208 



good story-teller, and his wife, who was 

 the dearest old lady Humming Bird in 

 the world, had often advised him to write 

 a book of his travels on the leaves of the 

 lovely rose-laurel bush, but Grandfather 

 Humming Bird told her that writing 

 books of travel was too humdrum for a 

 Humming Bird ; that such work was only 

 for that queer creature called man. Sev 

 eral Humming Birds then said that they 

 felt very friendly toward man, because he 

 loved flowers and took such pains to plant 

 them every spring. And the Swifts, with 

 one accord, said they were much indebted 

 to man for his chimneys, for they made 

 the best building places possible. "Be 

 fore the white man came to this country," 

 said grandfather Swift, "our ancestors 

 had to build their nests in old hollow 

 trees." "The red man was an admirer 

 of ours," said uncle Tarsi Swift, who was 

 an old bachelor and a little cross some 

 times. "I could get along very well with 

 out the white man and his chimneys. He 

 has driven the red man away, and cut 

 down the grand old forests. When I was 

 a child nothing pleased me better than to 

 see an Indian chief, with his high moc 

 casins trimmed with feathers. I know 

 he trimmed them that way to make his 

 legs look like ours." "But he could not 

 make his feet look like yours if he tried," 

 spoke up a pert young Humming Bird, 

 who, with a group of others, was looking 

 and listening in a quiet corner, and he 

 glanced down at uncle Tarsi Swift's first 

 toe, which was turned forwards and he 

 counted the phalanges in uncle Tarsi's 

 toes and compared them with his own. 

 Three of Uncle Tarsi's toes were alike, 

 but all of the pert Humming Bird's were 

 different. 



"No," said several Swifts in chorus, 

 "only the penguins and cormorants have 

 toes like ours, and they are birds we sel 

 dom meet. We are glad there are so few 

 feet exactly like ours. We can tell each 

 other everywhere by our feet and our ten 

 tail feathers. 



"I knew a swallow once who had lost 

 two tail feathers," said one of the Swift 

 cousins, "and he tried to pass himself off 

 as a Swift. But he could not change his 

 feet and so he deceived nobody. 



"Well, as for me," said the pert Hum 



ming Bird, "I would rather have feet that 

 were not so peculiar as to attract every 

 body's attention." "Indeed," said cousin 

 Swift, "and what do you think of having a 

 bill three or four times as long as any of 

 your neighbors?" "At least my bill does 

 not open away under my eyes like yours 

 does, cousin Swift !" 



Grandmamma Humming Bird knew 

 very well that the Humming Bird family 

 was thought to be quarrelsome by al 

 most every one, and was very much mor 

 tified by hearing this conversation. "Chil 

 dren," she said, "you know it is not right 

 to hurt people's feelings by talking about 

 their peculiarities, and I hope none of 

 my dear little Humming Birds will offend 

 their Christmas guests." After this there 

 was no more cross talk in the pert Hum 

 ming Bird's corner, for all loved grand 

 mother Humming Bird and tried to do as 

 she wished to have them. 



There was a sudden lull in the conver 

 sation and great-grandfather Humming 

 Bird asked grandfather Humming Bird 

 to describe the place where his family had 

 spent the summer just passed. "It was a 

 lovely place near a lake in Southern Wis 

 consin," said he. "Many honeysuckle and 

 dogwood bushes grew there, and wild 

 rose bushes, and wild grape vines, and 

 clematis, and large purple vetches. 

 Grandmother and I built our nest in a 

 grapevine angle, and often in the warm 

 summer evenings the wind would rock 

 our babies to sleep. There was a place 

 not far away, which I know you would 

 find a pleasant home for next summer. 

 It is up on a hill, not far from the lake. 

 There is a house there with one chimney 

 from which the smoke never comes all 

 summer long. In the big yard there are 

 beautiful trees and fragrant flowering 

 shrubs and beds filled with flowers. A 

 lady lives there who is loved by all the 

 birds, for she never frightens them, and 

 every day she feeds them and talks to 

 them. 5 they build nests in her trees 

 and sing 



"This ; , in a beautiful shady 



place, near nga thicket, she made a 



house ou g 1 box for a mother hen 



who had ittle downy chicks, and 



every da^ he fed the chickens she 



left enou 1 so that the birds could 



