"Now that poor pole won't be lonesome any more," she murmured to herself.
Sam set up his stepladder, and, taking the board from Twaddles and a couple of long, strong nails from his pocket, he nailed the board firmly to the top of the pole.
"See, Norah?" cried Dot.
Then Sam took the bags, and the fat and crumbs of bread he scattered all over the top of the board. All around the edge of the board he drove in smaller nails, and to these he tied the pieces of fat, there to dangle on their strings.
Dot clapped her hands.
"It's our bird table!" she explained to Norah. "Where's Mother? I'm going to tell her."
Mother Blossom came and admired the bird-table, and the grocery boy, when he came with the packages, noticed it right away.
"Annabel Lee can't get up there, can she?" he grinned. "Looks like you'd have plenty of company, Dot."
Indeed, the few sparrows that came first must have told the other birds, for in less than an hour there was a throng of feathered creatures eating at the twins' table. Chippies and snowbirds came as well as the sparrows.
"I only wish we had built one before," said Aunt Polly, watching the hungry little crowd eat. "I've thrown out bread crumbs every morning, but half the time they were buried in the snow. We can keep this swept off and always filled with food."