Beautiful Joe, Marshall Saunders [historical books to read .TXT] 📗

horses at last saw the blood dripping from

them, and the dancing masters were found out. Some young men on the boat

were so angry that they caught up a rope's end, and gave the dancing

masters a lashing, and then threw them into the water and made them swim

to the island.

 

When this boy took a seat, a young girl read some verses that she had

clipped from a newspaper:

 

"Don't kill the toads, the ugly toads,

   That hop around your door;

Each meal the little toad doth eat

   A hundred bugs or more.

 

"He sits around with aspect meek,

   Until the bug hath neared,

Then shoots he forth his little tongue

   Like lightning double-geared.

 

"And then he soberly doth wink,

   And shut his ugly mug,

And patiently doth wait until

   There comes another bug."

 

Mr. Maxwell told a good dog story after this. He said the president need

not have any fears as to its truth, for it had happened in his boarding

house in the village, and he had seen it himself. Monday, the day

before, being wash-day, his landlady had put out a large washing. Among

the clothes on the line was a gray flannel shirt belonging to her

husband. The young dog belonging to the house had pulled the shirt from

the line and torn it to pieces. The woman put it aside and told him

master would beat him. When the man came home to his dinner, he showed

the dog the pieces of the shirt, and gave him a severe whipping. The dog

ran away, visited all the clothes lines in the village, till he found a

gray shirt very like his master's. He seized it and ran home, laying it

at his master's feet, joyfully wagging his tail meanwhile.

 

Mr. Maxwell's story done, a bright-faced boy, called Simon Grey, got up

and said: "You all know our old gray horse Ned. Last week father sold

him to a man in Hoytville, and I went to the station when he was

shipped. He was put in a box car. The doors were left a little open to

give him air, and were locked in that way. There was a narrow, sliding

door, four feet from the floor of the car, and, in some way or other,

old Ned pushed this door open, crawled through it, and tumbled out on

the ground. When I was coming from school, I saw him walking along the

track. He hadn't hurt himself, except for a few cuts. He was glad to see

me, and followed me home. He must have gotten off the train when it was

going full speed, for he hadn't been seen at any of the stations, and

the trainmen were astonished to find the doors locked and the car empty,

when they got to Hoytville. Father got the man who bought him to release

him from his bargain, for he says if Ned is so fond of Riverdale, he

shall stay here."

 

The president asked the boys and girls to give three cheers for old Ned,

and then they had some more singing. After all had taken their seats, he

said he would like to know what the members had been doing for animals

during the past fortnight.

 

One girl had kept her brother from shooting two owls that came about

their barnyard. She told him that the owls would destroy the rats and

mice that bothered him in the barn, but if he hunted them, they would go

to the woods.

 

A boy said that he had persuaded some of his friends who were going

fishing, to put their bait worms into a dish of boiling water to kill

them before they started, and also to promise him that as soon as they

took their fish out of the water, they would kill them by a sharp blow

on the back of the head. They were all the more ready to do this, when

he told them that their fish would taste better when cooked, if they had

been killed as soon as they were taken from the water into the air.

 

A little girl had gotten her mother to say that she would never again

put lobsters into cold water and slowly boil them to death. She had also

stopped a man in the street who was carrying a pair of fowls with their

heads down, and asked him if he would kindly reverse their position. The

man told her that the fowls didn't mind, and she pursed up her small

mouth and showed the band how she said to him, "I would prefer the

opinion of the hens." Then she said he had laughed at her, and said,

"Certainly, little lady," and had gone off carrying them as she wanted

him to. She had also reasoned with different boys outside the village

who were throwing stones at birds and frogs, and sticking butterflies,

and had invited them to come to the Band of Mercy.

 

This child seemed to have done more than any one else for dumb animals.

She had taken around a petition to the village boys, asking them not to

search for birds' eggs, and she had even gone into her father's stable,

and asked him to hold her up, so that she 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."

