The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-01


sing whatever theyshave to say, and
Mrs Hen know the songs of each one.
AT first she used to call out the name
of each customers to Mr.. Rooster, but
she soon gave that up, for while Mr..
Rooster sat where he could not see out
of the window. he could hear the or
ders as we'll as Mrs. Hen could, and he
knew whom to charge the things to,
for he knew the voices of each GUS
toner as we'll as Mrs. Hen herself.
One of the first to go to the store
at the Very beginning of the famine,
was a bird called Mr.. Whistler, from
the extraordinary ways in which he
could whistle. He could sing, too, but
he seldom did so. for he said that al
most any bird could sing, while it re-
quired a gentleman of education and
intellect like himself to whistle.
One day, as Mr.. Whistler was stand
ing in line with lot of other birds
who were waiting their turns to reach
the window of Mr. ROSTERS store. to
get something to eat, he noticed that
Mrs. Hen scarcely looked at any one
who bought, and that gave him an idea.
He noticed that Mr.. Sparrow had just
left the window with a bag of corn,
and when it was his turn to go to the
window he initiated Mr.. Sparrow s
voice exactly and asked for bag of
corn. Mrs. Hen handed it out without
even looking at him, and as he went
away with his corn he heard Mr.. Roos-
ter say to himself. Mr.. Sparrow must
be getting absent-minded to be getting
two bags of corn in one day." Then
Mr.. Whistler knew that the corn he
had just got had been charged to Mr..
Sparrow.
All of the birds had been careful to
make the provisions that they bought
at Mr.. BOOSTERS store go just as far
as possible, and they went hungry
most of the time, for they knew that
although they could get as much as
they wanted at the store. still they
would have to pay it back some time,
and if the drought lasted very much
longer. they would get so deeply in debt
to Mr.. Rooster that they would De I'M
able to pay him for very long time,
no matter how hard they worked. Mr..
Whistler had economical as much as
the others. but now he decided he
would eat all he pleased, no matter
how long the drought lasted, and he
would not have to pay for it, either.
He ate his bag of corn in 1ne day
and the next day he went back to the
store and, initiating the voice of Mr.
Robin he asked for some oats. Mrs.
Hen handed out the oats without a
word, and Mr.. Rooster charged them to
Mr.. Robin. The next day Mr. Whistler
| initiated Mr.. Rice Birds voice when he
ordered some rice. and the ice was
charged to Mr.. Rice Bird. Mr.. Whist
Ter kept this up every day, initiating
| the voices of all the birds he knew,
and when he came to the end of the
| list of acquaintances, he began all over
! again with Mr.. Sparrow, and so on.
He grew sleek and fat. while all the
/ other birds were so thin that you
could almost see through them, ard
| their feathers looked all rusty and
worn out from want of proper houriSh-
ment.
At last the drought came to an end;
| the rain fell in torrents; the grass and
vegetables began to grow finely, and
! the birds worked in the fields as hap
/ PLY as could be and raised large crops;
/ all. that is, except Mr.. Whistler, who
had become so lazy while he was living
high during the famine that he could
not bring himself to work very hard
again, and so he raised just enough
vegetables to live on. Then, one day,
! Mr.. Rooster sent in his bills for pro-
visions to all of the girds. Mr.. Whist
/ ler's was very small There had been
nothing charged to his account since
/ very early in the famine. but the other
/ birds were amazed to see that there
were charges on their bills for things
that they had never bought. The bills
/ OF some of them were twice as much
as they should be. and they all were
very angry about IL. They said that
Mr.. Rooster should be ashamed OF
/ himself for charging such high prices,
/ anyway. without trying TO make them
4 pay for twice as many provisions as
/ they had bought from him.
OF course. they went 20 Mr.. Rooster
and told him that they had been over
charged. but he insisted that their bills