“With them it is breakfast, luncheon, dinner, five-o’clock tea, and supper, with a great many other meals between times that would not be wholesome for House Children.  So you can see for yourselves that we may well call the bird a fellow-being.”

“Yes,” said Rap, his eyes beaming as if he had something to tell, “some birds work as hard as mother does.  I watched a pair of Robins all one day last spring, when I was sick.  They had a nest in a bush by our kitchen window, where I could see it well, and all day long either the mother or the father came about every two minutes with something for the little ones to eat.  I timed them by the clock until I was nearly dizzy, and they seemed to do the same thing every day until the young ones flew away.  Then they went over to the grape vines, made a new nest, and raised four more the same way”—­and then Rap stopped suddenly, as if he feared that he had been talking too much.

“That is all true,” said the Doctor, looking very happy at finding that one of his listeners not only saw for himself but remembered and thought about what he had seen.  “If you have used your eyes so well, my lad, when we come to the bird stories I shall expect you to tell some of them yourself.”  And the Doctor held out his hand to the child with a look that sent him to bed to dream happy dreams for many a night.

The children gazed at Rap in surprise.  It was a new idea that a poor little fellow like him should know more than they, who had both parents and nice clothes, and had been to school in a big city.  That he should be able to tell stories about birds seemed wonderful.  But they were not selfish, and instead of being jealous felt a great respect for Rap.

“Now,” said the Doctor, “we will see what a good neighbor to House People a bird is, and how in working for himself he helps them also.”

“How can birds possibly work to help people?” asked Dodo and Nat together; but Rap smiled to himself as if he knew something about the matter, and said, “They eat the bugs and worms and things that kill the gardens and fields.”

“You are right again,” said the Doctor heartily.  “What is one thing that man and every other animal must have to keep him alive?”

“Food!” shouted Nat, and then grew very red, as the others laughed, because since he had been at Orchard Farm his appetite had grown so that though he ate twice as much as Olive and Dodo he seemed always hungry.

“Yes, food.  Bread, meat, vegetables, and fruits, but bread first of all.  What is bread made of?”

“Wheat, I think,” said Nat.

“Rye, too—­mother’s rye-bread is drea’fly good,” said Rap.

“Don’t forget Mammy Bun’s corn-bread,” added Olive.

“All your answers are right, for many different kinds of bread are used in various parts of the country; but whether it is made from wheat-flour, or rye-flour, or corn-meal, it all grows from the ground, does it not?