Daddy's Bedtime Bird Stories

by Percy F. Westerman

  MR. PLAIN SPARROW CALLS ON DUCKS

  "Would you like to join us?"]

  "It was such a hot day yesterday," said daddy, "that Mr. Plain Sparrowsimply could not get cool. You see he never goes away in the winter andso he gets used to really cold weather. On a day as hot as it wasyesterday he simply doesn't know what to do with himself. He calledhimself Mr. Plain Sparrow because that was exactly what he was. He wasjust a plain, ordinary sparrow, and he thought it such a wise thing tocall himself that--and not put on any silly frills. He prided himselfon being sensible.

  "'If there's anything in this world I hate,' he said, 'it's pretendingto be what a creature is not.' And so he called himself by the name ofMr. Plain Sparrow, and his wife was Mrs. Plain Sparrow, and hischildren were the Plain Sparrow Children.

  "'I think,' he said, 'that I will take a walk or a fly to the duck pondin the park nearby. Yes, it seems to me that's an excellent scheme. Iwould like to see those ducks, for they're right smart creatures, and Ilike to hear their funny quack-quack talk.'

  "'What are you up to, ducks?' he called, as he flew over the pond, andthen perched on a small bush that was at one side.

  "'We're well,' said the ducks. 'We're enjoying a cooling drink betweenswims. Would you like to join us? It's just tea time.'

  "'Tea time, eh?' said Mr. Plain Sparrow. 'And would you give a fellow agood, fat worm in place of bread and butter and cake?'

  "'Quack-quack! ha, ha!' laughed the ducks. 'We don't like bread andbutter and cake. But we can't get the worm for you just now, as we'renot very good at digging on such a hot day!'

  "'Well, then, how about my digging for a couple of them, and thenjoining all you nice ducks when you're ready to have your tea?'

  "'Splendid idea,' quacked the ducks. And off went Mr. Plain Sparrow to asoft place in the earth where he thought there would be some good worms.

  "Pretty soon he came back with some fine ones, and he sat on his perchand ate them, while the ducks nibbled at their food, and had drinks ofpond water, which they called tea. Mr. Plain Sparrow flew down and tooksips of water by the side of the pond, and in one very shallow place hehad some nice showerbaths while the ducks were having swims. And beforehe left he told the ducks what a good time he had had, and how nice andcool he felt.

  "'Well, you're so friendly we're glad you came,' quacked the ducks onceagain."

  FARMER'S SCARECROW PROTECTS A CORN-FIELD

  "It's a man."]

  "To-night," said daddy, "we are going to have the story of the meetingof the brownies, crows, and old Mr. Scarecrow. The crows had been givingfeasts in a corn-field almost every morning bright and early before anyof the big people who lived in the nearby farm-house were up. Suchfeasts as they did have! And one day they asked the brownies if theywouldn't come to their next one.

  "'Caw-caw,' said the crows together.

  "'Where are we going?' asked one of the brownies teasingly, for they hadbeen going around and around in circles and hadn't reached any place.

  "'I don't quite know,' said Black Crown Crow, 'it's a question which isvery hard to decide.'

  "'But we thought you had chosen a special spot,' said one of thebrownies.

  "Black Crown Crow looked very sad, and his black wings seemed to droop.'It's that guest I never asked. He's causing all the trouble. How veryrude it is of folks to come to a feast who aren't invited, and to arrivebefore us, too. It's very e-x-a-s-p-e-r-a-t-i-n-g!'

  "'Who is he?' shouted the brownies, for every little while Black CrownCrow had gone ahead and then had come back. In these little trips he hadseen right in the center of the corn-field a man--a real man, hethought, with a hat and a coat and trousers and boots--and carryingsomething which he couldn't quite make out. It was either a great hugestick--or worse still--it was a gun. He shivered whenever he thought ofthat awful word gun.

  "'Caw-caw,' again shrieked Black Crown Crow, 'it's a man and he has agun--I'm sure it's a gun. Now the rudeness of him! As if we wanted aman and a gun at our corn feast!'

