Chapter V: Out of Doors Again (3)

Jakie had decided opinions about people who came into the room to see me, or to see the birds. At some persons he would squawk every moment. Others he saluted with a queer cry like “Ob-ble! ob-ble! ob-ble!” Once when a lady came in with a baby, he fixed his eyes on that infant with a savage look as if he would like to peck it, and jumped back and forth in his cage, panting but perfectly silent.

Jakie was very devoted to me. He always greeted me with a low, sweet chatter, with wings quivering, and, if he were out of the cage, he would come on the back of my chair and touch my cheek or lips very gently with his beak, or offer me a bit of food if he had any; and to me alone when no one else was near, he sang a low, exquisite song. I afterwards heard a similar song sung by a wild blue jay to his mate while she was sitting, and so I knew that my dear little captive had given me his sweetest--his love-song.

One of Jakie's amusements was dancing across the back of a tall chair, taking funny little steps, coming down hard, “jouncing” his body, and whistling as loud as he could. He would keep up this funny performance as long as anybody would stand before him and pretend to dance too.

My jay was fond of a sensation. One of his dearest bits of fun was to drive the birds into a panic. This he did by flying furiously around the room, feathers rustling, and squawking as loud as he could. He usually managed to fly just over the head of each bird, and as he came like a catapult, every one flew before him, so that in a minute the room was full of birds flying madly about, trying to get out of his way. This gave him great pleasure.

Once a grasshopper got into the Bird Room, probably brought in clinging to some one's dress in the way grasshoppers do. Jakie was in his cage, but he noticed the stranger instantly, and I opened the door for him. He went at once to look at the grasshopper, and when it hopped he was so startled that he hopped too. Then he picked the insect up, but he did not know what to do with it, so he dropped it again. Again the grasshopper jumped directly up, and again the jay did the same. This they did over and over, till every one was tired laughing at them. It looked as if they were trying to see who could jump the highest.

There was another bird in the room, however, who knew what grasshoppers were good for. He was an orchard oriole, and after looking on awhile, he came down and carried off the hopper to eat. The jay did not like to lose his plaything; he ran after the thief, and stood on the floor giving low cries and looking on while the oriole on a chair was eating the dead grasshopper. When the oriole happened to drop it, Jakie,--who had got a new idea what to do with grasshoppers,--snatched it up and carried it under a chair and finished it.

I could tell many more stories about my bird, but I have told them before in one of my “grown-up” books, so I will not repeat them here.

BABES IN THE WOODS

BY JOHN BURROUGHS

One day in early May, Ted and I made an expedition to the Shattega, a still, dark, deep stream that loiters silently through the woods not far from my cabin. As we paddled along, we were on the alert for any bit of wild life of bird or beast that might turn up.

There were so many abandoned woodpecker chambers in the small dead trees as we went along that I determined to secure the section of a tree containing a good one to take home and put up for the bluebirds. “Why don't the bluebirds occupy them here?” inquired Ted. “Oh,” I replied, “blue birds do not come so far into the woods as this. They prefer nesting-places in the open, and near human habitations.” After carefully scrutinizing several of the trees, we at last saw one that seemed to fill the bill. It was a small dead tree-trunk seven or eight inches in diameter, that leaned out over the water, and from which the top had been broken. The hole, round and firm, was ten or twelve feet above us. After considerable effort I succeeded in breaking the stub off near the ground, and brought it down into the boat.

“Just the thing,” I said; “surely the bluebirds will prefer this to an artificial box.” But, lo and behold, it already had bluebirds in it! We had not heard a sound or seen a feather till the trunk was in our hands, when, on peering into the cavity, we discovered two young bluebirds about half grown. This was a predicament indeed!

Well, the only thing we could do was to stand the tree-trunk up again as well as we could, and as near as we could to where it had stood before. This was no easy thing. But after a time we had it fairly well replaced, one end standing in the mud of the shallow water and the other resting against a tree. This left the hole to the nest about ten feet below and to one side of its former position. Just then we heard the voice of one of the parent birds, and we quickly paddled to the other side of the stream, fifty feet away, to watch her proceedings, saying to each other, “Too bad! too bad!” The mother bird had a large beetle in her beak. She alighted upon a limb a few feet above the former site of her nest, looked down upon us, uttered a note or two, and then dropped down confidently to the point in the vacant air where the entrance to her nest had been but a few moments before. Here she hovered on the wing a second or two, looking for something that was not there, and then returned to the perch she had just left, apparently not a little disturbed. She hammered the beetle rather excitedly upon the limb a few times, as if it were in some way at fault, then dropped down to try for her nest again. Only vacant air there! She hovers and hovers, her blue wings flickering in the checkered light; surely that precious hole MUST be there; but no, again she is baffled, and again she returns to her perch, and mauls the poor beetle till it must be reduced to a pulp. Then she makes a third attempt, then a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth, till she becomes very much excited. “What could have happened? Am I dreaming? Has that beetle hoodooed me?” she seems to say, and in her dismay she lets the bug drop, and looks bewilderedly about her. Then she flies away through the woods, calling. “Going for her mate,” I said to Ted. “She is in deep trouble, and she wants sympathy and help.”

