“If you will excuse me,” I said to Billie. “I will talk to you some other time on this subject of performing animals.”
Billie grumbled something between her teeth. Now that I was called away, she wanted me to stay.
“You come out, too, dear Billie,” I said. “If you do not, I will stay with you.”
Billie got up and sauntered out of the room and downstairs to the sidewalk where she sat down in the sun, on a black snow-bank, which had become that color in the long thaw we were having.
CHAPTER XV
THE CHILDREN NEXT DOOR
CHUMMY and I flew up into our favorite elm tree, sat on our feet to keep them warm, and stared at the boarding house. A taxi was standing before the front door, and two children were running up and down the graveled drive, running as if they were glad to be able to stretch their young legs.
“Their parents went in the house,” said Chummy. “They are choosing rooms. I can see them going from window to window. I wonder whether these children will throw me some of the seed cakes they are eating.”
“How little they know that our sharp eyes are on them,” I said.
Chummy clacked his beak together in a bird laugh. “I often think that as I sit here and listen to what persons say as they go up and down the street. If I could tell you the secrets