  "'Oh, it was to have been a corn feast, and now the man has stopped it,'laughed one of the brownies. 'Well, such a joke! But to show you hownice we'll be when we're here ready for a party which can't take place,we'll give a nice party ourselves.'

  "And the brownies scampered about a little grove near the corn-field,and there they made a bonfire over which they cooked some corn-mealwhich they had carried with them in their bags. They knew all along,ever since they'd started, where the crows wanted them to go for thefeast, and they also knew that the farmer had made that scarecrow in hiscorn-field to frighten off Black Crown Crow and his followers.

  "The brownies made a fine feast, but how they did chuckle amongthemselves that the pole dressed up as a man had succeeded in savingthe corn for the people of the farm-house."

  THE BRAVE BROWN SPARROWS IN WINTER

  One Bird Seemed to be the Leader.]

  "You know," said daddy, "I saw such a strange thing to-day in the city."

  "Tell us about it," said Jack.

  "What was it?" asked Evelyn, who was always interested inwhatever daddy had to say.

  "Well," continued daddy, "in a tree in the park lots and lots of littlesparrows were roosting. It was, of course, a perfectly bare tree withouta leaf on it, and they were huddled together, keeping each other warm.

  "I watched them for quite a time. There was one sparrow who looked theleader. He did most of the chirping and was apparently telling all theothers what they must do and giving all sorts of directions. He chirpedalmost constantly for ten minutes, and then he flew down from the treeand hopped along the ground. He picked up crumb after crumb, and thenwhen he had as many as he could carry in his beak he flew up in the treeagain and left them on a branch where there was a kind of hole in whichto put them. He was evidently showing all the other birds just what todo, for in a minute or two any number of them flew down to the groundand began to pick up crumbs.

  "It was wonderful to see how many they could find, for I myself couldhardly see any, and all the time he kept chirping to the others andtelling them what to do.

  "This kept up for some time, for the birds would fly back and forth,just picking up goodies and then putting them up in the tree. Meantime alot of other birds who had stayed up in the tree were fixing them on thebranch and dividing them all evenly."

  "Didn't they eat any of them?" asked Evelyn.

  "Yes. After quite awhile they all flew back to the tree again, and oncemore they huddled together and had the most marvelous meal. You see, itwas their dinner time, and they all had it together at the same time tomake it more sociable. From all the cries of joy and the noise I fancythey were having a pretty good time of it and enjoying themselvesimmensely. In fact, I think they almost forgot how cold it was."

  "I think it's wonderful," said Evelyn, "how well the birds canlook after themselves, for it must be pretty hard sometimes,especially in the winter."

  "Yes," said daddy, "it is, but these birds seemed so happy together andto be having such a good time. After dinner was over they all chasedeach other from one tree to another in the park and played tag and had abeautiful time. So I think really birds and animals are smart and braveto be able to look after themselves and their little ones so well."

  WHAT THE RAINBOW THINKS OF THE WORLD

  Smacked Their Little Beaks.]

  "The fairies were giving a luncheon party for the birds, and they wantedto have a great, big surprise," said daddy. "The birds which wereinvited were the robins, the orioles, the bluejays, the humming-birds.

  "'Now, birdies,' said the fairy queen, 'I'm going to ask the king ofthe clouds to this luncheon, so we'll have plenty of deliciousrain-water to drink.'

  "Of course, the fairy queen had told the king of the clouds that shedidn't want him to send his army of raindrops to the earth--for an armywould make it pour too hard and they couldn't have any fun at theluncheon. She just wanted some of the big, big drops to come down andfill the little stones she had at the places for the birds so that th
eycould have delicious water at her party--but she didn't want to make itso wet they'd get their beautiful feathers drenched--just a nice littleshower was what she wanted.

  "The king of the clouds had promised, and he had told the raindrops justwhat to do and just how many could go down on the earth.

  "The birds enjoyed the delicious luncheon the fairies gave them, and, ofcourse, they loved their fresh drinks of water.

  "'Now for our surprise,' shouted the fairies, after the luncheon wasover. 'We're to have two famous guests to-day. This is to be a reallyreal day! And we're to have them both at the same time--and we're tohave another treat, too. Guess, birds, what are we going to have? Guess,guess, guess!' For the fairies were so excited they kept repeatingthemselves over and over again.

