The Shouts of Children 55 



The whole round of countiy life is a thrill- 

 ing daily drama for a child. When tired of 

 play he explores the barn in search of hen's 

 nests, and finds them in the most unheard 

 of places, sometimes under the floor, some- 

 times in the hay rack far up near the ceiling. 

 He has a duck house of his own at the barn, 

 shuts his ducks up every night and keeps 

 them there till eight or nine o'clock in the 

 morning to be sure of their eggs. After Mrs. 

 Duck has laid, he hustles them off to the 

 creek to feed on bugs and worms and fid- 

 dlers and fish-eggs. 



It is astonishing how many bird's nests 

 that boy can find on the lawn and in the 

 thick hedgerows around the garden and 

 orchard. At first he would rob them all. 

 But it was easy to teach him how much 

 more fun he could get listening to the songs 

 of mockingbirds, watching them sit and 

 hatch, feed their babies and teach them to 

 fly, than by breaking up their nests. Now 



