right foot, so badly that the boys feared 

 they were going to lose him, too. 



But Billy second lived a few days long- 

 er. Fred put some cotton cloth soaked 

 in bran and warm Avater on the wounded 

 foot. With his other foot, the crow 

 scratched off the rag and looked up at 

 Fred with a weak "Caw," which seemed 

 to mean, "I don't want that on." Billy 

 McGaw's wound was too much for him. 

 He died August 23, 1899. 



Should you go out to the orchard, near 

 Fred's home, you would see the slab (not 

 a marble slab, but a shingle) dedicated 

 to Billy. That day, August 23, 1899, a 

 sad funeral was held. Fred put Billy in 



an express cart — called it the hearse — 

 he and his little friend Joe were the 

 horses and sister and her friend Ruth the 

 mourners. Billy was buried with cere- 

 mony, beneath the "minister" apple tree. 

 Flowers were put around the headstone, 

 which was the shingle and on which sis- 

 ter wrote : 



"Here lies poor Billy the Crow, 

 Who died Aug. 2^, 1899. God bless poor 

 Billy." 

 As this is a true story you must believe 

 that sister and Ruth (the boys didn't for 

 boys never do such sill}^ things) shed 

 many tears over Billy McGaw's grave. 



Susy Cutter. 



HOW WE SAVED MOTHER ROBIN. 



(A TRUE STORY.) 



One afternoon in the early spring, two 

 httle bo3's, Herman and Homer, were ly- 

 ing out on the fresh, green grass. How 

 good it seemd after the long, cold winter ! 

 Mamma had read to them till they were 

 tired of keeping still any longer, and 

 while thinking what next to do, Herman 

 said : "Oh, let us take off our shoes and 

 stockings." But mamma thought it was 

 too early in the spring for that, but final- 

 ly permitted them to remove their shoes. 



While they were running around in the 

 clean grass, Herman heard a great noise 

 down in the meadow where one of his 

 robins was sitting on four beautiful eggs. 

 (I call it his robin because it was one of 

 those he had been watching for some 

 time.) She had been very early about 

 her nest building and was sitting on her 

 eggs before most robins had finished their 

 nests. Forgetting the stones and black- 

 berry vines in the way, Herman rushed 

 off to see what was the matter, followed 

 by mamma and Homer. At first they 

 thought the robins were fighting, then 



Herman said "It's a hawk!" and how he 

 did run to get there in time to save his 

 robin I 



The old hawk had pounced upon her 

 siting on her nest, and was trying to 

 carry her off. You' see, it was so early in 

 the season that the leaves had not come 

 out, and she was easily seen by the hun- 

 gry old hawk. He was so much fright- 

 ened by Herman's screams that he had to 

 drop the robin before Herman reached 

 there. 



Poor mother robin's wing was broken, 

 so Herman carried her up to the house 

 and put her on a soft little bed, but very 

 soon she began to hop round and seemed 

 so lively that when night came they car- 

 ried her down and put her under her own 

 tree, but her nest was on such a high 

 .limb, Herman was afraid she could never 

 reach it again. The next day the robin 

 could not be found, but the third day she 

 was sitting on her eggs again. H5w she 

 got up there Herman could not know, but 

 wasn't he glad he saved her life? 



Mary C. W. Smith. 



109 



