if he feared that he had been talking too much.
"That is all true," said the Doctor, looking very happy at finding that one of his listeners not only saw for himself but remembered and thought about what he had seen. "If you have used your eyes so well, my lad, when we come to the bird stories I shall expect you to tell some of them yourself." And the Doctor held out his hand to the child with a look that sent him to bed to dream happy dreams for many a night.
The children gazed at Rap in surprise. It was a new idea that a poor little fellow like him should know more than they, who had both parents and nice clothes, and had been to school in a big city. That he should be able to tell stories about birds seemed wonderful. But they were not selfish, and instead of being jealous felt a great respect for Rap.
"Now," said the Doctor, "we will see what a good neighbor to House People a bird is, and how in working for himself he helps them also."
"How can birds possibly work to help people?" asked Dodo and Nat together; but Rap smiled to himself as if he knew something about the matter, and said, "They eat the bugs and worms and things that kill the gardens and fields."
"You are right again," said the Doctor heartily. "What is one thing that man and every other animal must have to keep him alive?"
"Food!" shouted Nat, and then grew very red, as the others laughed, because since he had been at Orchard Farm his appetite had grown so that though he ate twice as much as Olive and Dodo he seemed always hungry.
"Yes, food. Bread, meat, vegetables, and fruits, but bread first of all. What is bread made of?"
"Wheat, I think," said Nat.
"Rye, too—mother's rye-bread is drea'fly good," said Rap.
"Don't forget Mammy Bun's corn-bread," added Olive.
"All your answers are right, for many different kinds of bread are used in various parts of the country; but whether it is made from wheat-flour, or rye-flour, or corn-meal, it all grows from the ground, does it not?
"Now the next sort of food—meat, the flesh of animals—oxen, sheep, pigs, and poultry—what do they feed on?"
"Oxen eat grass and hay and meal," said Dodo, in great haste lest some one else should speak first.
"Sheep eat grass and hay too. I've seen them over in the pasture on the hill," said Nat.
"Pigs will eat any old sort of thing," said Rap. "Sour milk and snakes and swill and rats."
"Ugh!" shivered Dodo. "Are all those nasty things in sausages?" "No, Dodo," laughed the Doctor; "when pigs are shut up they eat a great many dirty things, but naturally they prefer clean food like other cattle—corn, acorns, apples, and so forth. Besides, those 'nasty things,' as you call them, turn into pork before they are put in sausages, for pigs know how to make pork. So you see that all the food of the animals whose flesh we eat comes out of the ground; and that is what the Bible means where it says, 'All flesh is grass.' But what other things are there that grow up out of the earth, tall and strong, each one holding a beautiful green screen to keep the sun from drawing all the moisture from the ground and making it too dry; shading the rivers that their waters may not waste away; some making cool bowers for House People to sit under, others bearing delicious fruits for them to eat, and all in good time yielding their bodies to make fires and give out heat to warm us?"
"Trees! Yes, trees of course," cried the children eagerly; "all kinds of trees, for trees grow apples and pears and plums and cherries and chestnuts and firewood too."
"Now what is there that preys upon all this vegetable life—upon every plant, from the grass to the tree, destroying them all equally?"
"Bugs and worms and all kinds of crawlers and flyers and hoppers," said Rap.
"Yes, every plant has an insect enemy which feeds upon its life juices. So a set of animals has been developed by Heart of Nature to hold the plant destroyers in check, and these animals are the birds.
"Man may do all he can to protect his gardens, his orchards, his fields and forests, but if the birds did not help him the insects that work by night and day—tapping at the root, boring inside the bark, piercing the very heart of the plant, chewing off the under side of leaves, nipping off the buds—would make the earth bare and brown instead of green and blooming. Yet House People, both young and old, forget this. They shoot and frighten away the birds, either because some few of their feathered friends take grapes or other fruits and berries by way of pay, or merely from thoughtlessness, to see how many they can hit."
"Do all birds eat bugs and such things?" asked Nat. "Olive said she used to put out grain and crumbs in winter for some kinds."
"Some birds eat animal food and some seed food, while others eat both; but almost all birds feed their babies upon insects. The nesting season is chiefly in spring, when all plants begin or renew their growth. Spring is also the season when the eggs of many insects hatch out and when others come from the cocoons in which they have slept all winter.
"Then the farmer begins his annual war upon them, and day after day he fights the Battle of the Bugs. But if he stops to think, and remembers that Heart of Nature has a use for everything, he will win this battle against the creeping, crawling, squirming regiments more easily. For above him in the trees of his forest, in the hedgerows and bushes of his pasture and garden, on the rafters of his barn, even in the chimney of his house, live the birds, willing and eager to help him. And all the wages they ask is permission to work for a living and protection from those of his fellowmen who covet the Oriole and Cardinal for their gay feathers and the Robin and Meadowlark for pot-pie."
"Singing-bird pie is wicked. I would like to pound them all," said Dodo, striking her fists together, as Nat did sometimes, not making it clear whether it was pie or people she wanted to pound. "But uncle, it is right to eat some birds—Ducks and Chickens and Geese and Turkeys."
"Yes, Dodo, they belong to another class of birds—a lower order that seem made for food—not singing nor helping the farmers; but even these should not be shot needlessly or in their nesting season. But the higher order—the perching Song Birds—should never be shot, except the common Sparrow of Europe that we call the English Sparrow. His habits are wholly bad; he meddles with the nests of useful birds and is a nuisance to his human as well as bird neighbors.
"To prevent confusion Heart of Nature has divided the habits and appetites of Birdland, so that instead of a great many families all building in one kind of tree, or eating the same sort of insects or seeds, each has its own manners and customs. Thus they divide among themselves the realms of the air, the water, the trees, and the ground. Some birds, as the Swallows and Flycatchers, skim through the air to catch winged insects. Others, like the Woodpeckers and Warblers, take the scaly insects from the bark of trees. Others that walk on the ground, like the Robin, the Thrush, Meadowlark, Crow, and Red-winged Blackbird, eat ground things, such as the fat cutworms which mow with sharp jaws the young plants of corn, cabbage, and onions."
"Please, Doctor Hunter," asked Rap, "I thought Crows and Blackbirds were wicked birds that ate up grain and corn, for the miller always puts up scarecrows to keep them away."
But before the Doctor could answer the children caught sight of Mammy Bun coming down from the house carrying a tray. Upon this was a pitcher, some glasses, and a plate full of cakes, which, when she came under the tree, they saw were delicious-looking buns, as light and brown as good yeast and careful baking could make them.
"Ah, mammy, mammy," cried
