One day when she had picked up a worm and was resting a moment, the good marksman saw her.

“What a fine shot!” he said, and fired his air-gun.  The bird felt a sharp, stinging pain in her side, and when she tried to fly she found that she could not lift herself from the ground.

Fluttering and limping, she dragged herself along to the foot of the tree where her nest was.  Her broken wing hurt her very much, but she chirped a little, in as cheerful a way as she could, so that her babies should not be frightened.  They chirped back loudly, because they were hungry, and they could not understand why she did not come to them.  She knew all their voices, and when she heard the plaintive note of the smallest, she tried again and again to fly.  At last she fell in such a way that she could not move her wings again.

All day she lay there, and when her children called, she answered with her old, brave chirp.  But as the hours went by, her voice grew fainter and fainter, until at last it was still.

In the morning she was dead.  The little ones called now in vain.  They cried until they were so tired that they fell asleep; but soon their hunger waked them and they cried again.

The next night was cold, and they crowded together, hoping to get warm.  How they missed their mother’s warm, soft feathers!  It grew colder and colder.  Before dawn they all died, one after the other.  Would the boy have been so proud of his good shot if he had known the whole story?

Adapted

“Be kind to animals,” as a motto for every schoolroom in the United States conspicuously and constantly displayed by teachers upon wall or blackboard, will go far and help greatly towards inculcating a spirit of kindness to animals and educating humanely the boys and girls who are to be future citizens of this great country.

THE GOLDFINCH

Have you ever noticed the downy white seeds of the thistle?  A puff of wind will carry away hundreds of these soft, woolly tufts, which sail like tiny balloons.  When they drop to the ground they take root and soon become young thistles.

There is no weed more troublesome to the farmer than the thistle.  It will soon crowd out the young wheat, and if let alone would cover the whole farm.  If the farmer had no help, it would be difficult for him to raise anything but thistles.

He has, however, one of the best helpers in the world.  The goldfinch is ready to look for thistle seeds, and asks no wages at all.  The farmer ought to be grateful to such a busy little worker.

The mother goldfinch builds a beautiful nest for her little ones.  For food they have seeds which she has carefully softened in her own crop.  As soon as the young birds can fly, she takes them to the fields where the thistles grow.

In winter birds are thankful for food and shelter.  The story is told of a man who has part of his house-wall covered with cages.  The finches which live near his home find snug lodgings in these cages during the cold weather.  In the spring his feathered guests build their nests in the cages and pay their rent by working in his garden.  They are not confined to the cages, but come and go as they please.