238 What Birds Have Done With Me 



tree-tops is in reality providing you with a roof- 

 tree and a back-log, and this Dr. Henshaw, in the 

 "National Geographic Magazine," the one re- 

 ferred to, calls "A Supreme Service." Think of 

 it; an aviation service, raining only blessings upon 

 the earth. 



There is not a tree, symbol of strength and 

 beauty and receiving station for messages from the 

 unseen, that did not have hundreds of insect ene- 

 mies waiting for it when it came into existence, 

 and without the immediate protection of the birds 

 would have been quickly destroyed, and on the 

 other hand, there is not a giant among all the 

 trees of the forest who would long exist without 

 its Guardian Angel, the bird soldier. The only 

 real fairy stories are the ones that are actually 

 taking place around us all the time, but for which 

 we have no eyes. Solomon in all his glory was 

 not apparelled like many of our birds, and their 

 service belongs to a vaster temple than he ever 

 dreamed of a temple not made with hands, in 

 which music and service are one and inseparable. 



Now that the war is over and the professional 

 tree slaughter is organizing to meet an unpre- 

 cedented demand for lumber of all kinds, the Na- 

 tion's sylvan treasury will be ruthlessly exploited 

 as never before. It almost seems as though both 

 the tree and the bird soldier are doomed, but the 

 apprehension must give place to greater determi- 



