These heavenly blue birds, with pinkish plumage on their breasts, add great beauty to our home gardens, and fortunate is the owner of the bird house which they select “rent free.” They are desperately afraid of English sparrows, or more of them would tenant the houses round about the home garden. Blue birds eat up whole families of garden pests at a meal. [Illustration: BLUE BIRDS’ COTTAGE] “My, aren’t those bird houses dear!” said the little girl. “I hope we’ll have one of each kind some day. Then we’ll feel that our garden is well protected from injurious insects. Are there any other creatures which destroy them beside toads and birds?” CHAPTER XXVI LITTLE LADYBIRD “CAN’T say with certainty,” replied Billy, “until I look in my note book.” “Well, it’s just inside the play house, isn’t it?” asked Mary Frances. “I’m getting rather tired, Mary Frances,” said Billy. “Oh, go get it, Billy,” Mary Frances begged, “please do, bring it out to the garden bench—that’s a good fellow.” “Well, if it were any other subject than gardening, you couldn’t persuade me, young lady; but I guess I’ll go.” “There are lots of beneficial insects named,” he said, coming out of the play house, “but the one you know best is a different kind of a bird from the feathered——” “I know! I know!” eagerly interrupted Mary Frances, repeating the old rhyme— “‘Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home! Your house is on fire, and your children will burn.’” “Good!” exclaimed Billy. “Ladybird or ladybug; but why they are given so charming a name, I can’t imagine.” “I can imagine, Billy. Have you ever noticed, besides being so very pretty, how neat they are; how ladylike they look when they fold their wing covers and tuck in their inside wings; and did you ever see them wash themselves? They do it so carefully! I don’t wonder at their being named Ladybirds.” “Humph, Mary Frances, you certainly have an enviable imagination. I should say they were more fittingly named Possumbugs. Have you ever noticed how they ‘play possum’ when you try to pick them up?” “Indeed I have,” Mary Frances laughed at the remembrance. “Maybe they do that to save their lives just as opossums do; but they are so very pretty that I’d call them Ladybirds for that reason alone.” “Not all are pretty alike,” commented Billy. “Why, don’t they all wear shiny red dresses with black polka dots?” asked Mary Frances. “No,” smiled Billy, “some wear shiny black dresses with red or yellow polka, dots; sometimes the dress is yellow with black spots.” “Oh, isn’t that interesting!” cried Mary Frances. “I never tried the rhyme on any but the red ones with black dots.” “I never ‘tried’ the rhyme. How do they act?” asked Billy. “Well,” laughed Mary Frances, “usually, if you blow your breath upon them, they fly away; if you just watch them, they generally turn around and run as fast as they can in the opposite direction from which they were going.”