n6 What Birds Have Done With Me 



painted the expression a thousand times. Well ! 

 perhaps. Cheerful and fearless, what can 'be 

 more exalted? What a joyous company, a little 

 lower than the angels, but super-human just the 

 same! All agree that there is a great gulf be- 

 tween man and the "animal kingdom/' but the 

 Chickadee bridges it in a single, uninterrupted 

 journey, when he comes flying from nowhere to 

 light upon your hand. Victor Hugo once said: 

 "No man who has ever really laughed can ever 

 afterward be bad." Be this as it may, I am 

 thoroughly convinced that after a wild bird has 

 crossed the gulf and voluntarily submitted itself 

 to your loving kindness, it thereby swings open 

 the door to its own kingdom and makes of you a 

 loyal ally, for from that time on you are a man 

 who has dreamed dreams and seen visions. 



In mid-afternoon of a gray winter day, return- 

 ing from a cold and difficult drive over, or 

 through, mighty drifts, my wife met me at the 

 door and asked if I would not feed the birds at 

 once for a party from a nearby town who had 

 brought two little girls to see the birds eat out 

 of my hand and had been waiting for some time 

 in spite of drifting roads. I immediately at- 

 tempted to comply and for a bad ten minutes cer- 

 tainly felt like a large-sized "Nature Faker/' for 

 the little flock of Chickadees that came at my 

 call would not come near the tempting sliced pea- 



