THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



from familiar points, and where roses, honey- 

 suckle, violets, jasmine, spirea, and morning-glories 

 abound, and fill the scene with beauty, while frag- 

 rance floats in at the open windows, is far more at- 

 tractive, and at the same time of greater commercial 

 value, than one that is bare of flowers and silent of 

 birds. "Birds will return year after year to the 

 same spot, to build their nests and rear their young, 

 and when some spring fails to bring the bluebird to 

 the apple tree or the oriole to the elm, it is perhaps 

 because lax laws and untrained characters some- 

 where to the southward have destroyed the life 

 that was a part of our farmstead. Strengthening 

 the law and developing a love for nature will pre- 

 vent such losses." 



When I cover my cherry trees with mosquito 

 netting, I always leave a few uncovered for the 

 birds. We have had a talk about it, and they say 

 — which is reasonable — that when folk live by 

 the Golden Rule they will set cherries all along the 

 lines of old fences, and in the pasture lots, so that 

 there will be enough for everybody everywhere, 

 and what the birds take will not be noticed. I be- 

 lieve that they are right; for when my berry gar- 

 dens grew away from a small beginning to fields 



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