folks love us, is for us to be able to 'preciate what they can
do. If a man's puttin' his heart an' soul, an' blood, an'
beef-steak, an' bones into paintin' picters, you can talk farmin'
to him all day, an' he's dumb; but jest show him 'at you see what
he's a-drivin' at in his work, an' he'll love you like a brother.
Whatever anybody succeeds in, it's success 'cos they so love it
'at they put the best o' theirselves into it; an' so, lovin' what
they do, is lovin' them.

"It 'ud 'bout kill a painter-man to put the best o' himself into
his picture, an' then have some fellow like you come 'long an'
pour turpentine on it jest to see the paint run; an' I think it
must pretty well use God up, to figure out how to make an' colour
a thing like that bird, an' then have you walk up an' shoot the
little red heart out of it, jest to prove 'at you can! He's the
very life o' this river bank. I'd as soon see you dig up the
underbrush, an' dry up the river, an' spoil the picture they make
against the sky, as to hev' you drop the redbird. He's the red
life o' the whole thing! God must a-made him when his heart was
pulsin' hot with love an' the lust o' creatin' in-com-PAR-able
things; an' He jest saw how pretty it 'ud be to dip his
featherin' into the blood He was puttin' in his veins.

"To my mind, ain't no better way to love an' worship God, 'an to
protect an' 'preciate these fine gifts He's given for our joy an'
use. Worshipin' that bird's a kind o' religion with me. Getting
the beauty from the sky, an' the trees, an' the grass, an' the
water 'at God made, is nothin' but doin' Him homage. Whole
earth's a sanctuary. You can worship from sky above to grass
under foot.