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