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ONEpleasant March morning, I visited a happy schoolroom. Shall I tell you about it? The school was in a large city. The schoolhouse was a high brick building. The yard itself was made of brick.
There were no brooks, nor fields, nor groves of beautiful trees near the schoolhouse. I saw just one large maple tree, with swelling buds.
But up stairs, in the corner room, the windows looked out to the blue sky. And on the ledge of one of the broad windows I saw—what? Can you guess?
You never would guess. I saw a pair of doves. And it was these doves that made the children so happy.
The kind teacher had placed a box on the window ledge for a dove house. The box had an open door, which was towards the window.
Then she had scattered corn and oats on the window ledge. The doves flew down to get the grain. They came again and again, and always found food waiting for them.
At last I am sure they said to each other, “This seems a fine place for a nest. Just see how the sun shines on this corner! This box suits us very well, too, and the children seem very well behaved!
“I would not dare build a nest so near them if they were like some children I have seen. But these boys and girls are very polite. I shall really like their company.”
Whatever they may have said to each other, they walked in and out of the little box house, and looked into every corner, then they peeped into the school-room. The children watched them eagerly, but nobody made any noise.
At last the pretty birds even flew into the room, and walked upon the desks. This delighted the children. They sat as still as mice.
The next morning the teacher brought a basket of straw, and placed it on a shelf near the window in the schoolroom.
That was the morning when I visited the school. I found the children reading, writing and singing, just as you do in your school every day.
The window was open. One beautiful brown and white dove was perched on the window sill.
He looked this way and that, to see if any danger was near. Then he walked quietly into the school-room, and pulled a straw from the basket with his bill.
He carried the straw into the little house, laid it on the floor, turned around, and came out to get another. He did this again and again.
The children stopped to watch him. “Look, Nellie!” said the teacher. “Step quietly to the window, and look into the dove house!”
Munier.
ROBIN REDBREAST.
Nellie went on tiptoe, and peeped into the box. “The other dove is in the box,” she said. “She takes the straws which the brown dove brings, and seems to be making a nest.”
That was true. And all day long, as the children studied and sang and read, the doves worked at their nest building.
I am sure I can not tell which were the happier, the doves or the children. But do you not think that was a happy schoolroom?
1. Find rhymes for:
place
nest
scame
some
een
near
pair
dove
dare
fle
sang
brown
lthink
went
ong
2. Write answers:
Where have you seen doves?
What do you know about their nests?
About their food? About their habits?
How would you take care of doves if you had some of your own?
Draw a picture of a dove.