. My garden neighbors; true stories of nature's children . t and couldntwork any more that day. 3^ MY GARDEN NEIGHBORS Then Mrs. Sparrow got angry and flew athim to give him a flouncing. Lame as he was,he could fly as well as ever, and he kept outof her way. Then she coaxed him, and pleaded withhim, and reminded him of the babies. He had settled on the tin roof of the backporch. He could not stand very easily onone leg, so he squatted down on his breastand closed his eyes as if he felt pretty miser-able. I have no doubt he did feel so, havingone of his legs chopped off. But Mrs. Sparrow did no
. My garden neighbors; true stories of nature's children . t and couldntwork any more that day. 3^ MY GARDEN NEIGHBORS Then Mrs. Sparrow got angry and flew athim to give him a flouncing. Lame as he was,he could fly as well as ever, and he kept outof her way. Then she coaxed him, and pleaded withhim, and reminded him of the babies. He had settled on the tin roof of the backporch. He could not stand very easily onone leg, so he squatted down on his breastand closed his eyes as if he felt pretty miser-able. I have no doubt he did feel so, havingone of his legs chopped off. But Mrs. Sparrow did not intend to lethim sleep or to give him very much now and then she landed near him,sometimes talking to him in a quiet, earnestway, sometimes scolding him pretty thor-oughly, always urging him to help aboutgetting food. And when Mrs. Sparrow was not busycoaxing or entreating or scolding her lord,she was busy getting food for the young spar-rows in the nest. Sometimes Mr. Sparrow would rouse upa little, tumble or hop about on one leg, using 36. MR. DICKEY ONE-LEG his wings very vigorously the while. Thenhe would settle down again, close his eyes,and with bill open, seemingly pant for life. Mrs. Sparrow either could not understandwhat ailed him, or else thought he was a meregood-for-nothing. Anyway, she made up hermind to get a divorce from him then andthere, and marry somebody that would work,instead of lie around on the roof all day. Shortly after coming to this conclusion, sheappeared with a new husband. He was afat, smart, rather youngish-looking followed Mrs. Sparrow until he caughtsight of Mr. Sparrow-with-the-one-leg, andthen he stopped and shouted out a challenge. Mr. One-leg answered him back. At this,Mr. New Sparrow assumed a fighting atti-tude and challenged again and called One-leg answered him back, challengefor challenge, name for name. But Mr. One-leg wouldnt leave his rest on the roof. ThenMr. New Sparrow flew a trifle nearer then
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1905
