the tall, withered grass and watched the 

 new wagon coming down the road and 

 popped into their holes when they 

 thought it had come too near. The plu- 

 my pappus of the golden rod, with great 

 bunches of scarlet rose seeds, bursting 

 pods of the satin plant and clusters of 

 large red and chocolate oak leaves grow- 

 ing on year-old sprouts which had sprung 

 up from the stumps of trees cut down the 

 fall before made huge bouquets in the 

 fence corners. While driving through 

 the meadow the horses, which were pas- 

 tured there, came up to neigh a good-day 

 to their friends in the harness and trot- 

 ted along for some time on both sides of 

 the wagon and behind it. At last the 

 cornfield was reached and Uncle Philip 

 drove up to a corn stook. 



"Look at that bird sitting on the wire 

 fence," said Aunt Dorothy. "Isn't that 

 a butcher bird?" 



"Yes," said Uncle Philip, "that is a 

 shrike, or butcher bird. I should not 

 wonder if it were the same bird that fol- 

 lowed me around this morning. I won't 

 tell you what he did, but if you will 

 watch him maybe you'll see something- 

 very interesting yourself." 



Uncle Philip put on his husking gloves 

 and began his work, taking the ears of 

 corn from the stalks in the stook without 

 disturbing it any more than he could 

 help. 



Aunt Dorothy remained sitting on her 

 board in the wagon. 



Leicester and Keren went to play in 

 the meadow through which they had 

 just driven, and they frightened the 

 butcher bird so that he flew away from 

 the fence and perched near the top of a 

 tall cornstalk in a neighboring stook. 

 Keren found a dandelion blossom and 

 Leicester a wild rose, a bit of pale, pink 

 beauty that had blossomed late and alone 

 on a bush whose leaves were dusty and 

 faded. The children went to a hickory 

 tree expecting to find some nuts on the 

 ground, but the squirrels had been there 

 already and nothing was left except some 

 nut-shells. Yes, there were three or four 

 nuts, but when, by the aid of two stones, 

 the children had cracked them, they 

 found the meat inside all dried up and 

 unfit to eat. The squirrels must have 

 known this without cracking the nuts. 



otherwise they would not have left them 

 as they did. 



Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Philip were 

 talking about the butcher bird. 



"The butcher bird is found all over 

 the world," said Aunt Dorothy, "and has 

 different names in different countries." 



"And it has been written about by men 

 who lived a long, long time ago," said 

 Uncle Philip, and he told Aunt Dorothy 

 some of those men's names. But they 

 are so long and hard to say I will not 

 tell them here. 



"The shrike is a cousin to the crow. 

 Nearly all the crows have black feath- 

 ers, but the butcher bird wears a differ- 

 ent dress in France from the one he 

 wears in England, and in India he has 

 still another garb," said Aunt Dorothy. 



"Yes," said Uncle Philip, "but all the 

 shrikes everywhere have toothed bills." 



By this time two more shrikes or 

 butcher birds had joined the first one 

 and all three were flying about impa- 

 tiently from place to place. 



"Just as if they were waiting for some- 

 thing to happen," said Aunt Dorothy. 



"So they are," said Uncle Philip, who 

 had finished husking the corn in his 

 stook. "Call the children now ; or I 

 will," he said, and whistled and beckoned 

 till Leicester and Keren came running to 

 w r here he was. 



"Now," he said, "look at that stunted 

 old tree over there, children. Do you 

 see the three butcher birds in it ?" 



Yes, every one saw the birds. 



"Well, then," he said, "get into the 

 wagon and keep watch of them. I am 

 going to drive to the next corn stook," 

 and away they went. After Uncle Phil- 

 ip had stopped the horses he told Aunt 

 Dorothy and the children to sit together 

 on the board with their backs to the 

 horses and keep very still. 



"I am going behind the corn stook and 

 will pull it away as best I can from where 

 it now stands. Watch the birds and the 

 ground near the stook." 



As soon as he had pulled away the 

 cornstalks he stooped down and walked 

 away some distance as quickly and qui- 

 etly as lie could. Then Aunt Dorothy 

 and the children saw the butcher birds 

 alight on the ground on which the corn- 

 stalks had been and catch young mice 



6 



