Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-04
Little Blue Titmouse!
BY H. KUSTERER.

The wind blew and blew. And 1t rocked
the trees so hard that 1t threw the little
nesting out of It's nest. And it blew 1t SO
far away that its mamma could not find 1t.
There it sat. 1t could not fly and it could
not walk, and it had no feathers, and so 1t
got very, very cold. 1t tried to call its
mamma, but the wind made so much noise
that it could not be heard. Poor little birdie!
No clothes and no home, and the wind SO,
cold! Just then little wren, going home
to her own children, found our poor little
bird and took 1t along, for the night. But
In the morning, there 1t was, so bare, and
the cold wind was blowing again. So some
thing had to be done for clothes. Now,
Mrs. Wren was very small and had
family herself, so that she couldn't give
our little baby any of her feathers, and all
her neighbors were poor, too. All they had
was snug little nest, hidden somewhere
in the leaves. But they were very happy
and sang all day long. And then all the
golden sunshine belonged to them. There
fore, Mr.. Wren. called all the neighbors to-
gether to see what could be done. They
all came. There was the Mockfng Bird,
the Flycatcher, and Sparrow, the Bullfinch,
the Oriole and Bluebird, and many more
Mrs. Wren was kept very busy making
them comfortable In her elderberry bush.
Such a chipping and twittering you never
heard. Every one had something to say.
and there was SO much talking done that
Mr.. Wren at last called the meeting TO
order. and said:
my dear neighbors and friends: Last
evening my wife, Mrs. Wren, found this
poor bare baby bird over there In the field.
We do not know its parents and as it is
very chilly some clothes must be gotten and
home found" Then they all spoke again.
at once. But Mrs Wren. in her quick and
easy way, soon had things going right.
Mrs. Flycatcher would give yellow breast
front, the bluebird would put the sleeves
to it for the wings, the swallow made
cap and bib Of blue, with white trim
g. yt,rP faaf y,
ers for the tail from the blue jay. But Of
what use was a dress, without back to
it? And every one had given as much as
possible, for all had their own little babies.
But Mrs Wren again knew what to do.
so she asked for just a few plain white
feathers, and then patched up the back
with the remnants of the blue and yellow
ones she had from the other parts, Oh!
what a nicely colored suit it did makel
And our little baby was proud of it, when
it was dressed. 1t bobbed its pretty head
up and down, and showed its pretty yell
low breast and blue wings. But even lit
tie birds must learn something. So the
oriole said that it would teach it to make
a good nest, and the robin redbreast would
care for it until it was old enough to fly.
But, then, who would teach 1t all It's man
ners and what else bird must know? AT
that they all were quiet. for they all were
afraid they didn't know enough to teach
others. But here again Mrs Wren helped
them. She called to the sparrow and said:
Now, you haven't given any feathers, and
have done nothing at all for the little one,
and yet you are always SO forward in other
things. So just fly over to the wise old
owl, who stays at home all day long, be-
cause he can only see in the dark, and ask
him to be her teacher OF course, the owl
would be.
And so everything being settled, they all
went home and our little blue titmouse g-ew
up into one of the prettiest and smartest
birds you ever saw. And whenever you
see titmouse flying about just remember
1S,rxy itc Sfrtf nf
if you have any poor little neighbors don't
forget that a little here and little there,
if wisely put together, will make them
good warm winter suit.