46 THE ROMANCE OF EVERIFARM 



had more tourists than the former house could ac- 

 commodate. But here was a new house, a Chinese 

 pagoda. Just the thing for some of the newly-weds, 

 off by themselves! 



"And a new coat of paint on the old house! Now, 

 folks, this is even better than I had hoped for. A 

 new house, the old one painted, cleaned, and refur- 

 nished, and we are here in fine shape to begin a 

 wonderful summer," shouted the big blue-purple 

 martin, so proud of himself that he was nearly 

 bursting with pride. 



However, no sooner had they arrived than they 

 were attacked by dozens of pugnacious English spar- 

 rows, who at once contested the rights of ownership. 

 This seemed the only drawback to the pleasant sur- 

 roundings, so the martins determined to stand to- 

 gether and drive off the sparrows. They eventually 

 accomplished this, but not without a hard fight 

 which took constant work for many days. In this 

 they were aided by the people of the big house, who 

 shot and trapped many of the sparrows. 



Within a few days of their arrival they noticed 

 that most of the other birds had arrived for the 

 summer. Blackbird Jim and his crowd were already 

 here and selecting home sites in the white pine, the 



