142 JVays of Wood Folk. 



the danger was over. When a hawk misses Hke that 

 he never strikes again. 



Boys generally have a kind of sympathetic liking 

 for Chickadee. They may be cruel or thoughtless to 

 other birds, but seldom so to him. He seems some- 

 how like themselves. 



Two barefoot boys with bows and arrows were 

 hunting, one September day, about the half-grown 

 thickets of an old pasture. The older was teaching 

 the younger how to shoot. A robin, a chipmunk, 

 and two or three sparrows were already stowed away 

 in their jacket pockets ; a brown rabbit hung from 

 the older boy's shoulder. Suddenly the younger 

 raised his bow and drew the arrow back to its head. 

 Just in front a chickadee hung and twittered among 

 the birch twigs. But the older boy seized his arm. 



" Don't shoot — don't shoot him ! " he said. 



" But why not ? " 



" 'Cause you must n't — you must never kill a chick- 

 adee." 



And the younger, influenced more by a certain 

 mysterious shake of the head than by the words, 

 slacked his bow cheerfully ; and with a last wide-eyed 

 look at the little gray bird that twittered and swung 

 so fearlessly near them, the two boys went on with 

 their hunting. 



No one ever taught the older boy to discriminate 



