STORIES ABOUT THE OLD BARN
TO-DAY, after lunch, Mrs. Martin gave Billie a walk round the square, then she brought her in the house and said, “I am going to a knitting party where dogs would not be welcomed. I will come home at five and give you another walk.”
Billie wagged her tail in her funny, slow way and gave Mrs. Martin one of her sweetly affectionate glances, as if to say, “It’s all right. I know if it were your party you’d let me go.”
Mrs. Martin pulled an armchair to the window and put a cushion on it. “Jump up there, Billie,” she said, “and amuse yourself by looking outside.” Then giving her a pat, and throwing me a kiss, for she knows pets are apt to be jealous of each other, she went away.
I flew to the arm of Billie’s chair and sat dressing my feathers in the sunshine.
Presently Billie said discontentedly, “There’s nothing to see out of this window but yards and that old barn.”
“That old barn is full of stories,” I said, “and very interesting.”
“What makes it interesting?”
“In the first place, many birds nest there, and in the second, many animals have been housed in it.”
“I never see anything going on in it,” she said.