CHORUS BY THE BIRDS 61 



" Dear, dear ! Think of it, think of it ! " warbled 

 the Bluebird. 



" Zeay ! zeay ! " screamed the Catbird, flying up. 

 "N-e-w-s! N-e-w-s! The House People are to stay 

 at our farm all winter ! The man who owns this farm, 

 the big girl, and the little girl and boy and the 

 mother and father bird they belong to they are all 

 down in the orchard, talking about it now how they 

 are going to something they call ' school,' over in the 

 village, and how that boy who hops along on one leg 

 with a stick under his wing is going with them." 



" Did they say anything about the Bird Brother- 

 hood?" 



" No, but I heard them say that when the snow falls 

 they are going up to those horrid dark Owl woods 

 to see the foxes and little fur beasts 'Four-footed 

 Americans' our House Man calls them." 



" He gave me a better name than that," said the 

 Barn Swallow, "one day when he was telling the chil- 

 dren about the Brotherhood, over in the old barn*. He 

 looked straight at me and said a whole tree full of nice 

 things." 



" What did he call you ? What did he say about the 

 Brotherhood ? " asked all the others, crowding around 

 Barney. 



" He said that I swept the sky free of evil insects, 

 that I was patriotic in coming back to my birthplace 

 to nest, and that I worked to pay my rent and taxes, 

 and " 



" And what ? " cried the others in excitement. 



" He called me c Citizen Bird ' ! He said all well- 

 behaved birds, who have their own nests, and belong 



