"Don't be a coward," urged his father and mother. "You fell before
because your wings were not strong enough to bear you up, but now you
will have no trouble."

The little bird wouldn't budge.

The parent birds knew it was time for him to learn, so they pushed the
foolish little fellow out of the nest, and watched him spread his wings,
and flutter to the ground. There he found more courage, and after a
while he flew up to join his brothers on the tree.

"I was sitting at my window," Mother told Johnnie Jones, "and saw it all
happen. Of course I can't understand the language of birds, and I am not
sure I have repeated exactly what the parent birds said to the babies,
or what the babies said to each other, but only what they seemed to say.
Anyway, everything happened as I have told you."

"Soon the babies could fly nearly as well and as far as the old birds,
and after that the little nest was left quite empty, rocked by the wind
in the old tree top."

* * * * *




The Coming of Little Brother


Almost all of the children who attended the kindergarten where Johnnie