0' 



CHICKAEEE 



^UT, you rascal ! You ai-rant thief ! " I heard 

 some one shout in a higli-pitched, feminine 

 voice, and hurrying through the lilac hedge, I 

 saw my hostess hurl an ear of corn into a pine- 

 tree that overhung the smoke-house. Her face 

 was burning with amazement and wrath. 



"Think of it!" she cried. "I have fed and 

 petted those red squirrels, I don't know how 

 long, and there goes one of them with a young 

 phoebe-bird in his mouth. Years and years 

 I 've tried to lure the birds back to build in the 

 yard as they used to. I had banished every cat, 

 killed every snake, and bribed every lioy in the 

 neighborhood. They would not come for all 

 [2.3.3] 



