66 
THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 
down the hill. Then this wise fellow opened 
his eyes and began taking stones from his 
neighbor’s wall and adding them to his. 
“There,” he said after a time. “I think 
that makes my home complete.” 
“Did he take your stones?” asked Mannie. 
“Somebody did and I had to get them 
back,” grinned the other. “You see,” he said, 
“Our people have the habit of stealing stones to 
build their houses with, and if you didn’t steal 
at all you’d never have a house. I don’t like it. 
I hope some time our people will grow to re¬ 
spect the rights of one another just at the 
humans do.” 
Mannie went down the hill to his own vil¬ 
lage where he searched out the house with the 
three red stones and one white one next to the 
sea, and three white ones and one red one on 
the upper side. He found his mother and 
father there, with a good supper all spread. 
“Father,” he said that night, “these Adelie 
folks are right stupid. They keep stealing one 
