Wreaths of Friendship: A Gift for the Young

JULIA AND HER BIRDS.

Little Julia Cornish, a young friend of mine, is very fond of birds.  It is no strange thing, I am aware, for children to love birds.  Indeed, I do not see how any body can help loving the dear little things, especially those that fill the air with their music.  But Julia was unusually fond of them, and her fondness showed itself in a great many ways.  She did not shut them up in cages.  But she was so kind to those that had their liberty, that many of them became quite as tame as if they had always lived in a cage.

I must tell you about a robin that used to be a pet of hers.  You know the robin, do you not, reader?  To my mind he is one of the dearest of all our native songsters.  His notes are among the first we hear in the spring.  And he is a very social and confiding creature.  How often he selects a place for his nest on some tree near the house! and when it is built, while his partner is busy with her domestic duties, he will sing for hours together his song of love and tenderness.

Julia resided in the country; and every year the robins built their nests on the trees in her father’s orchard, near the house.  She fancied that the robins came from the South to her door, year after year, and brought their children with them.  She was sure she could distinguish the voices of her old friends, and she used to sit under the shade of the trees where they had their nests, and talk to them kindly, and leave something good for them to eat.

One year there were a pair of robins who made their nest on a tree, the boughs of which hung over the house; and Julia could sit in her window and see all that the little family were doing.  She was delighted with such a token of confidence, and she and the robins soon became very intimate.  The old ones frequently flew down from their nest, and alighted near the door, when Julia would give them as much food as they wanted, and let them carry some home to their children.

By and by, the young robins were old enough to leave their nests.  That was a great day with both parents and children, and all seemed about as merry as they could be when the half-fledged little birds took their first lessons in flying, though Julia laughed a good deal to see their manoeuvres, and said their motions were awkward enough.  However, they learned to fly after a while, as well as their parents, though before they left for the season, some cruel boy threw a stone at one of them and broke his wing.  Poor fellow! he suffered a great deal of pain, and his parents and brothers and sisters were very sad about it.  They seemed for a while hardly to know what to do.  Probably there were no surgeons among them, who understood how to manage broken limbs.  And they had a long talk together—­so Julia said—­and finally hit upon this plan.  Willy—­that was the name my friend gave to the lame bird—­was to go into the house, and see if something could not be done for him there.

Accordingly, one bright morning in June, almost as soon as breakfast was over, the little invalid, attended by the rest of the family, came to the door, where Julia was waiting to receive them—­for she fed them regularly every day—­and then, after they had eaten what they wanted, instead of flying away, as they were accustomed to do, little Willy hopped into the kitchen, while the rest remained near the door.  Julia thought that was queer enough, and she ran and told her mother.  “I wonder if I can coax the little fellow to stay with me until his wing gets well,” she said.  “I wish I could.  Oh, I should dearly love to take care of him, and I am sure we can make him well soon.”

[Illustration:  JULIA’S PET ROBIN.]

Little Willy did not say—­at least he did not say in our language—­that he should be happy to place himself awhile under his friend Julia’s care.  But he seemed very content, and soon made himself quite at home.  Though he had perfect liberty to go just where he pleased, and would often venture out of the house, yet he evidently considered himself an inmate of Mr Cornish’s family.  Under the care especially of Miss Julia, he became so tame that she could take him in her lap and stroke his feathers.  Willy was a great favorite in the family, after he had been there a day or two.  No one did any thing for his wing.  They did not understand setting birds’ wings, when they were broken.  Still, Willy got better in a very short time, without the assistance of a surgeon.  A great many sick people, you know, need the care of a nurse more than that of a doctor.  That was the case with Willy, it would seem.  In less than three weeks his wing was entirely well, and he was able to take care of himself.  So he warbled his adieu to the family under whose roof he had been so kindly treated, and flew away with the other robins who had been waiting for him.

[Illustration:  JULIA FEEDING THE BIRDS.]

Julia is very kind, too, to the snow-birds in the winter.  Many a time, when the snow has been deep, and these hungry birds have come to her father’s door, I have seen her feeding them.  One winter, I recollect, she had a flock of them that she could call to her, when she wanted to feed them, just as she could the chickens.  The snow-bird is an interesting little creature; and though he has not a very sweet voice for singing, he was always a favorite with Julia, and I am not sure but I love the fellow as well as she does.  Winter to me would be a great deal more gloomy, were it not for the Winter King, as Miss Gould calls this little bird.

Did you know reader, that the snow-bird is a very affectionate creature?  It seems that it is so.  Some years ago one of them flew into a house, where, finding itself quite welcome, it remained over night.  By accident, however, it was killed in the morning, and one of the servants threw it into the yard.  In the course of the day, one of the family witnessed a most affecting scene in connection with the dead body.  Its mate was standing beside it, mourning its loss.  It placed its beak below the head of its companion, raised it up, and again warbled its song of mourning.  By and by it flew away, and returned with a grain or two of wheat, which it dropped before its dead partner.  Then it fluttered its wings, and endeavored to call the attention of the dead bird to the food.  Again it flew away, again it returned, and used the same efforts as before.  At last, it took up a kernel of the wheat, and dropped it into the beak of the dead bird.  This was repeated several times.  Then the poor bereaved one sang in the same plaintive strain as before.  But the scene was too affecting for the lady who witnessed it.  She could bear the sight no longer, and turned away.  I have loved the snow-bird more than ever since this story was told me, and so has my friend Julia.

Now I think of it, I have in one of the storerooms of my memory, a song about the snow-bird.  It is rather simple and childish—­possibly too much so for boys and girls of your age.  However, as we are somewhat musical just now, after talking so much about birds, and are greatly in want of a song, I will sing this about Emily and the Snow-Bird, and you may join in the chorus, if you like.