and three boys pulled me
up sixty feet to the nest. It was rather scary, I can tell you, and I
was glad to get down to the ground again; but I got the hawk's nest."

Then Elvira asked him if he could tell her the name of the bird with a
yellow head, but otherwise black plumage, which she had noticed not long
before in a flock of common blackbirds; and they were soon in an
animated conversation on the subject of birds in general. Elvira had
noticed many that summer which she could describe, but whose names she
did not know.

Soon the men began to leave the table, for it was not the custom to wait
till all had done eating, but for each one to go when he was ready.
George Loper went away grumbling that he couldn't see any use in
learning about birds: all he wanted was for the crows and blackbirds to
keep away from the corn when it was first planted. But Elvira and young
Worth talked ten minutes longer, finding more and more that they were
interested in the same subjects. Then the women began to clear away the
plates and cups and knives, and Elvira turned to assist them, while her
new acquaintance joined his companions, who were resting in the shade of
the trees. There he encountered some good-natured chaff from the younger
members, who began by asking him if he was struck with the school-ma'am.
The responsibility of the threshers' dinner being over, Mrs. Loper and
her assistants sat down to the table, to eat their own dinner at ease,
and exchange remarks with each other, complimenting or criticising their
cooking.

"This chicken-stuffin' is real good," said one of the neighbors to Mrs.
Loper.

"Well, I don't know," said Mrs. Loper, tasting some of it on the end of
her knife: "'pears to me I put a leetle too much sage in it. But the
gravy you made, Mirandy, that couldn't be better. Didn't you see how the
men kept askin' for it to be passed? And they've et up all the summer
squash and all the cream-pie. Taste some of these plum preserves, Mis'
Brown, and don't let me forget to send some to your little girls: I
remember how well they like 'em. This cake is real light and good, but I
was afraid it would fall. This float would 'a' been better if I'd had a
little lemon flavor to put in it. But I guess, on the whole, the dinner
went off middlin' well." Then, seeing Elvira and Maggie sitting on the
opposite side of the table, some deeper thoughts were stirred in her
motherly heart, and she began to talk of the daughter she had