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Show OOCK)OOOCKK)0)CCCKOOCK)OOCKJ)XHm I Evening Fairy Tale for the Children X By MARY GRAHAM BONNER ? OOOOOCOOCK0K)0000000000HI IN THE SWAMP "I have such a nice suit," said Mr. Fox Sparrow. "It is stylish, I think, to wear a reddish brown coat and a spotted waistcoat. "And your dress is nice, too." "Ah, yes," agreed Mrs. Fox Sparrow, Spar-row, "I am so much pleased with my own dress. "I like to moult and Improve my feathers, but I like to have them come back the same way as they were, that is the same color and of the same kind." "Perhaps Its because of our reddish brown feathers that we are called fox sparrows," said Mr. Fox Sparrow. "Are foxes reddish brown, and have they feathers?" asked Mrs. Fox Sparrow. KXCKCKCH "Oh no, my love," smiled Mr. Fox Sparrow. "Foxes haven't feathers. "They have fur. And their fur, I believe, is of different colors. "Sometimes it Is gray, and sometimes, some-times, it is true, it is red. "So perhaps, you see, because there is red in our feathers, the same reddish red-dish shade which foxes have in their fur, that we are called fox sparrows." "Well, we're settled for the summer," sum-mer," said Mrs. Fox Sparrow. "It Is x- fm- They Sang the Most Glorious Song. nice and cool here, and In the winter we were south where it was nice and warm. "What a fine swamp we lived in, and what nice old leaves we used to dig up, so as to find out what was underneath. "We were like people who used to dig for hidden treasures." "Yes," said Mr. Fox Sparrow, "and we . were like chickens, hen3 and j roosters, for they dig and scratch the KCKCKCKOCKM000K)0KXOOC-00 earth to see what they can find. "It was such fun to look under tin leaves and to stop to talk over what we had found. "We did have a fine winter. What are your plans now?" "I'm going to build a nest," snld Mrs. Fox Sparrow, "of moss and soft grass for a lining, and I shall put in some nice feathers, too, so it will be comfortable when the five little greenish-blue eggs which I shall soon lay turn Into birdlings. "The eggs will have nice little reddish red-dish brown spots on them, which shows that they are to have reddish-brown reddish-brown feathers later on. "Of course thut doesn't follow with most birds, hut I like to think of the dear little reddish-brown birds there will be when the reddish-brown spots and the greenish-blue eggs turn into precious little babies." Then they sang the most glorious song, for the fox sparrows have beautiful, beau-tiful, clear and musical voices. They were so happy thinking of the birdlings there would soon be and they talked of swamp life with Buch happiness. In fact all around the birds knew that soon the little birdlings would arrive ar-rive for the fox sparrows sang so beautifully and so joyously and so happily. Soon they were joined by other Mr. and Mrs. Fox Sparrows nnd they sang and made their plans In the same way. (. 1931. WVRtorn Newnpsprr Union.) |