■ The Golden-crown selects cone-bearing 

 trees for its nest. This is usualW a pen- 

 sil structure and is hung from the branch- 

 es at from four to fifty or more feet from 

 the ground. It is globular in form with 

 the entrance near the top. Mosses and 

 dead leaves are used in its construction 

 and it is lined with soft and fine fibers of 

 bark and feathers. 



Someone has said of a Golden-crowned 

 Kinglet : 'T often spoke to him as if he 

 were a real person ; and he appreciated 

 my words of praise, too, without doubt, 

 for he would come scurrying near, dis- 

 porting his head so that I could catch 

 the gleam of his amber coronal, with 

 its golden patch for a center piece." 



THE TALKING PINE TREE. 



It was a chilly winter Saturday, 

 Though the winds were cold, the sun- 

 shine was bright and warm. After din- 

 ner Jacob put on his overcoat and new 

 red mittens and went, as he often did, 

 with his father, who was sexton of Ever- 

 green cemetery. While his father was 

 busy Jacob amused himself. 



He had never before noticed how bare 

 the great trees looked. Their limbs 

 reached out like hundreds of crooked 

 arms between him and the blue sky. As 

 he looked around here and there he could 

 see a tree wearing a dark green coat. 

 Most of them were small, but some were 

 tall and pointed. A pretty good sized, 

 umbrella-shaped one grew near where 

 his father was digging a grave. 



Full of boyish life and spirits he ran 

 to it playfully shouting: 'T am a squir- 

 rel hunting a nut and will climb up 

 among your branches." But he tried in 

 vain. The lowest limbs were so high 

 above his head that he could not reach 

 them. 



"Never mind," said he, "1 will hunt 

 a nut on the ground." 



Dropping on all fours he began to 

 crawl around. Soon his hand came down 

 upon something hard under the dead 

 leaves which covered the ground. Now 

 he though he had really found a nut. It 

 was roundish, with blunt spines and 

 wood}^, and like no nut which he knew. 

 Hunting a loose brick he cracked it upon 

 a stone. Two or three little round things 

 with gauzy wings dropped out. 



This roused his curiosity. He now 

 searched round and round for others. He 

 spied a small branch which had broken 



off and dropped to the ground. As he 

 snatched it up an end whirled round, 

 striking his face. ''How you stick !" 

 cried he. He pulled off a mitten to feel 

 what was so sharp. He noticed that the 

 branch was bare, black and full of scars 

 except at the end of each branchlet, where 

 bunches of green sharp needles about as 

 large as his mother's darning needles 

 were growing. 



"Why, old tree," said he, "where are 

 your leaves?" 



Now the tree heard every word which 

 Jacob said but it could not make Jacob 

 hear its answers. 



At the tip of each branchlet was a pink 

 bud, and near some of these was a little, 

 tender thing about the shape of, though 

 smaller, than the English sparrow's egg. 

 These he could pinch into pieces. But 

 lower down on the branchlets, among the 

 queer needles, were others not so large 

 nor so dry as the odd fruit which he had 

 found on the ground. They were not so 

 easily destroyed. He picked them off and 

 put them in his pockets. 



"You're a funny tree ! Why do you 

 not have nuts which hungry boys can 

 eat?" 



Jumping to his feet he looked up into 

 the branches. They were all bare ex- 

 cept for the needles growing on the 

 branchlets. The tree was dotted with 

 the odd nuts. 



"What kind of a tree are you ? You are 

 not at all like our pretty oak or maple 

 trees. Your branches grow nearly 

 straight out. I should not like to live in 

 a graveyard and look at tombstones all 

 the time." 



