Gray Lady and the Birds: Stories of the Bird Year for Home and SchoolWright, Mabel Osgood
General
Gray Lady and the Birds: Stories of the Bird Year for Home and School
Wright, Mabel Osgood
Birds -- Juvenile literature; Birds -- New England
On the chimney side was a small-sized cooking-stove, and between this
and the chimney-corner ran shelves with a cupboard beneath, whereon and
in a set of blue-and-white dishes and various pots and pans were ranged.
At either end of the room was a stout table surrounded by chairs, one
being a kitchen table with a drawer, and the other a plain dining table
with a polished top, suitable for playing games, or holding books or
work. It was upon this table that the work-boxes and dolls were ranged,
twelve in all, and by each a little pile of clothes, all cut and
ready-basted, the whole being covered by a cloth. Gray Lady and Ann had
agreed between themselves that lessons in sewing had better come first
and garment-cutting follow later on.
All the garments were to be made to put on and take off like real
clothes, and though they were very simple, each doll when dressed would
personate a different character, for there was clothing for a baby doll,
a schoolgirl, a young lady, a trained nurse, little Red Riding-Hood, and
so on.
The workshop faced north and east, and was on the opposite side of the
stairs. This was of the same shape as the playroom, but a small
wood-stove, that could be used for heating glue-pots, and to keep the
room from freezing in winter, took the place of the cooking-stove, and
there was a long workbench, with vise, lathe, and mitre-box attachment
under two of the windows where the best light fell. Across one side of
the room, various tools were hung in racks, while at the end opposite
the windows was tacked a great sheet of paper upon which many styles of
bird homes were pictured. Below this was a space painted black like a
school blackboard, and upon this Jacob had redrawn in rough chalk
several of the pictures to a working-scale.
Gray Lady and Goldilocks were already upstairs when the party arrived,
for though Goldilocks could walk very nicely when on a level, going up
and down stairs was a matter that took time.
[Illustration]
BIRD-HOUSES AND NESTING-BOXES. Fig. 1. hollow-limb
nesting-box; Fig. 2, birch-bark bird-house; Fig. 3, slab
bird-box; Fig. 4, cat-proof box; Fig. 5, old-shingle box; Fig.
6, chestnut-bark nesting-box; Figs. 7 and 9, boxes with slide
fronts; Fig. 8, house for Tree Swallow.
From _Useful Birds and their Protection_ by G. H. Forbush.
Tramp, tramp, came the feet up the stairs to the second hall, with the
rhythm of a marching regiment. Then there was a pause and evidently some
discussion, for, as Gray Lady went forward and opened the door at the
head of the attic stairs, she heard Sarah Barnes’ voice say, “Why, it’s
a big Crow and a little one; but how did they come in here? Don’t touch
him, Tommy, he’ll bite you. Crows bite like everything when they get
mad.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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