Citizen Bird: Scenes from Bird-Life in Plain English for Beginners. Elliott Coues
on her lap, saying, "I don't know its name—the beginning part that tells is gone—but it's all about birds. Here's a picture of a Bluebird, only it isn't quite right, somehow. Oh, I do wish I had all of the book."
Olive turned over the leaves that looked familiar to her and saw that it began at page 443. "Why, it is part of the first volume of Nuttall's 'Manual of Birds.' My father has the whole of this book," she said. "Where did you find this bit?"
"The rag pedler that comes by every fall lets me look in his bags, 'cause sometimes there are paper books in them, and he gave me this for nothing, 'cause it was only a piece."
"Why don't you ask your father to buy you a whole book, instead of grubbing in rag-bags?" said Nat thoughtlessly.
Rap looked from one to the other, as if in his interest he had forgotten himself for a time, and then he said quietly, "I haven't any father."
"I haven't any mother," said Olive quickly, putting her hand gently on the thin brown one. "We must be friends, Rap."
Her sympathy soothed him immediately, and his gentle nature instantly tried to comfort her by saying, "But you said your father owned the whole of my book. How glad you must be!"
Then they all laughed, and Nat and Dodo began telling about their uncle's room and all the books and birds in it, and about the book he had promised to write for them, until Rap looked so bewildered that Olive was obliged to explain things a little more clearly to him. "Come home with us," cried Nat and Dodo, each seizing him by a hand, "and perhaps uncle will tell you all the names we must learn—head, throat, wings, and what all the other parts are rightly called—and then we can go around together and watch birds."
But as Rap turned over and scrambled up with the aid of his crutch, they saw that he had only one leg, for the trouser of the left leg was tied together just below the knee.
Acting as if they did not notice this, they led the way to the house, going close to the fence that divided the orchard from the road, because there was a little path worn there.
"What is the whole of your name?" asked Dodo, who could not keep from asking questions.
"Stephen Hawley," he answered. "My mother is Ann Hawley, who lives by the mill, and does all the beautiful fine white washing for everybody hereabouts. Don't you know her? I suppose it's because you have just come. I believe my mother could wash a cobweb if she tried, and not tear it," and a glow of pride lit up his face.
"But you said a little while ago that your name was Rap."
"Everybody calls me Rap, because when I go along the road my crutch hits the stones, and says 'rap—rap—rap.'"
"Here's a dead bird," said Nat, picking something from under the fence.
"It's a White-throated Sparrow," said Rap, "and it's flown against the telegraph wire in the dark and been killed." "We will take it to uncle and ask him to tell us all about it."
"Yes, yes," said Dodo, "we will all go"—and Rap hopped off after the other children so quickly that Olive had hard work to keep up with him.
This time Nat and Dodo did not hesitate outside the study door, but gave a pound or two and burst into the room.
"Uncle Roy, Uncle Roy, we have seen two birds and written down about them, but we didn't quite know what to call the front part where the neck ends and the stomach begins, or the beginning of the tail, and Olive says there are right names for all these parts. And we found Rap in the orchard and he only has half a book, and here's a White-throated Sparrow, and we want to know how it's made and why birds can fly and why—"
Here the Doctor laughingly stopped them and turned to Olive for a clearer account of what had taken place in the orchard, while Rap stood gazing about the room as if he thought that heaven had suddenly opened to him.
"Now, children," said the Doctor, as soon as the youngsters had stopped chattering, "I will first tell you some stories about the birds; then if you like them I will make them into a little book that other girls and boys may read." And as the children began to dance about, he continued: "But before I tell you the names and habits of some of our home birds, you must learn a few things that are true of all birds—what they are; where they belong among animals; how they are made; how they do good and why we should protect them; and the wonderful journeys some of them take. To-morrow I will begin by answering Dodo's questions whether a bird is an animal, and why it has feathers."
"I think a bird is something like a boat," said Rap eagerly. "When it flies its wings are like sails in the air, and when it swims its feet row under the water, and the tail balances behind like a rudder and the head sticks out in front like the bowsprit."
"You are right, my boy," said the Doctor, looking at him attentively; "and would you also like to know how this beautiful boat is made? If a ship-builder could plan a vessel that would go through wind and water as birds do, he would be the wisest man in the world. But you see, Rap, a man did not plan any bird.
"I will go down and ask your mother to let you come and hear the stories with the other children—how would you like that, Rap?"
"Will you? Will you really let me come? Oh, I am so glad! I know mother'll let me any day but Monday and Thursday, because I have to watch clothes on those days."
"Wash clothes?" said Dodo in surprise.
"No, watch them," replied Rap, laughing. "Those two days the miller lets mother spread her things to whiten in his big meadow, and I have to watch and see that they are not stolen or don't blow away."
"Isn't it very stupid to sit there so long?"
"Oh, no, it's lovely; for there are lots of birds and things about."
"To-morrow will be Wednesday," said the Doctor. "Come up to Orchard Farm by nine o'clock, Rap, and we will begin our lessons with this little White-throated Sparrow Nat has found."
"And uncle!" cried Dodo, "you must make inch measures on our middle fingers with violet ink, the way you did to Olive's when she was little."
CHAPTER IV
THE BUILDING OF A BIRD
It rained on Wednesday—a warm spring rain, swelling the rivers and ponds, and watering the newly planted garden; but discouraging the birds in their nest-building, and disappointing Nat and Dodo, who wished to have their lesson in the orchard.
"Come in here, children," said the Doctor. "The wonder room, as Dodo calls it, is a good place for a talk about feathers and bones, and the rest of the things birds are built of. I have sent for Rap, too, so that the trio may be complete."
"Feathers and bones for building birds?" said Nat. "What a queer idea for a bird story."
"Not a bird story exactly," answered the Doctor. "But some things are true of all birds, and you must know them if you wish to understand the reason why of any bird in particular."
In a few minutes the three children were seated on the wide settle, with a cheery log fire, to make them forget the outside dampness. Quick, the fidgety little fox-terrier, sat by the hearth, watching a possible mouse hole; and Mr. Wolf, the tawny St. Bernard, chose the rug as a comfortable place for finishing his morning toilet.
Olive presently joined the group. The Doctor took the dead White-throated Sparrow from the table, and began to walk about the room, stopping now in front of the fire and then by the window.
"Here is a Sparrow, different from every other kind of Sparrow, different indeed from any other sort of bird in the world—else it would not be the particular sort of a Sparrow called the White-throated. But there are a good many things that it has in common with all other birds. Can you tell me some of them?"
"I know!" said Dodo; "it has a good many feathers on it, and I guess all kinds of