Bird Children
The Little Playmates
of the Flower Children
By
Elizabeth Gordon
Drawings by
M.T. Ross
Published by
P.F.Volland & Company
Chicago
Copyright 1912
P.F. Volland & Company
All Rights Reserved
Sixth Edition
To all children who love
Birds and Flowers, and
especially to my little friend
Dorothy Virginia,
this book is lovingly dedicated.
FOREWORD
IRDS are only another expression of God's love, and we are told that not even a sparrow shall fall to the ground without the notice of the Father.
Birds are poetry come to life and set to music. If you should stand at the edge of a forest at sundown and hear the birds singing their good-night songs, hear the sleepy little notes grow fainter and fainter until the silence came, — then when the dusk had deepened, you should hear the night birds begin their plaintive songs, you would realize what a different place our beautiful world would be without birds.
Even in great cities we have always some birds. The saucy little sparrow, who comes so boldly begging crumbs at your window, likes the cities best. Only very thoughtless people, or those who do not understand, would harm or frighten a bird.
They are real little people, and I am sure that when you have come to know them you will love them as much as you have learned to love the Flower Children.
The publishers and the author have received so many letters from parents commending Flower Children for its instructive features, and from children, demanding “more” delightful play-mates, that they offer “Bird Brothers and Sisters,” believing that “The little playmates of the Flower Children” will prove as welcome visitors as “The Little Cousins of the Fields and Garden.”
The author and the artist wish to thank the children for their many expressions of interest and for their loyal support.