could look into the horses' mouths to see if their teeth wanted
filing or were decayed. When her father laughed at her, she told
him that horses often suffer terrible pain from their teeth, and that
sometimes a runaway is caused by a metal bit striking against the
exposed nerve in the tooth of a horse that has become almost
frantic with pain.

She was a very gentle girl, and I think by the way that she spoke
that her father loved her dearly, for she told how much trouble he
had taken to make some tiny houses for her that she wanted for the
wrens that came about their farm, She told him that those little
birds are so good at catching insects that they ought to give all
their time to it, and not have any worry about making houses. Her
father made their homes very small, so that the English sparrows
could not get in and crowd them out.

A boy said that he had gotten a pot of paint, and painted in large
letters on the fences around his father's farm: "Spare the toads,
don't kill the birds. Every bird killed is a loss to the country."

"That reminds me," said the president, "to ask the girls what they
have done about the millinery business."

"I have told my mother," said a tall, serious faced girl, "that I think
it is wrong to wear bird feathers, and she has promised to give up
wearing any of them except ostrich plumes."

Mrs. Wood asked permission to say a few words just here, and the
president said: "Certainly, we are always glad to hear from you."