^2 
THE FIRST PLANTING 
bluebirds had tried to drive them away. Although 
the wrens were the smaller, they had fought very 
hard to keep their home, and, after a battle that 
lasted two days, the bluebirds had left them in 
peace. 
No doubt Little Joseph would have paid a visit 
to the bluebirds and also to the grackles, had I not 
gone to tell him that Queenie Perth had come 
with a note from Miss Wiseman asking us there for 
luncheon. 
At first Joseph shook his head, saying he had far 
too many things to attend to at home to spend 
nearly a whole day visiting. I reminded him that 
Timothy had not come to help him, and just then 
Queenie ran out and joined us. Joseph very 
quickly said we would go to Miss Wiseman’s. He 
then showed Queenie the bird-houses and told her 
about their occupants. He would not let her go 
as close to them as he did because, he said, the birds 
were not accustomed to her. 
“Birds like me very much, and butterflies, too,” 
Queenie told him. “Down at Auntie’s they are 
no more afraid of me than your birds are of you.” 
She ran home after this, since she had to carry 
the message back to Miss Wiseman. 
Little Joseph then spent the rest of the morning 
raking up the dried leaves and dead twigs that were 
lying In the coppice by the longest side of the tri- 
angle. The earth had begun to feel slightly moist, 
and we wondered if the frost was not now nearly 
