Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-01-29
The Free Lunch
Counter

| Inc l1LCf0 Slrl Win crooked leGS 8n0
sat for hours On the brown front
porch.
Mrs. Mullens, the housekeeper. was
in the kitchen making doughnuts. Nj.
Preston, the little girls father, was
In the studio across the road painting
pictures. Consequently it was deadly
dull.
She had hoped Caroline and Avery
Ames would come to play that after
noon. She had watched and watched
the turn for sight of them until all
weary with disappointment, she had
fallen asleep.
Not five minutes later Caroline and
Avery came skipping toward the
house. They saw Ruth was sleeping,
so lowering their voices they went on
their toes to the back door.
Mrs Mullens," Avery shaded his
eyes and called through the screen,
we've a surprise for Ruth, and may
we borrow the ladder from the wood
shed while we fix it,"
I'VE have to climb into the maple
tree to do it," added Caroline.
BLESS you, take anything if it's go
ing to make the poor child happy
For twenty minutes they were busy
Then Avery climbed down the ladder,
and they had to admire their work
a pan heaped with suet, seeds, anc
crumbs, fastened by wires between the
big maple and the porch.
Some minutes licked away. On a
branch a chickadee lighted. He cock
ed an eye at the lunch. Then he few
down, perched on the tins edge, and
pecked at the mound.
"He likes it, squealed Caroline.
At the sound of voices, pop! went
Ruth's eyelids. ''Oh!" she cried, spy
ing the pan almost the first thing,
what is that?"
ITS a s'prise.," Caroline clapped
her hands. "A free lunch counter for
the birds"
And when it's empty you can draw
it in and fill it up again. See?" said
Avery, pulling the tray toward tie
! railing.
One came while you were asleep.
Look. there he is again!''
Wasn't Ruth delighted!
AS the children were about to leave
late in the afternoon, they heard a
pattering of tiny, nervous feet over
! their heads. They scarcely dared to
take a breath. Suddenly came a quick
spring, a fash of reddish brown, and
a squirrel had leaped from the porch
roof plump onto the lunch counter.A
The little girl with the crooked legs
had a different time after that. Even
when her father disappeared in the
big studio to paint she sat on the
porch, %bird-book in lap, and waited for
the feathered folk.
Caroline and Avery had done some
thing to make. their little lame friend
happy, yet here they were getting a
whole lot of pleasure out of it them
selves! That's the queer thing about
kindness.
Whenever they stopped, Ruth had
some fresh news to tell them about the
| birds. No two were alike. The chick
adee was friendly, the jay quarrel.
some. The woodpecker drilled him.
self a snug hollow in a dead tree. The
phoebe built her nest under an old
bridge. The high-hole considered
ants a feast. The cedar-waxing dotted
on cherries.
Cold weather came. Caroline and
| Avery returned to their Boston home,
and the little girl with crooked legs
| could sit no longer on the brown
/ porch. But indoors, behind the sunny
bay window, she watched the birds
that came every day to her lunch
counter, and . hundred miles away in
| the city Caroline and Avery watched
for the postman who brought letters
that told about the chickadees, the
nuthatches, and the downy wood
peckers that were making Ruth's
| winter so happy.