the cart, and he climbed up the steps as fast as he
could and ran into the house.

"Mother," he called, "I painted two boards and I got some paint on my
overalls. But you ought to see the painter's overalls. They're _awful_
painty."

And that's all.

IX

THE TREE-MEN STORY

Once upon a time there was a little boy, and he was almost five years
old, and his name was David. And there weren't any other children near
for him to play with, so he used to play happily all by himself.

He had his cat and his cart and his shovel and his hoe, and he always
wore his overalls when he was playing.

Behind David's house were some thin woods. And in those woods were oak
trees, several kinds, but he didn't know the difference between the
kinds.

And there were cedar trees and chestnut trees and birch trees of three
kinds; and there were white pine trees and pitch pine trees, and the
pitch pine trees were sticky all over.

David knew the pitch pine trees, because he had got his clothes all
covered with their stickiness.

And there were a few great sycamore trees, and some ash trees, and
some beech trees, and a lot of other kinds that I can't remember the
names of.

All summer there were lots of birds in these woods and about the edge
of them; and in the winter, when all those summer birds had gone away,
other birds came.

And four blue jays stayed there all the year, and the crows stayed, of
course, but they didn't live in those woods especially.

And there were chickadees and juncos, which are one kind of snowbird;
and there were a lot of little birds which looked like sparrows, and
there were red-polled linnets, and occasionally a flock of cedar-birds
would cover the cedars like gray snowflakes, and once David's mother
called him to come quick and see the pine grosbeaks.

And when David came, he saw a great flock of birds which looked gray,
but three of them had the most beautiful rose-colored feathers on
their breasts and shoulders and heads, making them look as if they had
tied rose-colored aprons about their necks. David watched them until
they flew away.

All these birds were very busy feeding on the seeds of weeds or the
berries of the trees, and some of them dug insects out of the bark.

And there were gray squirrels which raced along the branches of the
trees, and jumped from one branch to another, and poked about on the
ground and opened the chestnut-burs which had just fallen from the
trees, and