CHAPTER XVIII
THE SILLY BIRD.
“The poor bird did not know,
For nobody taught her,
That her nice little nest
Would be drown’d in the water.”
Alfred began to read pretty well by the time he was five years old. He and his papa would read a chapter in the Bible together, verse by verse, once a day. Then, when his papa had time, he would talk a little to his son about what they had read.
The month of March had come, and brought with it many signs of spring. The blue-bird and the robin had been heard, and wild-flowers bloomed in warm and sunny nooks. The willow showed its silvery balls, and the sun was high in the heavens.
One sunny day, when the snow had melted, and the roads were a little dried, Mr. Penrose took his little boy to walk in the woods. They found some beautiful green moss, and one bunch of arbutus. Alfred brought the flower to his mamma, and put the moss around her flower-pots. Then, when they had rested, he sat down to read his chapter with his father.
They read the seventh chapter of Matthew, which tells of the man whose house the floods swept away, because it was built upon the sand.
“Who is meant by the foolish man, Alfred?” said his papa.