THE FIR-TREE NEIGHBORS
With so many trees in the yard, it always seemed a little strange thatthree families should choose to build so close together in one. Still,it must also be remembered that there were many birds who liked tobuild near the big house, and thought of that yard as home.
The Lady spoke of this tree as "The Evergreen Apartment House." Thebirds simply called it "The Tallest Fir Tree."
Early in the spring a pair of English Sparrows decided to build there.Perhaps one should say that Mrs. Sparrow decided, since her husbandhad nothing to say about it, except to murmur "Yes, dear," when shetold him of her choice. They built well up in the tree, and had a bigmass of hay, grass, and feathers together there when the Blackbirdscame. This would have more than made a nest for most birds. Mrs.Sparrow called it only a beginning, and was always looking for more toadd to it.
When the Blackbirds came in a dashing flock, they began hunting forbuilding places and talking it all over among themselves. One motherBlackbird, who had nested on the place the year before, had counted onhaving that particular tree.
"I decided on it last fall," said she, "before I went South, and Ihave been planning for it all winter. I shall build in it just thesame." She shut her bill in such a way that nobody could doubt hermeaning exactly what she said. Her husband didn't like the placeparticularly well, but she said something to him which settled it."You need not ruffle up your feathers for me," she said, "or stand ontip-toe to squeak at me, unless you are willing to live there."
They built higher than the nest of the English Sparrows. "We havealways been well up in the world," she said, "and we do not care tocome down now." That was all right. One could not blame them forfeeling above the English Sparrows.
The English Sparrows had added more stuff to what they had, and theBlackbirds had their nest about half done when a pair of Hairbirdscame to look for a comfortable tree. They were a young couple, justmarried that spring, and very devoted to each other. They did notdecide matters in the same way as the English Sparrow, and theBlackbirds.
Although there were eleven other great evergreens in the yard, besidesa number of trellises covered with vines, and all the vine-coveredporches, there was no place which suited them so well as thatparticular tree. Yet each was so eager to please the other that itwas rather hard to get either to say what he really thought. Theyperched on the tips of the fir branches and chattered and twitteredall morning about it.
"What do you think?" Mrs. Hairbird said.
"What do you?" he replied.
"But I want to know what _you_ think," she insisted.
"And I would rather know what _you_ think," said he.
"No, but really," asked she, "do you like this tree?"
"Do you?" asked Mr. Hairbird.
"Yes, yes," answered she.
"So do I!" he said, with a happy twitter. "Isn't it queer how wealways like the same things?"
"I wonder if we like the same branch?" said Mrs. Hairbird, after along pause, in which both picked insects off the fir-tree and atethem.
"Which branch do you like?" asked he. But he could not help lookingout of the side of his eye at the one he most fancied. He could notlook out of the corner of his eye, you know, because round eyes haveno corners, and being a bird his eyes were perfectly round.
"I like that one," she cried, and laughed to think how easily she hadfound out his choice. Then he laughed, too, and it was all decided,although Mrs. English Sparrow, fussing around in her mass of hay andfeathers above them, declared that she never heard such silliness inher life, and that when she had made up her own mind that was enough.She never bothered her husband with questions. Mr. English Sparrowheard her say this, and thought he would rather like to be bothered inthat way.
Mrs. Blackbird thought it all a great joke. "When they have beenmarried as long as I have," she said, "it wont take so long to decidethings." Mrs. Blackbird laughed at everything, but she was mistakenabout this, for the Hairbirds, or Chipping Sparrows, as they aresometimes called, are always devoted and unselfish.
It being the custom in their family, the newcomers built quite low inthe tree. Such a happy time as they had. Every bit of grass root whicheither of them dragged loose and brought to the tree, was theprettiest and stoutest and best they had ever seen. And when it got tothe Horsehairs for lining, they visited all the barns for a blockaround, hunting for them. Once, when Mrs. Hairbird wished for a whitehair for one particular place, Mr. Hairbird even watched for a whiteHorse, and pulled it out of his tail.
You can imagine how surprised the Horse was when he felt that littletweak at his tail, and, looking around, saw a small brown birdpulling at one of his longest hairs. "I am sorry to annoy you," saidthis bird, "but Mrs. Hairbird needed a white hair."
"That is all right," said the Horse, to whom one hair was a very smallmatter, and who dearly loved a joke. "Please tell Mrs. Hairbird thatmy tail is hers if she wishes it."
"Your tail is hers!" exclaimed Mr. Hairbird, who ought to have seenthe joke, since he was not an English Sparrow. "Oh, no, surely not!Surely your tail is not her tail. They are quite different, you know!"Then he understood and hurried away, but not in time to help hearingthe Horse laugh.
When the white hair was woven in, the nest was done, and Mrs. Hairbirdlaid in it four greenish blue eggs with dark brown specks. In the nestabove were six greenish white ones with brown and light purple spots.In the nest above that were five dingy streaked and speckled ones.Mrs. Hairbird said that hers were by far the prettiest. "It is notbecause I laid them," she said to her husband. "It is not for thatreason that I think so, but they really are."
