46 
BIRDS AND CHERRIES. 
use of proverbs,” observed Miss Winston. 
“ There is much of the wisdom of long 
experience stored up in them; and they 
often say a great deal in a few w T ords. But, 
Richard,—to return to our subject,—what 
was the story about Supa’s going shooting 
with your brother ? I have heard, but I do 
not remember distinctly.” 
“It was one summer in cherry-time,” 
said Richard, “ and there were such flocks 
of birds in the garden that we seemed to 
have no prospect of having any fruit left 
for ourselves. If they had done like the 
robins,—taken a cherry here and there and 
eaten it in a decent manner,—we would not 
have quarrelled with them; but the little 
things would peck every cherry on the tree 
without eating one. They cared nothing at 
all for bells or scarecrows. Harry and I 
put up a figure of a man with a gun—a real 
gun—in one of the trees, thinking it would 
keep them off a while, at any rate; but it 
was not ten minutes before a dozen birds 
were seated on the gun itself, flapping their 
wings, and screaming and pecking with all 
their might. I could not help laughing to 
see them,—though it was provoking, too.” 
