"Now our party is ready," said father. "Do you suppose anything will come to it? We will keep food here the rest of the winter."
How Peter and Polly watched the food! It seemed as if the birds would never come. But at last they found it.
The very next morning Polly saw two birds eating there. She did not know what they were. She ran to tell mother.
"See our birds!" she cried. "We have two. What are they, oh, what are they?"
"You know them in the summer," said mother. "Then the father bird is yellow and black. You call them your canaries."
"But they have changed their clothes," said Polly. "They do not look the same. They are not so pretty."
"Many birds change their color," said mother. "Do you dress in the winter just as you do in the summer? How those birds like the seeds!"
"There, there!" cried Polly. "See that big bird. He is after the meat. I know him. He is a blue jay. Don't you frighten away my other birds, Mr. Blue Jay."
It was not long before many birds found the food. Day after day the chick-a-dees feasted. A few crows came. Once a flock of snowbirds stopped at the party. And there were many that Peter and Polly did not know.