threads ; but, as the cloth was lying loose on 

 140 . 1. 



the grass, the whole piece came whenever he 



^n Or/o/esWesf P^^^d. For a few moments he worked dili- 

 gently, trying a pull on each side in succes- 

 sion. Once he tumbled end over end in a 

 comical scramble, as the fragment caught on 

 a grass stub but gave way when he had 

 braced himself and was pulling hardest. 

 Quite abruptly he flew off, and I thought 

 he had given up the attempt. 



In a minute he was back with his mate, 

 thinking, no doubt, that she, as a capable 

 little manager, would know all about such 

 things. If birds do not talk, they have at 

 least some very ingenious ways of letting 

 one another know what they think, which 

 amounts to the same thing. 



The two worked together for some minutes, 

 getting an occasional thread, but not enough 

 to pay for the labor. The trouble was that 

 both pulled together on the same side ; and 

 so they merely dragged the bit of cloth all 

 over the lawn, instead of pulling out the 

 threads they wanted. Once they unraveled 

 a long thread by pulling at right angles, but 



