“Now I looked around our back yard, Janet, and I found a high telegraph pole that had been split off near the top. As no one uses it now for wires, or other needs, we can use it for a pigeon cote. I know just how to fix that barrel, and all you have to do is to have Frances bring one from Tompkins’ store. I asked him to save a good one for us and he said he would.”
“Well, that isn’t so bad, if you will make one cote, and some of the other girls make another, and so on, until I have enough ready for a dozen pairs of pigeons,” laughed Janet, relieved and optimistic once more.
Mrs. Tompkins said that the birds didn’t mind feeding on one common ground, and they even flew into the chicken yards to eat the corn that is scattered for the hens, but they object to living in the same quarters. “That is why they fly home again—to get away from their neighbors.”
“What snobs they must be!” remarked Natalie.
The girls laughed, and Mrs. James said: “It is because they never learned the Golden Rule. Maybe it will be our work to teach our pigeons to be socialists.”
“I’d rather build separate coops and let them live their lives their own way,” retorted Janet.
“Mrs. Tompkins says that once you get the female to set on her eggs and keep the male penned in with her until the squabs are out, they will never try to fly away again. But she often keeps hers in prison for months before they will start raising a family and settle down in their new home,” said Norma.
So the sugar barrel was brought home from the store and Norma began work on it exactly as she had been shown. Janet and the other girls assisted, and in a day’s time the cote was ready to be mounted on the old telegraph pole.
It had been partitioned off inside to make several coops. There were three floors in the barrel, and each floor was divided into two apartments. The doors opened outward so that no one door came directly in line with the others, and this was done to keep the birds as much apart as possible.
Perches and a running-board were placed at each door; and there were perches projecting out beyond each end of the “verandah.” Then a narrow roof was fastened over each door to keep the rain from beating in at the opening.