232 Twelve Months With 



But as for me, he's free to hold 



What's his by gallant fight. 

 No silver song or coat of gold 



Shall blind me to his right." 



Most of us are blinded to his rights by unthink- 

 ing prejudice. He is entitled to a square deal, 

 but he has not received it. 



The English sparrows are our only constant 

 daily household birds in winter, and we would 

 sorely miss them if they were gone. While they 

 sometimes appear quarrelsome among themselves, 

 they are really friendly, sympathetic little gossips. 

 One January day I found one in the snow beside 

 the walk, with one of its wings injured. I stooped 

 to pick it up, and as I was just closing my hand 

 over it, it fluttered off. It tumbled down in the 

 snow a few feet away, and I stopped to see what 

 would happen. In a moment another sparrow 

 flew down beside it in the snow, and hopped about 

 with sympathetic concern, and soon several more 

 joined them, all making as much fuss as a flock 

 of crows. One of them flew into the road near by 

 and picked up something in his bill, and then flew 

 back to the wounded bird, and apparently dropped 

 the material in the snow beside it. 



The question of the usefulness of any bird 

 depends upon whether we consider its general 

 aesthetic and economic utility in nature, or merely 

 its tendency under certain circumstances to destroy 