In a few minutes we heard her mate answer, and presently the two birds came hurrying to the spot, both with loaded beaks. They perched upon the familiar limb above the site of the nest, and the mate seemed to say, “My dear, what has happened to you? I can find that nest.” And he dived down, and brought up in the empty air just as the mother had done. How he winnowed it with his eager wings! How he seemed to bear on to that blank space! His mate sat regarding him intently, confident, I think, that he would find the clue. But he did not. Baffled and excited, he returned to the perch beside her. Then she tried again, then he rushed down once more, then they both assaulted the place, but it would not give up its secret. They talked, they encouraged each other, and they kept up the search, now one, now the other, now both together. Sometimes they dropped down to within a few feet of the entrance to the nest, and we thought they would surely find it. No, their minds and eyes were intent only upon that square foot of space where the nest had been. Soon they withdrew to a large limb many feet higher up, and seemed to say to themselves,

“Well, it is not there, but it must be here somewhere; let us look about.” A few minutes elapsed, when we saw the mother bird spring from her perch and go straight as an arrow to the nest. Her maternal eye had proved the quicker. She had found her young. Something like reason and common sense had come to her rescue; she had taken time to look about, and behold! there was that precious doorway. She thrust her head into it, then sent back a call to her mate, then went farther in, then withdrew. “Yes, it is true, they are here, they are here!” Then she went in again, gave them the food in her beak, and then gave place to her mate, who, after similar demonstrations of joy, also gave them his morsel.

Ted and I breathed freer. A burden had been taken from our minds and hearts, and we went cheerfully on our way. We had learned something, too; we had learned that when in the deep woods you think of bluebirds, bluebirds may be nearer you than you think.

THE PRIDE OF THE REGIMENT

BY HARRY M. KIEFFER (ADAPTED)

“Old Abe” was the war-eagle of the Eighth Wisconsin Volunteers. Whoever it may have been that first conceived the idea, it was certainly a happy thought to make a pet of an eagle. For the eagle is our national bird, and to carry an eagle along with the colors of a regiment on the march, and in battle, and all through the whole war, was surely very appropriate, indeed.

“Old Abe's” perch was on a shield, which was carried by a soldier, to whom, and to whom alone, he looked as to a master. He would not allow any one to carry or even to handle him, except this soldier, nor would he ever receive his food from any other person's hands. He seemed to have sense enough to know that he was sometimes a burden to his master on the march, however, and, as if to relieve him, would occasionally spread his wings and soar aloft to a great height, the men of all regiments along the line of march cheering him as he went up.

He regularly received his rations from the commissary, like any enlisted man. Whenever fresh meat was scarce, and none could be found for him by foraging parties, he would take things into his own claws, as it were, and go out on a foraging expedition himself. On some such occasions he would be gone two or three days at a time, during which nothing whatever was seen of him; but he would invariably return, and seldom would come back without a young lamb or a chicken in his talons. His long absences occasioned his regiment not the slightest concern, for the men knew that, though he might fly many miles away in quest of food, he would be quite sure to find them again.

In what way he distinguished the two hostile armies so accurately that he was never once known to mistake the gray for the blue, no one can tell. But so it was, that he was never known to alight save in his own camp, and amongst his own men.

At Jackson, Mississippi, during the hottest part of the battle before that city, “Old Abe” soared up into the air, and remained there from early morning until the fight closed at night, no doubt greatly enjoying his bird's-eye view of the battle. He did the same at Mission Ridge. He was, I believe, struck by Confederate bullets two or three times, but his feathers were so thick that his body was not much hurt. The shield on which he was carried, however, showed so many marks of Confederate balls that it looked on top as if a groove plane had been run over it.

At the Centennial celebration held in Philadelphia, in 1876, “Old Abe” occupied a prominent place on his perch on the west side of the nave in the Agricultural Building. He was evidently growing old, and was the observed of all observers. Thousands of visitors, from all sections of the country, paid their respects to the grand old bird, who, apparently conscious of the honors conferred upon him, overlooked the sale of his biography and photographs going on beneath his perch with entire satisfaction.

As was but just and right, the soldier who had carried him during the war continued to have charge of him after the war was over, until the day of his death, which occurred at the capital of Wisconsin, in 1881.

THE MOTHER MURRE

BY DALLAS LORE SHARP

One of the most striking cases of mother-love which has ever come under my observation, I saw in the summer of 1912 on the bird rookeries of the Three-Arch Rocks Reservation off the coast of Oregon.

