, 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