Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-06-16

new py 2nelf ueluS U~0tSe0tJu6t now the
work was progressing. but they took
good care to keep Out of gun range.
Rejoicing. they w~ouldsreport to Cap
tain Quiscalus, that the grubs fairly
swarmed in the enemies'tfelds and that
there was much trouble ahead for the
cruel ~husbandmen~
Gradually the g~reensgrain pushed its
head through the soil. and then, oh.
horrors. hordes Of insects enemies made
themselves active. The crops wer- cut
and destroyed by the little pests until
the unhappy farmers could stand and
look only over desolated acres.
But Farmer Followsis fields flourish
ed. When he saw how much the black
bird had done for him, Mr.. Fallow was
careful not to forget those who had
helped him in the spring. With his
pillow he turned up a fresh furrow every
few days that the birds might have
plenty of insects to. eat.
The captain had built a nest on the
highest limb of the pine tree. It was
six inches in diameter, and his wife
laid in it four little eggs blotched,
streaked and spotted with brown and
black.
While the eggs were Matching Cap
tain Quiscalus had thought up most ct
the successful details of his campaign
against the farmers, for he had rot
been able to start AWAY from home
much. He feared that some of his en-
emies among the birds-he' was on very
bad terms with a certain owl-would
pounce upon his mate and destroy the
eggs. Great was his joy when four lit
from the eggs, They seemed to be
nearly all mouth. 1t kept him SO busy
filling those mouths, too, that his ele-
CANT coat of black, touched with iri-
descent green and blue, lost some OF
its jaunty appearance, for he had now
no time to green his feathers.
When the birds were a few weeks
old, they were so well grown that they
almost filled the nest. Both Captain
and Mrs. Quiscalus weresnow compelled
to be much away from home hunting
food for them.
One day when they TINT back the
nest was gone and the birdlings had
disappeared. The branch, too, on which
it had been built was broken off.
The agonized cries of the two birds
brought to the scene some of their
n~eighbors.
I'm heartily sorry for you," said
Mrs. Robin, who few across from the
maple where she had a nest. 1T Was
one of those bad boys. The poor, dear
children are down there at the foot of
the tree" And in silent sympathy the
bird slipped away, while the heart
broken parents of the young blackbirds
few about the forms of their little
ones, stretched dead and bleeding, on
the ground after their terrible fall from
the top OF the tall pine tree.
Some cruel boy had aimed a stone at
the branch where the nest had been,
probably catching a glimpse of the baby
birds through the foliage.
This circumstance made Captain
Quiscalus more determined than ever
to show the farmers how much they
were indebted to the blackbirds, who
only ate their grain because they could
not obtain other food and who really,
in relieving them of the grubs and ia
sects that otherwise would destroy
their crops, did more good than harm.
AS to the fruit that they damaged, said
Captain Quiscalus:
IF human folks would plant some
wild fruit for us, we would not need to
bother their orchards"
In the autumn, when his neighbours
desparingly reaped their barren fields,
Farmer F'allow, whose barns and gran
aries were all filled, called at the
schoolhouse a meeting of the farmers
of the neighborhood. AT it he said:
Since you see how necessary to your
success are the birds, would it not be
better to find a way to make them your
friends and helpers instead of your n
emies?"
And then in that region a certain por-
ton of the fruit of the grain is counted
as the birds portion.
'For if the birds are willing to keep
us free from the insects that would
otherwise destroy our crops they are
well worthy of such wages" say the
wise husbandmen.
LITERARY NOTES.