Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1918-03-15
Startling Row

| OnCe upon tlme, Jlor6 was an OlO
church at the end of village green,
and upon the church an ancient, gray
! tower. Back of the church. the village
1rambled on for some little distance,
and then the houses became farther
and farther apart, until there you were,
out in the open country with only a
house tucked in here and there, and
all the spaces filled in with meadows,
and fields, and pastures, and hills, and
woods. And from these spaces came
the starlings to the village, and the
Columbus of them discovered the old
gray tower of the church at the end
of the green.
"Ho! Tower, ahoy!" cried Columbus
Startling, and flew back to hurry up
the rest of his countrymen-1 mean
countrybirds. II have discovered a
tower" said he, land claim it for you,
my brothers. Follow me-"
So through the blue sky sea sailed
the merry, notified brown-black-purple
fleet of starlings, and sure enough,
there was the old gray tower at the
end of the green, just as Columbus
Startling had said!
"a fine place to live!" they cried.
"a tower is much better than woods
and old barns for shelter, and we can
be among real people, too. Let US
move right in
Well, move in they did, without any
bother of packing up lot of barrels
of dishes, boxes of books, rolls of car
pets and oilcloth, rugs, tin pans, furni-
ture, pictures, bundles of bedding,
doubled-up mattresses, trunks of
clothes, brooms, pals, dust brushes,
pianos, Victrolas, and new records,
parlor lar.os and bric-a-brac. They
moved in that very minutes and they
stayed there that very night.
Before they had been there long the
church clock bell rung five. This
startled them so they considered seri-
ously if they would go back into the
tower, as they perched out on the near
est tree.
Columbus Startling was too proud
for flight. He said he had heard of
such a thing as bell, and this must
be it. 1t had habit of ringing when
ever an hour happened along, and no
doubt it was on the hour just now.
A church bell rang on Sundays, he
said, more than at other times, and if
this thing which had frightened them
acted like that, they would know it
was merely a church bell and quite
harmless. Sure enough! When the
next hour came, the bell rang six, and
bell and harmless.
At dusk they Snuggled together
within the belfry and talked softly,
in their sweet, soft-whistling voices,
and though the bell at first woke them
whenever an hour happened along,
they merely chuckled and went to
sleep again.
In the morning, when the good old
sexton came to attend to his duties
at the church, how surprised he was!
At first, he thought he was back in
England, where he lived when he was
a little boy, for there in a row on a
fine ledge above the entrance and
just below the belfry sat soft.voiced
starlings talking, and whistling, and
clapping their bills together, and sing
ing as only starlings can sing-for I
call it sort of song, the pretty notes
they. make-all happy and contented.
The good old sexton went right over
to tell the rector, and the rector came
right over to see Startling Row.
"Ah!" said the rector. "How like
home is that sight! We had just such
a row as that at my old home in Eng
land. I hope they will stay. They
are cheerful birds"
1--WE had just such row in my part
of England, too," said the sexton, land
it does my heart good to see them. !,
too, hope they will stay"
"We're going to stay!" cried Colum-
bus Startling. "That is the reason l
discovered this tower!"
Maybe the rector and the sexton did
not understand the starting language
we'll enough to xnow Columbus Star
ling's exact words, but they watched
the birds and saw how they came back
from their short flights away from the
tower for meals and how they came
back to the tower and went into the
belfry at night; and then the two men
knew that really their church on the
green had at last true, homelike
feeling.
Maybe you do not think this is true
story. Some day I wish you would
come to this town and see for your
self. There on the ledge you will see
as fine row of starlings as you could
wish. You will hear them talk, and
whistle, and sing, at some time during
the day, as happily as possible. You
will see, too, the merriest and proud
est of them sitting at the end of the
row, toward the rectory; and you will
know by the way he acts that Column
bus Startling discovered the tower!
Mary Hawbaker-The Diff
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