The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-06-27
HE WAS A MAD BIRD.
This Sparrow Thought a Joke Was Being
Played Upon Him.

This Sparrow Thought a Joke Was Being
Played Upon Him.
4ou never saw such a mad SPAR
row in your life as one l saw one
spring day, . said Van Tope. This
sparrow was building a nest, and he
few down beside goods box on the
pavement, where he found what he
probably supposed was a beautiful,
straight piece of straw. 1t happened
to be string, however, and the 9th
er end of it was caught on nail in
the box.
But the sparrow visit not that it
was so, and he grabbed the end of
the string and started gayly away
OF course he soon brought up with e
round turn, as the sailors say, and
found the piece of string jerked away
from him. He lit ON the ground and
looked around to see what impudent
and envious sparrow had tackled him
for his string. He looked as though
he was ready to lick any sparrow in
that block who should set claim to
his string After standing around
as If daring the other fellow to knock
chip off his shoulder, and the 9th
or fellow not showing up, he grab
bed his string and started off. Again
he was yanked back by the string,
and when he lit he fairly danced
around in his wrath. You could just
imagine him calling that other spar
row all sorts of names He hoped
around the goods box to find him
and lit on the edge to peep in. Aft
er waiting a reasonable length of
time for his tormentor he started off
again, and again was thrown down
This seemed to get to him. He
was dead sure some other sparrow
was putting up game on him, and
you could imagine him saying that
he did not care so much for the dod
rotted string, but that he hated to
be fooled with in this way by some
young bantling of this years hatch.
Then an idea struck him. He flew
off and got Mrs Sparrow. He told
her about the matter, and after Civ
ing her instructions from a neigh
boring tree he posted himself on a
limb just above the box and sent
Mrs. Sparrow to daily with the
string. You could see he wanted the
teaser to play his pranks on the old
lady. He would be watching him
and then would swoop down and just
thump the feathers off that sparrow
I could see him chuckling at the
thought of the fun he would have.
"The old lady started away with
the string, and she, too, was yanked
back. Mr.. Sparrow was keeping an
eye upon her, and when he failed to
see the mysterious tormentor appear
he was obviously very much sur
prised. He got down and walked all
around the string and scratched his
head. Then he got mad and com
menced to jaw at Mrs. Sparrow. 1t
was awfully natural. She protested
that it was not her fault. Had he
not himself been treated the same
way? Well, with that they both
grabbed hold of the string and start
ed off, but with no better luck than
before. Then the sparrow few at
that string and commenced to worry
it. He pecked at it and tugged at it
and dragged it around while he got
red in the face and used more bad
sparrow language, but he could not
! get away with it.
Finally Mrs. Sparrow, with fe-
male tact, came to the rescue and
said that after all she did not believe
that was good string for their bust
ness, and they did not want the
string anyhow. Mr.. Sparrow agreed
with her and said he believed at first
the blamed thing wasn't any good,
but he thought he would take it
home for her to see anyhow. And
with that they flew away. It's my
opinion there are lots bigger fools in
the world than sparrows Wash
ington Star.