  "But before the birds had time to do more than twitter and chirp amongthemselves as to what the great surprise was going to be, who shouldappear, right along with the raindrops, but Mr. Sun, and then over ahill came the most beautiful rainbow with all the glorious colors thefairies admire so much.

  "And then you should have heard the singing of the birds. Every one ofthem had a glorious voice, and the chorus was the loveliest the fairieshad ever heard. As for Mr. Sun, he beamed and shone with might and main.

  "'Well, hello, raindrops,' he said. 'I'm mighty glad to see you. It'snot often we meet, but the fairy queen can make all of us friendly--eventhe sun and the rain.'

  "And the raindrops came on down to the earth very gently, but withoutstopping, while back of it all the rainbow leaned down over thehill and whispered:

  "'Isn't this a wonderful world? There are fairies, birds, the sun, freshwater to drink. I'm so glad I am here.'"

  EAGLES AND RAVENS

  He is Very Brave.]

  "Some white-tailed eagles were boasting one day of their bravery,"commenced daddy. "They were also saying how fine they were in every wayand that their very name meant something splendid and free and strong.

  "As a matter of fact, though the white-tailed eagles won't admit it,they are less brave than any of the eagle families.

  "The ravens are not kindly at all and they love to fight. They had oftenthought it would be great sport to have those 'silly white-tailedeagles,' as they called them, admit that they were not brave and havetheir leader beg for mercy from General Raven.

  "And, as you can imagine, when Brother Black Raven heard the eaglesboasting he knew it was high time to begin and frighten them.

  "So he called all the ravens together. Some of them were having theirnaps, but as soon as Brother Black Raven called them, up they got in agreat hurry, spread their wings and drilled a little bit just likesoldiers. Only instead of marching they flew.

  "As General Raven came near the nest of the white-tailed eagles, he saidin a very queer, croaking sort of voice:

  "'Good-morning!' That was rather mean of him to say, for, of course, hedidn't really wish them a 'Good-morning.'

  "'Do you want to fight?' asked General Raven.

  "Still not a sound from the eagles. There was a slight fluster andtrembling, which the ravens could hear and which made them grin withdelight, but the eagles never said a word. They didn't even look at theravens! For they were so frightened they didn't dare look at them, andthey kept thinking, 'Oh, won't those awful ravens and their ugly oldgeneral go away?' The eagles, of course, thought the ravens were veryugly because they were so afraid of them.

  "'For the last time, do you want to fight us, eh?' asked GeneralRaven. And still the eagles said not a word--nor made a sound. 'Well,let me say then for all of us,' said General Raven, 'that we thinkyou're very cowardly, and we heard you talking before we came of yourbravery. We wouldn't fight you because you're afraid of us, but you'llhave to admit it after this,' and with a deep chuckle off went GeneralRaven and his followers.

  "The eagles did not go on boasting, but they were very contented thatthe ravens had gone away!"

  THE EAGLES WHO WERE ALWAYS STILL

  He Put the Book Before Him.]

  "In the house where Kenneth lived there was a chair which had alwaysfascinated him. It was a very, very old chair, and Kenneth's mother anddaddy were very proud of it," said daddy to Jack and Evelyn. "Kenneth'sdaddy had bought it at a sale of old and curious things. It was a Romanchair, and on either side were two heads of eagles. These four heads inall always made Kenneth wonder, for they looked so very life-like. Heused to imagine that even little wooden eagles must get very tired ofalways being just the same.

  "Really it often made Kenneth quite sad to watch them. One afternoonKenneth went to a party. A little school chum of his had given it. Ithad been a very nice party. But, oh, he did feel so tired, for they hadplayed blind man's buff, bull in the ring, squat tag, and other games.

  "When Kenneth came home from the party it was not quite his bedtime, butsecretly in his heart he was hoping it would come soon, for he had madeup his mind that he wasn't going to bed until his bedtime.

  "He got a book from the library shelf. It was full of pictures ofsailors and pirates and ships, because if anything would keep him awakethat would. He sat down with it on the Roman chair.