Mr. and Mrs. Hairbird were the only ones who paid for the chance tobuild in the tree. They picked insects off the branches, insects thatwould have robbed the tree of some of its strength.
The Blackbirds would not bother with such small bits of food. TheEnglish Sparrows should have paid in the same way, but they would not.
Their great-great-great- --a great many times great- --grandparentswere brought over to this country just to eat the insects which werehurting the trees and shrubs, but when they got here they would notdo it. "No, indeed," said they; "we are here now, and we will eatwhat we choose." Their great-great-great- --a great many timesgreat- --grandchildren were just like them.
Silvertip often came to sit under this tree. He called it a familytree, because it had so many little families in its branches. He couldnot climb it. The fine branches and twigs were so close together thathe could not get up the trunk, and they were not strong enough for himto step from one to another of them.
As might perhaps have been expected, there was some gossipping amongneighbors in this tree. The Blackbirds usually climbed to their nestby beginning at the bottom of the trunk and going around and around itto the top. This took them so close to the other nests that they couldnot help looking in. At any rate, they didn't help it.
Mrs. Blackbird told Mrs. Hairbird that the way Mrs. Sparrow kept housewas a disgrace to the tree. Mrs. Sparrow told her to be very carefulnot to leave her eggs or young children alone when the Blackbirdswere around, because when they were very hungry they had been knownto----! She did not finish her sentence in words, but just ruffled upher feathers and fluttered her wings, which was a great deal meaner.If she were going to say such things about people, you know, sheshould have said them, and not made Mrs. Hairbird guess the worstpart.
Mr. Blackbird said he pitied Mr. Sparrow with all his heart. He knewsomething what it was to have a wife try to run things, but that ifMrs. Blackbird had ever acted as Mrs. Sparrow did, he would leave her,even if it were in the early spring.
Mr. Sparrow said it was most disagreeable to have such noisy neighborsas the Blackbirds overhead. That if his wife had known they werecoming to that tree, she would have chosen another place. "Of courseit was too late for her to change when she found it out," he said."Her nest was well begun, and she had some very choice straws andfeathers which she didn't care to move. You know how such things getsp
oiled in carrying them from place to place."
Most of these things were told to Mrs. Hairbird, because she was athome with the eggs, but she repeated them all to her husband when hecame. She even told him how Mr. Sparrow flew down one day just after aquarrel with his wife, and of all the things he had said when angry.It was quite right in Mrs. Hairbird to tell her husband, and yet shenever chirped them to another bird. And that also was right.
When people talked these things to her, she always looked bright andpleasant, but she did not talk about them herself. Indeed, she oftenmade excuses for her neighbors when she repeated things to herhusband. For instance, when she told what Mrs. Sparrow had said aboutMrs. Blackbird, she added: "I suppose that may be so, still I feelsure that Mrs. Blackbird would not eat any of our children unless shewere _dreadfully_ hungry."
You can see what a sweet and wise little person Mrs. Hairbird was, andher husband was exactly like her. No matter how other peoplequarrelled, they did not. No matter what gossip they heard, they didnot repeat it. And it ended just as such things always do.
In late spring, about the time that the Bees were gathering varnishfor their homes, and every fir-tree tip had one or two buzzing aroundit, there was a dreadful quarrel in the family tree. Mrs. Sparrowwanted some grasses from the outside of the Blackbirds' nest, and shesat on her own and looked at them until she felt she could not livewithout them. Of course, that was very wrong. She might have forgottenall about them if she had made herself think about something else.Any bird who wants something he ought not to have should do that. Shemight better have looked down at her own breast, or counted her wingfeathers over and over. However, she didn't. She took those grasses.
Mrs. Blackbird missed them, and then saw them woven loosely into thenest below hers. She did not say much, and she did not eat the eggsout of the Sparrows' nest. Some people said that she ate them, butthat was a mistake. All that she did was to sit very quietly on hernest while a Red Squirrel ate them. When this same fellow would haveeaten those in the nest below, both the Hairbirds being away, shedrove him off herself.
You can imagine what the Sparrows said when they returned. Or perhapsyou might better not try to, for they said very cross things. ThenMrs. Blackbird told what she thought about those stolen grasses,and her husband joined in, until there was more noise than a flock ofCrows would make.
A RED SQUIRREL ATE THEM. _Page 34_]
It ended in Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow tearing down that nest and buildinganother in the woodbine, where most of their relatives lived. Some oftheir neighbors thought the Blackbirds right and some thought theSparrows right, but through it all Mr. and Mrs. Hairbird were happyand contented, and brought up their four charming children to be asgood birds as they were themselves.
The Sparrows often said that the worst thing about going away from thefamily tree was leaving the Hairbirds, who were such delightfulneighbors. The Blackbirds said that the pleasantest thing about thetree was having the Hairbirds for neighbors. The Hairbirds were likedby everybody, and never made trouble between friends. It was allbecause they knew how and when to keep their bills shut.