Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-03-12
I1omth's Column.
The Bird Child

There was once a beautiful little
| girl, with waving gold hair and sweet
| blue eyes, who was never so happy
as when she was out in the firlds with
| the flowers and birds. She used to
| think that when the autumn came the
flowers went futtering along in the
wind until they fiuttered themselves
into lovely birds, and that when the
birds died they turned into flowers of
all colors. 1t was her chief delight
to carry pocketful of crumbs about
with her, to throw to any bird she
happened to see; and once in the
kindness of her heart she hung cutie
fishes on some of the trees in the
garden, because she had seen them
in bird-cages.
And after while all the birds knew
and loved her, because they were
sure she would not be kind to them
if she did not think great deal of
them She had once chased the cat
away when he was stealing upon a
little bird that had fallen into the tall
grass, and the mother saw the pretty
little girl stroke the fedgling's pin
feathers, lay it against her cheek, and
finally put it back in the nest, which
was on a branch close to the ground.
Whenever she went out in the gar
den the birds began to sing and fut-
ter about her, sometimes alighting on
her hand, and in other ways showing
the affection they had for her. She
would stroke them and say kind words
to them, for she thought they would
some day be beautiful flowers, blow
ing in that garden, and would know
her as she passed by. And she would
never pluck a flower, because she
fancied that if it was left to itself it
would be bird next summer.
One day in the late autumn, when
all the earth was sad and lonely, lit
tie Effie passed away with the birds
and flowers, and was buried in the
village church-yard under a spread
ing tree. When she died, the birds,
her old friends, stopped singing, and
Oh no o,,5l,,
where she delighted to feed them and
watch them hop among the rose-bush
es. ''Poor birds - she used to say
perhaps those roses were their little
brothers and sisters last summer, and
now they are singing to them, and the
roses know who they are, and are
happy"
When Effie died, the tall, graceful
flowers in the conservatory all droop-
ed their heads, and their sweet faces
were wet with tears, and while the
winds moaned dismally outside, the
flowers within seemed to bend in har-
mony with its weird refrain, and look
ed like so many beautiful princesses
in anguish. When the birds left the
balmy garden where they had known
the many kindnesses of their pretty
mistress, they all flew down to the
graveyard where she was buried, and
lived in the spreading tree above her
grave. And from morning until night
they filed the air with widest melody,
because they thought she would hear
it in spirit, and think of the happy
days they had spent together. Thus
the beautiful weeks of red and russell
autumn passed quietly away, and the
little birds sang on.
But soon the first furry of snow
eddied through the air, and the bare
branches moaned above Effie's grave.
And then all the birds that had loved
her SO dearly took flight for the sun
ny South. No, not all the parents
of the Hedging that Ellie had so ten
derby lifted from the grass and warm
ed against her own cheek remember
ed how their chick had been saved
from the paws of the cat that was
about ready to pounce upon it, and
they remained in the tree after all
their companions had departed. 1t
was very, very cold, but they found
a hole in the tree, and remained all
winter in the hollow trunk. And
when the spring smiled, and the
blossoms were piled like a snow-drift
on Effie's grave, the birds built their
nest, and raised their brood on
branch just above it. And the fol-
lowing winter these old birds and
the young ones who had never seen
Effie sang above her grave when all
the earth was white, and they and
their young remained there winter
after winter, and that is how we
came to have -birds.-HaTper's
Young People.