B Y THE WA YSIDE 
19 
The squirrel had left his home in a 
grove a short distance north of the church 
on Fullerton avenue, and leaping from 
tree to tree had followed the street down 
to the church property. 
The green lawn tempted him to de¬ 
scend to the ground for a run across the 
smooth surface. Mr. Squirrel was prob¬ 
ably 150 feet from the nearest tree before 
an old cock robin spied the intruder, 
who increased his pace to the nearest 
tree. But long before he could reach it 
the robin was on him. Striking with 
wings, beak and claws, all'at once, the 
bird bowled the little animal over and 
11 
over. 
Panic-stricken, he picked himself up 
and continued toward the tree. The fu¬ 
gitive managed to reach the trunk and 
was nearly to the lower branch when the 
robin, which had flown past after its first 
attack, came again with a rush. The 
squirrel could not avoid the encounter. 
Although he clung as tightly to the tree 
as he could, he was again knocked 
sprawling, falling to the grass fully six 
feet away. 
Chattering wildly, the terrified squirrel 
managed to get up into the tree and the 
fight was over.— St. Paul Dispatch . 
July 17, 1907. 
Secretary of the Children’s Department, 
Wisconsin Audubon Society: 
Concerning our bird story contest 
about which you ask me, it was very 
simple. We hoped to interest the chil¬ 
dren in the unusual number of birds 
which stayed with us this spring and, 
incidentally, in the bird books in the li¬ 
brary. To this end we offered a bird 
book as a prize for the best bird story in 
each of four grades, choosing the fourth, 
fifth, sixth and seventh grades. One of 
the requirements made was that the bird 
chosen must be one which the writer had 
seen and knew. The schools were vis¬ 
ited and the contests carefully explained. 
The superintendent of schools furnished 
uniform theme paper, that the finished 
stories might be bound and kept in the 
library. Additional credit was given 
for a well drawn and colored picture of 
the bird. The children were encouraged 
to come to the library for information 
about their birds, with the result that all 
of our bird books and many Audubon 
Leaflets, with which Mrs. Thwaits had 
supplied us went out in a single day. 
The bird pictures were put out of course 
in the children’s room, and a poster was 
made explaining the contest. Another 
poster was made for a greeting and 
placed in the Entrance hall. This had 
on it a, little boy piping to the birds, and 
Riley’s verse, “There’s ever a song some¬ 
where.” The pictures of most of our 
common birds were mounted on pale 
green board matching the two posters 
and had short verses or bits about the 
various birds on them. The robin, for 
instance, appeared above “Rollicking 
Robin is here again,” etc.; the oriole had 
“My oriole, my flash of summer fire,” 
and so on. The children became tre¬ 
mendously interested and we had about 
a hundred stories from the four grades. 
Not only the pupils, but the teachers 
also became interested and we considered' 
it well worth the while. 
Yours very truly, 
Helen Price, Librarian. 
T. B. Scott Free Library, 
Merrill, Wis. 
