The little brown bird was feeding on a shredded wheat biscuit. She stayed long enough to eat a hearty meal; then took away as much as she could carry in her bill. While I sat there she returned several times for more.
We were out in the boy's workshop. He had just finished making what he called a food house. It was a tray roofed over, "to keep out the rain and snow," he said.
I remarked that it was early (it was in July) to talk about snow.
"Oh," said he, "this is one of my vacation jobs. After school begins I won't have time for these things. I'll be a freshman in High, you know."
The tray was about a foot long and not quite so wide. On each side there was a wire pocket to hold suet. Four neat, round sticks supported the roof, which he said was made out of the sides of a soap box.
I asked where he got those fine round sticks and that pretty tray. He said the sticks were scraps from his uncle's cabinet shop, and that he got the tray from the grocer. The name "Neufchâtel" was printed on the sides of the tray in big letters.
I said, "Wouldn't it be nice if all the Neufchâtel cheese boxes were made into food trays for birds?"
"Yes," he answered, "I know that our grocer would rather give his boxes away for some useful purpose than to burn them."