We were making our slow way toward the top of the outer rock. Through rookery after rookery of birds, we climbed until we reached the edge of the summit. Scrambling over this edge, we found ourselves in the midst of a great colony of nesting murres--hundreds of them--covering this steep rocky part of the top.

As our heads appeared above the rim, many of the colony took wing and whirred over us out to sea, but most of them sat close, each bird upon its egg or over its chick, loath to leave, and so expose to us the hidden treasure.

The top of the rock was somewhat cone-shaped, and in order to reach the peak and the colonies on the west side we had to make our way through this rookery of the murres. The first step among them, and the whole colony was gone, with a rush of wings and feet that sent several of the top-shaped eggs rolling, and several of the young birds toppling over the cliff to the pounding waves and ledges far below.

We stopped, but the colony, almost to a bird, had bolted, leaving scores of eggs, and scores of downy young squealing and running together for shelter, like so many beetles under a lifted board.

But the birds had not every one bolted, for here sat two of the colony among the broken rocks. These two had not been frightened off. That both of them were greatly alarmed, any one could see from their open beaks, their rolling eyes, their tense bodies on tiptoe for flight. Yet here they sat, their wings out like props, or more like gripping hands, as if they were trying to hold themselves down to the rocks against their wild desire to fly.

And so they were, in truth, for under their extended wings I saw little black feet moving. Those two mother murres were not going to forsake their babies! No, not even for these approaching monsters, such as they had never before seen, clambering over their rocks.

What was different about these two? They had their young ones to protect. Yes, but so had every bird in the great colony its young one, or its egg, to protect, yet all the others had gone. Did these two have more mother-love than the others? And hence, more courage, more intelligence?

We took another step toward them, and one of the two birds sprang into the air, knocking her baby over and over with the stroke of her wing, and coming within an inch of hurling it across the rim to be battered on the ledges below. The other bird raised her wings to follow, then clapped them back over her baby. Fear is the most contagious thing in the world; and that flap of fear by the other bird thrilled her, too, but as she had withstood the stampede of the colony, so she caught herself again and held on.

She was now alone on the bare top of the rock, with ten thousand circling birds screaming to her in the air above, and with two men creeping up to her with a big black camera that clicked ominously. She let the multitude scream, and with threatening beak watched the two men come on. A motherless baby, spying her, ran down the rock squealing for his life. She spread a wing, put her bill behind him and shoved him quickly in out of sight with her own baby. The man with the camera saw the act, for I heard his machine click, and I heard him say something under his breath that you would hardly expect a mere man and a game-warden to say. But most men have a good deal of the mother in them; and the old bird had acted with such decision, such courage, such swift, compelling instinct, that any man, short of the wildest savage, would have felt his heart quicken at the sight.

“Just how compelling might that mother-instinct be?” I wondered. “Just how much would that mother-love stand?” I had dropped to my knees, and on all fours had crept up within about three feet of the bird. She still had chance for flight. Would she allow me to crawl any nearer? Slowly, very slowly, I stretched forward on my hands, like a measuring-worm, until my body lay flat on the rocks, and my fingers were within three INCHES of her. But her wings were twitching, a wild light danced in her eyes, and her head turned toward the sea.

For a whole minute I did not stir. I was watching--and the wings again began to tighten about the babies, the wild light in the eyes died down, the long, sharp beak turned once more toward me.

Then slowly, very slowly, I raised my hand, touched her feathers with the tip of one finger--with two fingers--with my whole hand, while the loud camera click-clacked, click-clacked hardly four feet away!

It was a thrilling moment. I was not killing anything. I had no long-range rifle in my hands, coming up against the wind toward an unsuspecting creature hundreds of yards away. This was no wounded leopard charging me; no mother-bear defending with her giant might a captured cub. It was only a mother-bird, the size of a wild duck, with swift wings at her command, hiding under those wings her own and another's young, and her own boundless fear!

For the second time in my life I had taken captive with my bare hands a free wild bird. No, I had not taken her captive. She had made herself a captive; she had taken herself in the strong net of her mother-love.

And now her terror seemed quite gone. At the first touch of my hand I think she felt the love restraining it, and without fear or fret she let me reach under her and pull out the babies. But she reached after them with her bill to tuck them back out of sight, and when I did not let them go, she sidled toward me, quacking softly, a language that I perfectly understood, and was quick to respond to. I gave them back, fuzzy and black and white. She got them under her, stood up over them, pushed her wings down hard around them, her stout tail down hard behind them, and together with them pushed in an abandoned egg that was close at hand. Her own baby, some one else's baby, and some one else's forsaken egg! She could cover no more; she had not feathers enough. But she had heart enough; and into her mother's heart she had already tucked every motherless egg and nestling of the thousands of frightened birds, screaming and wheeling in the air high over her head.

