The Burgess EM Book for Children 



and the Horned Larks were there. They were, 

 but almost at once Peter discovered that they had 

 company. Twittering cheerfully as he busily 

 picked seeds out of the top of a weed which stood 

 above the snow, was a bird very little bigger than 

 Chicoree the Goldfinch. But when Peter looked 

 at* him he just had to rub his eyes. 



"Gracious goodness !" he muttered, "it must be 

 something is wrong with my eyes so that I am seeing 

 red. I've already seen two birds dressed in red and 

 now there's another. It certainly must be my eyes. 

 There's Dotty the Tree Sparrow over there ; I hear 

 his voice. I wonder if he will look red. " 



Peter hopped near enough to get a good look at 

 Dotty and found him dressed just as he should be. 

 That relieved Peter's mind. His eyes were quite 

 as they should be. Then he returned to look at the 

 happy little stranger still busily picking seeds from 

 that weed-top. 



The top of his head was bright red. There was 

 no doubt about it. 'His back was toward Peter at 

 the time and but for that bright red cap Peter 

 certainly would have taken him for one of his 

 friends among the Sparrow family. You see his 

 back was grayish -brown. Peter could think of 

 several Sparrows with backs very much like it. 

 But when he looked closely he saw that just above 

 his tail this little stranger wore a pinkish patch, and 

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