BY THE WAYSIDE 
43 
In one place the kindly people have cracked 
the nuts for the squirrels for so long that now 
the squirrels h'ave lost the habit of their an¬ 
cestors—if not the power—and will not try 
to open a sound nut for themselves. They 
have become pauperized, dependent on the 
bounty of others, and unfit to get their own 
living, and the moral of this is: It is not 
always true kindness to make life easy for 
anyone,—even for squirrels! C. G. S. 
THE ORIGIN OF THE BLUE BIRD. 
Once a long time ago, years and years ago, 
when this world was all bright and birds and 
bees and flowers were all prettier than now, 
there lived a little girl whose name was Win- 
ogene, which we know means bright or bril¬ 
liant. This little girl lived with her brothers 
and sisters in a great cave. 
One bright day when all was smiling and 
bright, the little girl or Winogene as we will 
call her, put on her pretty red dress and blue 
shawl and said she would go for a walk, but 
would be home soon. So out of the cave and 
across the valley she went singing a sweet 
song. All of th'e time she wandered on and 
on picking flowers in her shawl, for it was so 
bright and warm that she did not need it. 
After a little while it began to get cool 
and the sun went down, and Winogene did not 
know where her home was. So she laid her 
flowers on the grass and put her sh'awl around 
her and laid down to sleep, for she was not 
afraid because there were no beasts or any¬ 
thing that would hurt her. 
But while the little girl had been singing 
and wandering all day some one had heard her 
some one who was aged and leaned on a very 
long staff. This person had on a funny cap 
and was dressed in a long grey cloak. She was 
was a fairy that did not like to have people 
be merry and good-natured, so she was fol¬ 
lowing Winogene to turn her into something 
that would not be so happy. Azubah, for that 
was the name of this strange personage, found 
Winogene asleep on her bed of flowers. So 
pretty was the little girl that Azubah’s hard 
heart was softened, so she touched WJnogene 
with her staff and she immediately turned in¬ 
to a beautiful bird with a red breast and the 
rest of her body blue like her shawl. 
In the morning when she awoke she flew up 
and began to sing for she was happy still. 
Now we see her come to us each spring with 
hei little red breast as full of happiness as can 
be and she always has a merry song. We 
call her the blue bird. 
Freda I. Fisher. 
HOW WE MAY HELP THE BIRDS. 
How often has the question been asked, “How 
can we help the birds ?” In summer the birds 
find plenty to eat, and we find them destroying 
grubs and insects that are very injurious to 
our best trees and garden, but in the cold 
weather all is so different. The ground is cov¬ 
ered with a thick blanket of snow, which often 
covers the tops of the highest weeds, upon 
which our snow birds and other birds of the 
same family feed. If these helpful birds can¬ 
not get food enough to keep up a good high 
temperature within their body, they will 
freeze. We cannot afford to part with them, 
so the only thing to do is to provide them 
food. 
Rathei than lose our little friends, I am sure 
we would all be willing to go out into the 
fields, shovel away a little snow, place a 
board and scatter seeds of any kind upon it. 
The snowbird is but one example. There are 
at least ten other species of birds to be found 
in every part of the United States, all of 
which need to be cared for. When the trees 
are covered with snow and sleet, what would 
the chickadees and the nuthatches and the 
woodpeckers and the jays do for food? We 
must tack up suet or fat of any kind on th'e 
tree trunks high enough to get the birds out 
of harm’s way, and also hang a basket of 
cracked nuts and crumbs upon the trees. 
If we all feed the birds during the hardest 
parts of the long cold winter, and keep them 
well supplied with' good fresh food, we will 
no longer need to ask, “How can we help the 
birds?” Then their numbers will increase, and 
our troublesome grubs will decrease.—S. D_ 
Robbins, in American Ornithologist. 
Named species of birds, 13,000.—F. M. Chap¬ 
man. 
Named species of plants, 200,000.—Britton 
& Brown. 
Species of insects, 300,000 (30,000 in Amer¬ 
ica).—M. V. Slingerland. 
