134 THE ROMANCE OF EVERIFARM 



some crooked twigs with thorns attached, which he 

 first used in making the foundation structure of the 

 nest. With these he wound in and out among the 

 thorns, the inner fibrous bark of the dead cotton- 

 wood limbs. Then he also found in the old straw 

 stack, some twine which had been used in tying the 

 bundle of oats. These strings he used to tie the 

 main parts of the nest together. After the nest was 

 ready to finish, he then selected the finest of wild 

 prairie grass, also the soft covering from the weeds, 

 and lined the nest with these materials, finally put- 

 ting in the bottom some of the soft bluegrass that 

 grew along the fences. Here was a home fit for a 

 queen, and in a short time four blue eggs with black 

 spots all over them were resting in the soft carpet 

 of this aerial home. 



Three weeks later four fuzzy black shapes emerged 

 from the eggs, and from that time on Jim and the 

 lady of the house had their hands full with keep- 

 ing those hungry mouths filled. The older they grew, 

 the greater was the burden of providing food for the 

 family. At first the food had to be selected with 

 care, so Jim ransacked the freshly cultivated fields 

 for nice fat worms and the main diet for several days 

 consisted of cut worms and grub worms — big, fat, 

 white ones, that made the children grow very rap- 



