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Page 6
So dreadful became the persecutions of the schoolboys that the indigo
birds finally held a council and determined to leave that part of the
country and settle far from the habitations of men, where they might
live unmolested and free from persecutions.
CHAPTER III
THE RULER WITH THE IRON HAND
But evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as want of heart.
--_Hood._
One morning as we flew across the open space which lay between the wood
and the wheat fields, we noticed two gentlemen in the orchard who were
carefully examining the trees, peering curiously into the cracks of the
rough bark or unfolding the curled leaves.
As we came nearer we discovered that one of them was the owner of the
place, the father of Miss Dorothy and Miss Katie. The other was a thin
gentleman in spectacles, who held a magnifying glass through which he
intently looked at a twig which he had broken off.
After a few minutes' inspection he said: "Colonel, your orchard is
somewhat affected. This is a specimen of the _chionaspis furfuris_."
"Is it anything like the scurfy-bark louse?" inquired the colonel.
"The same thing exactly. It occurs more commonly in the apple, but it
infects the pear and peach trees. You will find it on the mountain
ash, and sometimes on the currant bushes," he answered.
The colonel asked him if he would recommend spraying to get rid of the
pests, and was advised to begin immediately, using tobacco water or
whale-oil soap.
"By the way," said the colonel, "there is a beetle attacking my shade
trees. They are ruining that fine row of elms in front of the lawn."
"It is undoubtedly the _melolontha vulgaris_," said the professor. I
designate him in this way because he used such large words we did not
understand. My mother told us that she was positive he was president
of a college. "The _melolontha vulgaris_ is the most destructive of
beetles, but the larvae are still more injurious. They do incalculable
damage to the farmer. Fortunately enormous numbers of these grubs are
eaten by the birds."
"Unfortunately the birds are not so numerous as they used to be. They
are being destroyed so rapidly, more's the pity! These grounds and
woods yonder were formerly alive with birds of all kinds. Flocks of
the purple grakle used to follow the plow and eat up the worms at a
great rate. You are familiar with their habits? You know they are
most devoted parents. I have often watched them feeding their young.
The little ones have such astonishingly good appetites that it keeps
the old folks busy to supply them with enough to eat. They work like
beavers as long as daylight lasts, going to and from the fields
carrying on each return trip a fat grub or a toothsome grasshopper."
"I am a great lover of birds," returned the professor enthusiastically,
"and I find them very interesting subjects of study. By the way, I was
reading the other day a little incident connected with one of America's
great men which impressed me deeply. The story goes that he was one
day walking in company with some noted statesmen, busily engaged in
conversation. But he was not too much occupied to notice that a young
bird had fallen from its nest near the path where they were walking.
He stopped short and crossing over to where the bird was lying,
tenderly picked it up and put it back into its nest. There was a
gentleman of a noble nature! No wonder that man was a leader and a
liberator!"
"Who was he?"
"The grand, the great Abraham Lincoln," responded the professor
impressively.
"Well, he'd be the very one to do just such a kind deed as that," was
the colonel's hearty response. "No man ever lived who had a bigger,
more merciful heart than 'Honest Abe.'"
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