THE END

REFERENCE LISTS FOR STORY-TELLING AND COLLATERAL READING

REFERENCE LISTS FOR STORY-TELLING AND COLLATERAL READING

(The grades assigned are merely suggestive, as some of the stories may be used in higher or lower grades than here indicated.)

NEW YEAR'S DAY

For grades 1-4.

An All-the-Year-Round Story, in Poulsson, In the Child's World; Peter the Stone-Cutter, in Macdonell, Italian Fairy Book; The Forest Full of Friends, in Alden, Why the Chimes Rang.

For grades 5-8.

A Chinese New Year's in California, in Our Holidays Retold from St. Nicholas; A New Year's Talk, in Stevenson, Days and Deeds (prose); Story of the Year, in Andersen, Stories and Tales; The Animals' New Year's Eve, in Lagerlof, Further Adventures of Nils.

LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY

For grades 1-4.

A Westfield Incident, in Moores, Abraham Lincoln, page 87; Lincoln and the Little Horse, in Werner's Readings, no. 46; Lincoln and the Pig, in Gross, Lincoln's Own Stories; Lincoln and the Small Dog, in Moores, Abraham Lincoln, page 25.

For grades 5-6.

A Backwoods Boyhood, in Moores, Abraham Lincoln; Choosing Abe Lincoln Captain, in Schauffler, Lincoln's Birthday; Following the Surveyor's Chain, in Baldwin, Abraham Lincoln; His Good Memory of Names, in Gallaher, Best Lincoln Stories; Lincoln and the Doorkeeper, in Gross,

Lincoln's Own Stories, page 78, Lincoln and the Unjust Client, in Moores, Abraham Lincoln, page 46; Lincoln's Kindness to a Disabled Soldier, in Gallaher, Best Lincoln Stories; The Clary's Grove Boys, in Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln page 51; The Snow Boys, in Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln page 122.

For grades 7-8.

Counsel Assigned, Andrews; He Knew lincoln, Tarbell; Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel, Chittenden; Lincoln Remembered Him, in Gallaher, Best Lincoln Stories; Lincoln's Springfield Farewell, in Moores, Abraham lincoln, page 82; Perfect Tribute, Andrews.

SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY

For grades 1-4.

A Sunday Valentine, in White, When Molly was Six; Beauty and the Beast, in Lang, Blue Fairy Book, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, in Lang, Blue Fairy Book; The Fair One With Golden Locks, in Scudder, Children's Book; The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, in Scudder, Children's Book; The Valentine (poem), in Brown, Fresh Posies.

For grades 5-6.

Gracieuse and Percinet, in D'Aulnoy, Fairy Tales; Jorinda and Joringel, in Grimm, German Household Tales; The Day-Dream, Tennyson (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Singing, Soaring Lark, in Grimm, German Household Tales William and the Werewolf, in Darton, Wonder Book of Old Romance.

For grades 7-8.

As You Like It, Shakespeare; Brunhild, in Baldwin, Story of Siegfried; Floris and Blanchefleur, in Darton, Wonder Book of Old Romance; Palamon and Arcita, in Darton, Tales of the Canterbury Pilgrims; The Fair Maid of Perth, Scott, chapters 2-6; The Singing Leaves, Lowell (poem); The Tempest, Shakespeare.

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

For grades 1-4.

Little George Washington, and Great George Washington, in Wiggin and Smith, Story Hour; The Virginia Boy, in Wilson, Nature Study, Second Reader.

For grades 54.

A Christmas Surprise, in Tappan, American Hero Stories Dolly Madison, in Tappan, American Hero Stories; Going to Sea, in Scudder, George Washington, page 33; How George Washington was Made Commander-in-Chief, in Tomlinson, War for Independence; The Home of Washington, and The Appearance of the Enemy, in Madison, Peggy Owen at Yorktown; Young Washington in the Woods, in Eggleston, Strange Stories from History.

For grades 7-8.

Anecdotes and Stories, in Schauffler, Washington's Birthday; He Resigns his Commission, in Lodge, George Washington, vol. I, page 338; The British at Mount Vernon, in Lodge, George Washington, vol. I, page 295; The Young Surveyor, in Scudder, George Washington; Washington Offered the Supreme Power, in Lodge, George Washington, vol. I, page 328; Washington's Farewell to His Officers, in Lodge, George Washington, vol. I, page 387.

RESURRECTION DAY (EASTER)

For grades 1-4.

Easter Eggs, von Schmid; The Boy Who Discovered the Spring, in Alden, Why the Chimes Rang; Herr Oster Hase, in Bailey and Lewis, For the Children's Hour; The Legend of Easter Eggs, O'Brien (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Rabbit's Ransom, Vawter; The White Hare, in Stevenson, Days and Deeds (prose).

For grades 5-8.

Easter, Gilder (poem); The General's Easter Box, in Our Holidays Retold from St. Nicholas; The Trinity Flower, Ewing; What Easter is, in Stevenson, Days and Deeds (prose).

