204 Next to the Ground 



head, and find out if the jays would really eat 

 them. 



Still, if Dan did wring their necks, it was 

 no great matter. They were plagues to the 

 singing birds, robbing their nests of both eggs 

 and young. Joe was tempted to do a little 

 neck-wringing on his own account when he 

 found doves and field-larks in the traps. They 

 were pretty and appealingly helpless — but 

 they also made the finest sort of bird-pies. 

 Notwithstanding, conscience prevailed over 

 appetite. Conscience had an active ally in 

 Patsy. She said she would n't take advantage 

 of a hungry bird to eat it — she left that sort 

 of thing to the Shack gang. 



Snowbirds fed round about the house in 

 clouds. Old man Shack, coming to borrow 

 a peck of meal, tried his best to persuade Patsy 

 into having a dead-fall. " Children 't home 

 had one," he said, " an' it wus jest next door 

 ter a merikle how many er them thar little fat 

 gray rascals they did ketch. Why they had 

 as many as half a dozen hangin' at the eend 

 o' strings, an' roastin' before the fire, all the 

 time, 'tween daylight an' dark. No, a snow- 

 bird ra'alely wa'nt no more'n a mouthful, but 

 roasted that-a-way, with er walnut meat fer 

 stuffin', hit was a mouthful worth while. 

 Dead-fall ! Makin' hit wa'n't no work at all. 

 Jest set er trigger under one aidge o' er long 



