And now her terror seemed quite gone. At the first touch of my hand I think she felt the love restraining it, and without fear or fret she let me reach under her and pull out the babies. But she reached after them with her bill to tuck them back out of sight, and when I did not let them go, she sidled toward me, quacking softly, a language that I perfectly understood, and was quick to respond to. I gave them back, fuzzy and black and white. She got them under her, stood up over them, pushed her wings down hard around them, her stout tail down hard behind them, and together with them pushed in an abandoned egg that was close at hand. Her own baby, some one else's baby, and some one else's forsaken egg! She could cover no more; she had not feathers enough. But she had heart enough; and into her mother's heart she had already tucked every motherless egg and nestling of the thousands of frightened birds, screaming and wheeling in the air high over her head. THE END REFERENCE LISTS FOR STORY-TELLING AND COLLATERAL READING REFERENCE LISTS FOR STORY-TELLING AND COLLATERAL READING (The grades assigned are merely suggestive, as some of the stories may be used in higher or lower grades than here indicated.) NEW YEAR'S DAY For grades 1-4. An All-the-Year-Round Story, in Poulsson, In the Child's World; Peter the Stone-Cutter, in Macdonell, Italian Fairy Book; The Forest Full of Friends, in Alden, Why the Chimes Rang. For grades 5-8. A Chinese New Year's in California, in Our Holidays Retold from St. Nicholas; A New Year's Talk, in Stevenson, Days and Deeds (prose); Story of the Year, in Andersen, Stories and Tales; The Animals' New Year's Eve, in Lagerlof, Further Adventures of Nils. LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY For grades 1-4. A Westfield Incident, in Moores, Abraham Lincoln, page 87; Lincoln and the Little Horse, in Werner's Readings, no. 46; Lincoln and the Pig, in Gross, Lincoln's Own Stories; Lincoln and the Small Dog, in Moores, Abraham Lincoln, page 25. For grades 5-6. A Backwoods Boyhood, in Moores, Abraham Lincoln; Choosing Abe Lincoln Captain, in Schauffler, Lincoln's Birthday; Following the Surveyor's Chain, in Baldwin, Abraham Lincoln; His Good Memory of Names, in Gallaher, Best Lincoln Stories; Lincoln and the Doorkeeper, in Gross, Lincoln's Own Stories, page 78, Lincoln and the Unjust Client, in Moores, Abraham Lincoln, page 46; Lincoln's Kindness to a Disabled Soldier, in Gallaher, Best Lincoln Stories; The Clary's Grove Boys, in Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln page 51; The Snow Boys, in Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln page 122. For grades 7-8. Counsel Assigned, Andrews; He Knew lincoln, Tarbell; Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel, Chittenden; Lincoln Remembered Him, in Gallaher, Best Lincoln Stories; Lincoln's Springfield Farewell, in Moores, Abraham lincoln, page 82; Perfect Tribute, Andrews. SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY For grades 1-4.