MAY DAY

For grades 1-4.

A Story of the Springtime, in Kupfer, Legends of Greeee and Rome; How the Water Lily Came, in Judd, Wigwam Stories; The Brook in the King's Garden, in Alden, Why the Chimes Rang; The Legend of the Dandelion, in Bailey and Lewis, For the Children's Hour; The Lilac Bush, in Riverside Fourth Reader; The Maple Leaf and the Violet, in Wiggin and Smith, Story Flour; The Story of the Anemone in Coe, First Book of Stories for the Story-Teller; The Story of the First Butterflies, in Holbrook, Book of Nature Myths; The Story of the First Snowdrops, in Holbrook, Book of Nature Myths; The Story of the Rainbow, in Coe, First Book of Stories for the Story-Teller; Two Little Seeds, in MacDonald, David Elginbrod, chapter, “The Cave in the Straw;” Why the Morning-Glory Climbs, in Bryant, How to Tell Stories to Children.

For grades 5-6.

Ladders to Heaven, Ewing; The Daisy, in Andersen, Wonder Stories; Five out of One Shell, in Andersen, Stories and Tales; The Pomegranate Seeds, in Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales.

For grades 7-8.

The May-Pole at Merry Mount, in Hawthorne, Twice-Told Tales; The Opening of the Eyes of Jasper, in Dyer The Richer Life; The Prisoner and the Flower, in Stevenson, Days and Deeds (prose).

MOTHERS' DAY

For grades 1-4.

Hans and the Wonderful Flower, in Bailey and Lewis For the Children's Hour; The Closing Door, in Lindsay Mother Stories; The Laughter of a Samurai, in Nixon-Roulet, Japanese Folk-Stories; The Fairy Who Came to our House, in Bailey and Lewis, For the Children's Hour; The Little Traveler, in Lindsay, Mother Stories; Thorwald and the Star-Children, in Boyesen, Modern Vikings.

For grades 5-6.

Lincoln's Letter to a Mother, in Moores, Abraham Lincoln, page 105; My Angel Mother, in Baldwin, Abraham Lincoln; Napoleon and the English Sailor Boy, Campbell (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Song of the Old Mother, Yeats (poem), in Riverside Eighth Reader; Valentine and Ursine (poem), in Lanier, Boy's Perey.

For grades 7-8.

A Patriot Mother, in Tomlinson, War for Independence; Lincoln's Letter, in Gross, Lincoln's Own Stories; President for One Hour, in St. Nicholas Christmas Book; The Conqueror's Grave, Bryant (poem); The Gracci, in Morris, Historical Tales (Roman); The Knight's Toast attributed to Scott (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; Young Manhood, in Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln.

MEMORIAL AND FLAG DAYS

For grades 3-6.

A Boy Who Won the Cross, in Hart and Stevens, Romance of the Civil War; A Story of the Flag, in Our Holidays Retold from St. Nicholas; Betsy's Battle Flag, Irving (poem), in Stevenson, Poems of American History; Noteworthy Flag Incidents, in Smith, Our Nation's Flag; The Legs of Duncan Ketcham, in Price, Lads and Lassies of Other Days; The Origin of Memorial Day, in Stevenson, Days and Deeds (prose); The Planting of the Colors, in Thomas, Captain Phil, page 227.

For grades 7-8.

Kearny at Seven Pines, Stedman (poem); Quivira, Guiterman (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; Reading the List, in Sehauffler, Memorial Day; Remember the Alamo, in Lodge and Roosevelt, Hero Tales, Reuben James, Roche, (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Defense of the Alamo, Miller (poem), in Stevenson, Poems of American History; The Fire Rekindled, in Schauffler, Memorial Day; The Flag-Bearer, in Lodge and Roosevelt, Hero Tales; The March of the First Brigade, in Riverside Eighth Reader.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

For grades S-6.

A Winter at Valley Forge, in Tappan, American Hero Stories; Cornwallis's Buckles, in Revolutionary Stories Retold from St. Nicholas; Ethan Allen, in Johonnot, Stories of Heroic Deeds; Fourth of July Among the Indians, in Indian Stories Retold from St. Nicholas; How “Mad Anthony” Took Stony Point, in Tappan, American Hero Stories; How the “Swamp Fox” Made the British Miserable, in Tappan, American Hero Stories; John Paul Jones, in Tappan, American Hero Stories; Laetitia and the Redcoats, in Revolutionary Stories Retold from St. Nicholas; Molly Pitcher, in Revolutionary Stories Retold from St. Nicholas; Paul Revere's Ride Longfellow (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; Prescott and the Yankee Boy, in Johonnot, Stories of Heroic Deeds; Rodney's Ride, Brooks (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Boston Massacre, in Hawthorne, Grandfather's Chair; The Bulb of the Crimson Tulip, in Revolutionary Stories Retold from St Nicholas; The First Day of the Revolution, in Tappan; American Hero Stories.

