The Golden Bird

old plank I was just chewing through the last inch of the last of the four sides of nest number two when I suddenly stopped and listened. Far away t

hand, with not enough time to wipe the sweat of toil from my brow, the huge blue machine swept around the corner of the house, bro

hich a person might greet a friend or relative whom he had long considered dead or lost. "Why, you look just

rry I can't be at home for your amusement to-day, but my chickens are laying while I wait, and the least I can do

you only started the Consolidated Egg Co. yesterday!" exclai

which I had carefully put in the soft felt hat I had purc

on his heels and took the two treasures into his highly manicured hands. "Gee, they are right h

be ready to catch the rest of them," I said and began to saw

em to keep them from smashing as they come," said Matthew, as he flung off his coat, j

," I said, as I hurriedly consulted the torn piece of wrap

y through the wood like a silver knife through fluffy cake. If saws were the only witnesses, the superiority of men over women would be established in very short order. "And say, Ann, I wish you would be thinking what you are goin

d, with a most generous return of his appreciation of these foundation peb

as' Adams made me git, he did; but it's fer the hawgs and can't be wasted on no chick

hogs, Rufus," I answered airily as I r

whistling and directing and pounding and

while Matthew and I had had many happy times together at balls and parties and dinners and long flights in our cars and at the theatre and opera, also in dim corners in gorgeous clothes, I am sure we had never been so happy as we were that morning while we labored together in the interest of Mr. G. Bird and family. We went beyond the paper directions and delved in my book and hammered away until, when Rufus, with stately coldness, announced some time after noon that dinner was served, we both declared that it was impossible, though

ead things to do this afternoon in the book where you got those directions," sa

. Perhaps I didn't quite believe in the red-headed Peckerwood

ng the classic argument that Rufus had reported them to have discontinued at an early hour of the morning. Father was delighted with the package of books that Ma

e said as he unwrapped a small leather-covered volume wh

Americana. "It is a good thing that Senator Proctor has only Belle and let her have the six thousand cash for the Chauvenaise, and B

ining-room. Father hadn't even questioned how he was to have the library sa

ond the ken of Rufus kept me from exclaiming with protest, but I came to myself to discover that Matthew was devouring huge slabs of the roasted bones and half a dozen batches of the corn bread in a manner that was ravenously unconventional. I remembered that the last time I had seen him at repast, just about forty-eight hours past, he had speared a croquette of chicken with disdain,

f bones in his plate with the greatest satisfaction in his appease

nce of pride, first at me and then at father in his spare, but muscular, uprightness and finally at Matthew, with his one hundr

roposition that came to the firm this morning to talk over with you two gentlemen. Ann thought I came out to help her settle the Bird family comfortably, and f

the spare ribs in an artistic atmosphere and at the same time aiming an arrow of criticism, though unconscious, at the custom of the

d to me as he first took a legal-looking piece of paper from his pocket and then hastil

chair and took a straight one beside father as Uncle Cradd stood tall, huge and

in half lights and a little at a time; I couldn't have stood the ecstasy of it all at once. The room was the low-beamed old wonder that I had felt it to be in the candle-light the night before, only now the soft richness of the paneling, which held back into the gloom the faded colors of the

van Baldwin to take the portfolio in the State of Harpeth has made everybody see that the President means business with the States, and that America is to be made to produce her own food and the food of the rest of the world that needs it. When a scientist like Baldwin, worth millions and with experiment stations of hundreds of acres in most

eeks began to glow with something I hadn't ever

t we, with Rufus, plowed these acres with children's strength, and the larger portion of our products went to feed hungry soldiers both blue and gray. I say, just le

, and I felt that that formula was the one

cruiting station for the experts who are to take over the organizing of the farming interests in the Harpeth Valley, which is the central section of the State of Harpeth. They offer three hundred dollars an acre for the whole tract of two hundred acres, despite the fact that some of it is worn a

ism?" asked Uncle Cradd in a booming voice, while father only looked uncertain and ready to say, "With you, Cra

but something like it in a-" Matthew

ing to give it up-indeed insist on presenting it to the Government except for a small part of the sum mentioned, which is needed f

rmula with which father slipped back f

reclaimed from her farmer's smock in a ball-gown upon the floor of the country

arose Ann Craddock, farm woman in t

that no deed to this property can be ma

ut this is a matter for your father and me to decide for

ever had any family, I feel sure, for sixty thousand dollars to go back and sit down in a corner with. I am going to demonstrate to the United States what one woman can do in the way of nutriment production aided by one beautiful rooster and ten equally be

ed Uncle Cradd wi

said father, as he comfortably lighted a cigar and drew the

e he had seen fail on me many times, "you don't underst

assuming enormous obligations, Matthew Berry," I answered,

n," said Uncle Cradd, and there was not a trace of relief in his fine old face that he was to be saved from a parting with the land that had been the love of his life, but one of affectionate regard and admiration for me.

en could be expected to roll in in response to the "good management" I felt even then capable of displaying. Even now I

f enthusiasm as he also glanced at the eggs. That gleam was what ear

about time for me to give the last feeding of my hostages to the United States and Mr. Evan Baldwin. Yo

leather treasure and been hunting through its pages even before my heroics had completely explod