|One evening last summer a tramp, who had travelled many miles, lay down
on the leaves in a pleasant wood. Before he went to sleep he pulled off
one shoe, for it had chafed his foot till it was very sore.
[Illustration: 0014]
In the morning he rose, and prepared to go on to beg his morning meal.
When he tried to put his shoe on, it hurt his foot so badly that he
groaned aloud. He gave up trying to wear it, and threw it into the
bushes.
The shoe caught in the fork of a young maple-tree, and hung fast by the
heel, with the toe downward. The tramp limped away on his journey, and
went I don't know where.
Before many days a bright-eyed little bird spied the shoe. She thought
it would be a fine place to build a home in. So she and her mate brought
fine twigs and straw and leaves in their bills. They placed them in the
shoe in pretty nest-shape, and lined their new house with soft hair and
wool.
Beth and her papa were out searching for wood-flowers one day. The
shadow of the shoe fell on the moss beneath the little maple.
Looking up, Beth saw the nest. Her papa bent the maple down, and Beth
looked in. She saw five cunning little blue eggs lying cosily against
the gray lining.
Beth is a tiny girl, just past being rocked to sleep in mamma's lap. She
laughed aloud, and clapped her fat little hands for joy, when she saw
this dainty sight.
I think there were some little birdies in that shoe before long, don't
you?--
--J. G. FORD.
[Illustration: 0015]