For grades 7-8.

A Woman's Heroism, in Tomlinson, War for Independence; Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle, Holmes (poem); How the Major Joined Marion's Men, in Tomlinson, War for Independence; Molly Pitcher, Sherwood (poem), in Stevenson, Poems of American History; Patrick Henry, in Morris Historical Tales, American, Second Series; Song of Marion's Men, Bryant (poem); That Bunker Hill Powder, in Revolutionary Stories Retold from St. Nicholas; The Mantle of St. John de Matha, Whittier (poem); The Tory's Farewell, in Hawthorne, Grandfather's Chair.

LABOR DAY

For grades 1-4.

Dust Under the Rug, in Lindsay, Mother Stories, Giant Energy and Fairy Skill, in Lindsay, Mother Stories; How Flax was Given to Men, in Holbrook, Book of Nature Myths; My Friend the Housekeeper, in Riverside Fourth Reader,

Peasant Truth, in Riverside Third Reader; Prometheus, the Giver of Fire in Coe, First Book of Stories for the Story-Teller; Six Soldiers of Fortune, in Grimm, German Household Tales; The Country Maid and her Milk-Pail, in Scudder, Book of Fables and Folk-Stories; The Flax, in Andersen, Wonder Stories; The Hammer and the Anvil, in Ramaswami Raju, Indian Fables; The Honest Woodman, in Poulsson, In the Child's World; The Little Gray Pony, in Lindsay, Mother Stories; The Little House in the Wood, in Grimm, German Household Tales; The Old Man Who Lived in a Wood (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Pixy Flower, in Rhys, Fairy-Gold; The Spandies, in Gilchrist, Helen and the Uninvited Guests, page 15; The Three Trades, in Grimm, German Household Tales; The Toy of the Giant's Child, von Chamisso (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; Vegetable Lambs, in Curtis, Story of Cotton; Vulcan the Mighty Smith, in Poulsson, In the Child's World.

For grades 5-6. A Handful of Clay, in Riverside Sixth Reader; How they Built the Ship Argo in Iolcos, in Kingsley, Greek Heroes; Icarus and DEedalus, in Peabody, Old Greek Folk-Stones; Master of All Masters, in Jacobs, English Fairy Tales; The Dwarf's Gifts, in Brown, In the Days of Giants; The Forging of Balmung, in Baldwin, Hero Tales; The Giant Builder, in Brown, In the Days of Giants; The God of Fire, in Francillon, Gods and Heroes; The Wicked Hornet, in Baldwin, The Sampo; The Wish-Ring, in Fairy Stories Retold from St. Nicholas; The Wounds of Labor, in d'Amicis, Heart (Cuore); Weland's Sword, in Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill.

For grades 74. Careers of Danger and Daring, Moffett; David Maydole, Hammer-Maker, in Riverside Seventh Reader; Jack Farley's Flying Switch, in Warman, Short Rails; Histories of Two Boys, in Riverside Seventh Reader; History of Labor Day, in Stevenson, Days and Deeds (prose); The Arms of Aeneas, in Church, Stories from Virgil; The Blacksmith Boy and the Battle, in Marden, Winning Out; The Duke's Armorer, in Stories of Chivalry Retold from St. Nicholas; The Scullion Boy's Opportunity, in Marden, Winning Out; The Vision of Anton the Clockmaker, in Dyer, The Richer Life, Tubal Cain, Mackay (poem), in Story-Telling Poems.

COLUMBUS DAY

For grades 4-8.

Columbus, Miller (poem), in Riverside Seventh Reader; Columbus at the Convent, Trowbridge (poem), in Stevenson, Poems of American History; Guanahani, in Maores, Christopher Columbus; How Diego Mendez Got Food for Columbus in Higginson, American Explorers; How Diego Mendez Saved Columbus, in Higginson, American Explorers; In Search of the Grand Khan, in Moores, Christopher Columbus; The Garden of Eden, in Moores, Christopher Columbus.

HALLOWEEN

For grades 1-4.

The Smith and the Fairies, in Grierson, Children's Book of Celtic Stories; The Witch, in Lang, Yellow Fairy Book; The Witch That was a Hare, in Rhys, English Fairy Book; Tom-Tit Tot (Rumpelstiltskin), in Jacobs, English Fairy Tales.

For grades 5-6.

Mr. Fox, in Jacobs, English Fairy Tales; The Godfather, in Grimm, German Household Tales; The Golden Arm, in Jacobs, Enylish Fairy Tales; The Robber Bridegroom, in Grimm, German Household Tales; The Story of a Cat, Bedoliere; The Youth Who Could not Shiver or Shake, in Grimm, German Household Tales.

For grades 7-8.

