THE FARMER'S FEATHERED FRIENDS. 63 



lads I applied, and I struck a bargain with him. He 

 undertook to supply me with shot birds at so much 

 a dozen, and to deliver them to me every evening 

 at the feeding time. He brought me bunches of 

 birds regularly enough, but there was never a 

 sparrow in the whole lot. Nearly all were insect- 

 feeding birds a wheat-field swarms with insects at 

 all times but not one of them was in any way in- 

 jurious to the wheat. There is air, sunshine, and 

 great warmth in a large corn-field things which 

 all insects need to bring them to perfection. The 

 flocks of birds that rise from it are not there after 

 the corn; it is the insect-life that attracts them. 

 Fly-catchers and willow-warblers do not eat corn ; 

 and yet, with the exception of one or two young 

 chaffinches, it was of those two species the bunches 

 of birds were composed. 



Is it not possible for the beings that have been 

 created with man as his companions to have fair- 

 play in God's world ? 



The sparrows, with other birds, throng the fields 

 in hosts just before and after the corn is cut. They 

 pick up the unnumbered grains that drop from the 

 ears in the field. That is their opportunity and they 