  "Strangely enough, though, after a moment or two, he didn't seem to seepirates, and the sea began to look very much more like the surface of achair. Soon the pirates disappeared entirely, and the four eagles of theRoman chair were looking at him steadily.

  "'You're terribly tired, aren't you?' said the first eagle.

  "'Yes; I'm a little tired,' Kenneth admitted.

  "'WE'VE BEEN ON THIS CHAIR SO LONG,' SAID THE FOURTHEAGLE."--_Page 75_]

  "'Well, you're not as tired as we are,' said the second eagle.

  "'No, indeed!' said the third eagle. 'You're only tired because you'veplayed so many games. We're tired because we're always still.'

  "Kenneth listened eagerly, because he'd so often thought just whathe was hearing. 'Yes,' said Kenneth very sympathetically; 'I shouldthink you would be very dull. I've often thought that. Have you beenthere a long time?'

  "'Oh, ages and ages!' replied the fourth eagle, who up to this timehadn't spoken. 'We were very old before your daddy got us. We've been onthis chair so long. We can't remember how long. And what makes us feelso sad is that we are called eagles and should fly and yet are foreverglued to this chair.'

  "'Kenneth, Kenneth,' cried Kenneth's mother, 'it's long past bedtime!'

  "'Oh, I am not so tired as the eagles are!' said Kenneth. And Kenneth'smother wondered if he was talking in his sleep."

  THE BOBOLINKS HAVE A TEA PARTY

  Who Should Arrive but Fairies.]

  "The other day," commenced daddy, "the bobolinks had an afternoon tea.

  "The tea party was given for the meadow larks. The bobolinks are greatfriends of the meadow larks and they wanted to be the first this seasonto entertain them. Besides, most of the bobolinks had new summer homesand their colony was near a beautiful stream.

  "You know the bobolinks always build their homes in the meadows--butthey build very near a stream and their homes are always deep downin the long grass.

  "They had all come to live in Waving Grassland for the summer--that is,all the bobolinks who always moved about together in the summer andwinter--and many of their friends, the meadow larks, were on hand togreet them. A number of others were going to arrive in a fewdays--before the tea party.

  "Now Waving Grassland was very beautiful country. The meadows were verylarge and the grass was so beautiful and so long that it always wavedin the soft breezes, so that the bobolinks named their new summerplace Waving Grassland.

  "And so the bobolinks made all their preparations for the tea party. Theguests arrived dressed up in their best new summer plumage. The meadowlarks came first, as they were the guests of honor.

  "The red-breasted grosbeak family were all there looking too lovely forwords. And the bluejays, downy woodpeckers, the orioles, the thrushfamily, the chipping sparrows, the robins, the indigo birds--and eventhe shy vireos ventured forth. Of course, usually they hate parties, bu
tthey loved the stream nearby and the beautiful country the bobolinkswere living in, and they thought at least once a year they ought to be alittle bit sociable and friendly with their neighbors.

  "After they had all chatted together--to us it would have sounded morelike chirping--the bobolinks began to serve tea.

  "They had spring water for their tea--the water from the cool streamwhich had a deep spring within it. And this tea they served in littlemoss-covered stones. That gave it the most delicious flavor, and all thebirds asked the bobolinks where they had found such good tea. You knowin birdland they don't ask each other where anything is bought, butwhere it is found! And the bobolinks told their secret.

  "But as they were drinking cup after cup--or stoneful after stoneful--oftea, who should arrive but all the fairies!

  "The birds greeted the fairies with their best songs--or their way ofsaying 'We're so glad to see you'--and the bobolinks trilled with joybecause they had arranged this lovely surprise for their guests."

  A HAPPY DAY IN BIRDLAND

  "The birds," said daddy, "found a new room for breakfast. It was in arow of bushes--and the bushes were berry bushes.

  "One day as they were having the best sort of a time eating, whoshould look down at them but the king of the clouds. He lookedquite dark and solemn.

  "'Te-wit,' said one little bird, and another said,

  "'Tr-r-r-i-l-l.'

  "'How about some water to drink?' asked the king of the clouds. 'Somenice, fresh water?'