Alice Brand, in Scott, Lady of the Lake (poem); All-Hallow-Eve Myths, in Our Holidays Retold from St. Nicholas; Black Andie's Tale of Tod Lapraik, in Stevenson, David Balfour; History of Hallowe'en, in Stevenson, Days and Deeds (prose); Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Rip Van Winkle Irving; Macbeth, Shakespeare; The Bottle Imp, in Stevenson, Island Nights' Entertainments; The Devil and Tom Walker, Irving; The Fire-King, Scott (poem); The Speaking Rat, in Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller, chapter 15.

THANKSGIVING DAY

For grades 1-4

A Thanksgiving Dinner, in White, When Molly was Six; The Chestnut Boys, in Poulsson, In the Child's World; The First Thanksgiving Day, in Wiggin and Smith, Story Hour; The Marriage of Mondahmin, in Judd, Wigwam Stories; The Turkey's Nest, in Lindsay, More Mother Stories; The Visit, in Lindsay, More Mother Stories; Turkeys Turning the Tables, in Howells, Christmas Every Day.

For grades 5-6.

A Dinner That Ran Away, in Miller, Kristy's Surprise Party; A Mystery in the Kitchen, in Miller, Kristy's Surprise Party; Ann Mary, Her Two Thanksgivings, in Wilkins, Young Lueretia; An Old-Time Thanksgiving, in Indian Stories Retold from St. Nicholas; The Coming of Thanksgiving, and The Season of Pumpkin Pies, in Warner, Being a Boy; The Magic Apples, in Brown, In the Days of Giants; St. Francis's Sermon to the Birds, Longfellow (poem), in Story-Telling Poems.

For grades 7-8.

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Alcott; The First Thanksgiving Day, Preston (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Night Before Thanksgiving, in Jewett, The Queen's Twin; The Peace Message (poem), in Stevenson, Poems of American History; The Turkey Drive, in Sharp, Winter.

CHRISTMAS DAY

For grades 1-4.

A Christmas Tree Reversed, in Brown, Little Miss Phoebe Gay; Babouseka, Thomas (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; Christmas Every Day, Howells; Fulfilled, in Bryant, How to Tell Stories to Children; His Christmas Turkey, in Vawter, The Rabbi's Ransom; In the Great Walled Country, in Alden, Why the Chimes Rang; Little Girl's Christmas, in Dickinson and Skinner, Children's Book of Christmas Stories; Santa Claus and the Mouse, Poulsson (poem), in St. Nicholas Christmas Book; The Christmas Cake, in Lindsay, More Mother Stories; The Christmas Tree, in Austin, Basket Woman; The First New England Christmas, in Stone and Fickett, Every-Day Life in the Colonies; The Golden Cobwebs, in Bryant, How to Tell Stories to Children; The Moon of Yule, in Davis, The Moons of Balbanea; The Rileys' Christmas, in White, When Molly was Six; The Story of Gretchen in Lindsay, Mother Stories; The Three Kings of Cologne, Field (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Turkey Doll, Gates; The Voyage of the Wee Red Cap, in Dickinson and Skinner, Children's Book of Christmas Stories; Toinette and the Elves, in Dickinson and Skinner, Children's Book of Christmas Stones; 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, Moore (poem); Why the Chimes Rang, Alden.

For grades 5-6.

Christmas Before Last, in Stockton, Bee-Man of Orn; Christmas in the Alley, in Miller, Kristy's Queer Christmas; Dog of Flanders, Ramee; Felix, in Stein, Troubadour Tales; Good King Wenceslas (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; Hope's Christmas Tree, in Miller, Kristy's Surprise Party, How a Bear Brought Christmas, in Miller, Kristy's Queer Christmas; How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar, in Harte, Luck of Roaring Camp; How Uncle Sam Observes Christmas, in Our Holidays Retold from St. Nicholas; Lottie's Christmas Tree, in Miller, Kristy's Rainy Day Picnic; St. Nicholas and the Innkeeper, in Walsh, Story of Santa Klaus; St. Nicholas and the Robbers, in Walsh, Story of Santa Klaus; St. Nicholas and the Slave Boy, in Walsh, Story of Santa Klaus; Santa Claus on a Lark, Gladden; Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets, Stuart; The Birds' Christmas Carol, Wiggin; The Coming of the Prince, in Field, Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse; The Festival of St. Nicholas, in Dodge, Hans Brinker; The Peace Egg, Ewing; The Symbol and the Saint, in Field, Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse.

For grades 7-8.

A Christmas Carol, Dickens; A Still Christmas, Repplier, in Morris, In the Yule-Log Glow; The First Christmas Tree, Van Dyke; The Lost Word, Van Dyke; The Mansion, Van Dyke; The Other Wise Man, Van Dyke; Cosette, in Hugo, Les Miserables, book 3; Where Love is, There God is Also, Tolstoy.

