Father said, “Do you hear the birds?
Do you hear them sing, Max?
Look for them, as we drive.
Tell me where you see them.
Tell me what you see them doing.
Tell me how they look.
Look up in the trees, Max.
The birds are over us in the trees.”
“You must know the birds, Max.
You must know how they look.
You must know how they sing.
I hear a bird now, children.
Do you know what bird it is?
Do you hear it, Frank?
It is not singing. What is it doing?”
[Illustration]
I see the bird up in an apple tree.
Do you see it?
How pretty it is!
Its head is red.
It taps on the tree.
Do you hear it?
“Tap! tap! tap!”
I see the bird with the red head.
There is sap in the tree.
The bird likes the sap in the tree.
It is getting the sap now.
It taps on the tree.
It does this to get the sap.
How does the bird get the sap?
It makes a little hole in the tree, Max.
[Music: M. S. WILLIS.
_Lively._
Ho! Red-cap! Lit-tle chap, Go “Tip-tap” With a rap;
Make a gap, Sip the sap, Fly “flip-flap.”]