 

She went up on the platform, and faced the roomful of children. "Dear

boys and girls," she began, "I have had some papers sent me from Boston,

giving some facts about the killing of our birds, and I want to state a

few of them to you: You all know that nearly every tree and plant that

grows swarms with insect life, and that they couldn't grow if the birds

didn't eat the insects that would devour their foliage. All day long,

the little beaks of the birds are busy. The dear little rose-breasted

gross-beak carefully examines the potato plants, and picks off the

beetles, the martins destroy weevil, the quail and grouse family eats

the chinch-bug, the woodpeckers dig the worms from the trees, and many

other birds eat the flies and gnats and mosquitoes that torment us so.

No flying or crawling creature escapes their sharp little eyes. A great

Frenchman says that if it weren't for the birds human beings would

perish from the face of the earth. They are doing all this for us, and

how are we rewarding them? All over America they are hunted and killed.

Five million birds must be caught every year for American women to wear

in their hats and bonnets. Just think of it, girls, Isn't it dreadful?

Five million innocent, hardworking, beautiful birds killed, that

thoughtless girls and women may ornament themselves with their little

dead bodies. One million bobolinks have been killed in one month near

Philadelphia. Seventy song-birds were sent from one Long Island village

to New York milliners.

 

"In Florida, cruel men shoot the mother birds on their nests while they

are rearing their young, because their plumage is prettiest at that

time, The little ones cry pitifully, and starve to death. Every bird of

the rarer kinds that is killed, such as humming birds, orioles and

kingfishers, means the death of several others--that is, the young that

starve to death, the wounded that fly away to die, and those whose

plumage is so torn that it is not fit to put in a fine lady's bonnet. In

some cases where birds have gay wings, and the hunters do not wish the

rest of the body, they tear off the wings from the living bird, and

throw it away to die.

 

"I am sorry to tell you such painful things, but I think you ought to

know them. You will soon be men and women. Do what you can to stop this

horrid trade. Our beautiful birds are being taken from us, and the

insect pests are increasing. The State of Massachusetts has lost over

one hundred thousand dollars because it did not protect its birds. The

gypsy moth stripped the trees near Boston, and the State had to pay out

all this money, and even then could not get rid of the moths. The birds

could have done it better than the State, but they were all gone. My

last words to you are, 'Protect the birds.'"

 

Mrs. Wood went to her seat, and though the boys and girls had listened

very attentively, none of them cheered her. Their faces looked sad, and

they kept very quiet for a few minutes. I saw one or two little girls

wiping their eyes. I think they felt sorry for the birds.

 

"Has any boy done anything about blinders and check-reins?" asked the

president, after a time.

 

A brown-faced boy stood up. "I had a picnic last Monday," he said;

"father let me cut all the blinders off our head-stalls with my

penknife."

 

"How did you get him to consent to that?" asked the president.

 

"I told him," said the boy, "that I couldn't get to sleep for thinking

of him. You know he drives a good deal late at night. I told him that

every dark night he came from Sudbury I thought of the deep ditch

alongside the road, and wished his horses hadn't blinders on. And every

night he comes from the Junction, and has to drive along the river bank

where the water has washed away the earth till the wheels of the wagon

are within a foot or two of the edge, I wished again that his horses

could see each side of them, for I knew they'd have sense enough to keep

out of danger if they could see it. Father said that might be very true,

and yet his horses had been broken in with blinders, and didn't I think

they would be inclined to shy if he took them off; and wouldn't they be

frightened to look around and see the wagon wheels so near. I told him

that for every accident that happened to a horse without blinders,

several happened to a horse with them; and then I gave him Mr. Wood's

opinion--Mr. Wood out at Dingley Farm. He says that the worst thing

against blinders is that a frightened horse never knows when he has

passed the thing that scared him. He always thinks it is behind him. The

blinders are there and he can't see that he has passed it, and he can't

turn his head to have a good look at it. So often he goes tearing madly

on; and sometimes lives are lost all on account of a little bit of

leather fastened over a beautiful eye that ought to look out full and

free at the world. That finished father. He said he'd take off his

blinders, and if he had an accident, he'd send the bill for damages to

Mr. Wood. But we've had no accident. The horses did act rather queerly

at first, and started a little; but they soon got over it, and now they

go as steady without blinders as they ever did with them."

 

The boy sat down, and the president said: "I think it is time that the

whole nation threw off this foolishness of half covering their horses'

eyes, just put your hands up to your eyes, members of the band. Half

cover them, and see