ARBOR DAY

For grades 1-4.

Flower of the Almond and Fruit of the Fig, in Foote, Little Fig-Tree Stories; Earl and the Dryad, in Brown, Star Jewels; The Girl Who Became a Pine Tree, in Judd, Wigwam Stories; The Kind Old Oak, in Poulsson, In the Child's World; The Oak Tree, in Vawter, The Rabbit's Ransom; The Workman and the Trees, in Ramaswami Raju, Indian Fables.

For grades 5-6.

Apple-Seed John, Child (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; How the Children Saved Hamburg, in Marden, Winning Out; How the Indians Learned to Make Maple Sugar, in University of the State of New York, Legends and Poetry of the Forests; Old Pipes and the Dryad, in Stockton, Bee-Man of Orn; Tale of Old Man and the Birch Tree, in University of the State of New York, Legends and Poetry of the Forests; The Elm and the Vine, Rosas (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Gourd and the Palm (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Planting of the Apple Tree, Bryant (poem), in Riverside Fifth Reader.

For grades 7-8.

Brier-Rose, Boyesen (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; How the Charter was Saved, in Morris, Historical Tales, American; O-So-Ah, the Tall Pine Speaks, in University of the State of New York, Legends and Poetry of the Forests; The Eliot Oak, in Drake, New England Legends; The First of the Trees, in University of the State of New York, Legends and Poetry of the Forests; The Liberty Tree, in Hawthorne, Grandfather's Chair, part 3. chapter 2; The Plucky Prince, May Bryant (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Story of a Thousand-Year Pine, Mills; The Washington Elm, in Drake, New England Legends.

BIRD DAY

For grades 1-4.

Out of the Nest, in Lindsay, More Mother Stories; The Fox and the Crow, in Jacobs, Aesop's Fables; The Jackdaw and the Doves, in Scudder, Book of Fables and Folk-Stories; The Jay and the Peacock, in Jacobs, Aesop's Fables; The King, the Falcon, and the Drinking Cup, in Dutton, The Tortoise and the Geese; The Lark and her Young Ones, in Scudder, Book of Fables and Folk-Stories; The Monk and the Bird, in Scudder, Book of legends; The Owl and his School, in Ramaswami Raju, Indian Fables; The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, Lear (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Partridge and the Crow, in Dutton, The Tortoise and the Geese; The Pious Robin, in Brown, Curious Book of Birds; The Rustic and the Nightingale, in Dutton, The Tortoise and the Geese; The Sparrows, Thaxter (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Sparrows and the Snake, in Dutton, The Tortoise and the Geese; The Spendthrift and the Swallow, in Scudder, Book of Fables and Folk-Stories; The Story of the First Mocking-Bird, in Holbrook, Book of Nature Myths; The Story of the Oriole, in Holbrook, Book of Nature Myths; The Wren Who Brought Fire, in Brown, Curious Book of Birds; Why the Peacock's Tail has a Hundred Eyes, in Holbrook, Book of Nature Myths; Why the Peetweet Cries for Rain, in Holbrook, Book of Nature Myths.

For grades 5-6.

A Madcap Thrush, in Miller, True Bird Stories; Antics in the Bird Room, in Miller, True Bird Stories; Fate of the Children of Lir, in Grierson, Children's Book of Celtie Stories; Halcyone, in Brown, Curious Book of Birds; St. Francis's Sermon to the Birds, Longfellow (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; Saint Kentigern and the Robin, in Brown, Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts; The Donkey and the Mocking-Bird, Rosas (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Early Girl, in Brown, Curious Book of Birds; The Nightingale, in Andersen, Wonder Stories; The Parrot, Campbell (poem), in Story-Telling Poems, The Phoenix, in Brown, Curious Book of Birds; The Robin, Whittier (poem); The Sauey Oriole, in Miller, True Bird Stories; The Wild Swans, in Andersen, Wonder Stories; Walter son der Vogelweid, Longfellow (poem).

For grades 7-8.

Arnaux, the Chronicle of a Homing Pigeon, in Thompson-Seton, Animal Heroes; King Edwin's Feast, Chadwiek (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; Our New Neighbors at Ponkapog, in Riverside Seventh Reader; The Abbot of Inisfalen, Allingham (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Birds of Killingworth, Longfellow (poem); The Downy Woodpecker, in Bird Stories from Burroughs; The Eagle, Tennyson (poem); The Emperor's Bird's-Nest, Longfellow (poem), in Story-Telling Poems; The Falcon of Ser Federigo, Longfellow (poem); The Gulls, in Breck, Wilderness Pets, pages 103, 161; The House Wren, in Bird Stories from Burroughs; The Keeper of the Nest, in Roberts, The Feet of the Furtive; The Screech Owl, in Bird Stories from Burroughs; The Song Sparrow, in Bird Stories from Burroughs.