your own. You may wonder how that can be, when 
there are no wrinkles to be seen about the face. 
We have seen. birds do a great many bright things, 
and we have seen them do stupid things as well. 
There are wide cracks in our woodshed, and the towhees 
go through these cracks to the inside in search of some- 
thing to eat, or just out of curiosity. 
When we open the shed door suddenly, the birds are 
in a great fright. They seem to have forgotten just 
where they came in, and they flutter about to all the 
cracks, trying to squeeze their way through, until they 
