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[Illustration: THE VERY RUDE YOUNG ROBINS. _Page 100_]


DOORYARD STORIES

by

CLARA DILLINGHAM PIERSON

Author of "Among the Forest People," "Night People," etc.

Illustrated by F. C. Gordon







New York
E. P. Dutton And Company
31 West Twenty-Third Street

Copyright, 1903
by E. P. Dutton & Co.

Published Sept., 1903

The Knickerbocker Press, New York




    To

    MY FATHER

    WHO FIRST TAUGHT ME TO LOVE MY DOORYARD FRIENDS




PREFACE


MY DEAR LITTLE FRIENDS:--These stories are of things which I have seen
with my own eyes in my own yard, and the people of whom I write are my
friends and near neighbors. Some of them, indeed, live under my roof,
and Silvertip has long been a member of our family. So, you see, I
have not had to do like some writers--sit down and think and think how
to make the people act in their stories. These tales are of things
which have really happened, and all I have done is to write them down
for you.

Many of them have been told over and over again to my own little boy,
and because he never tires of hearing of the time when Silvertip was a
Kitten, and about the Wasps who built inside my shutters, I think you
may care to hear also. He wants me to be sure to tell how the baby
Swift tumbled down the chimney into his bedroom, and wishes you might
have seen it in the little nest we made. When I tell these tales to
him, I have great trouble in ending them, for there is never a time
when he does not ask: "And what did he do then Mother?" But I am
telling you as much as I can of how everything happened, and if there
was more which I did not see and cannot describe, you will have to
make up the rest to suit yourselves.

Besides, you know, there is always much which one cannot see or hear,
but which one knows is happening somewhere in this beautiful great
world. The birds do not stop living and working and loving when they
leave us for the sunny south, and above us, around us, and even under
our feet many things are done which we cannot see. As we become
better acquainted with the little people who live in our dooryards, we
shall see more and more interesting things, and I wish you might all
grow to be like my little boy, who is never lonely or in need of a
playmate so long as a Caterpillar or a Grasshopper is in sight.

See how many tiny neighbors you have around you, and how much you can
learn about them. Then you will find your own dooryard as interesting
as mine and know that there are playmates everywhere.

    Your friend,

    CLARA D. PIERSON.

    STANTON, MICHIGAN,

    _October 30, 1902_.




    CONTENTS


                                             PAGE
    SILVERTIP                                   1
    THE FIGHT FOR THE BIRD-HOUSE               12
    THE FIR-TREE NEIGHBORS                     22
    THE INDUSTRIOUS FLICKERS                   36
    PLUCKY MRS. POLISTES                       48
    SILVERTIP STOPS A QUARREL                  68
    A YOUNG SWIFT TUMBLES                      78
    THE VERY RUDE YOUNG ROBINS                 96
    THE SYSTEMATIC YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO       108
    THE HELPFUL TUMBLE-BUGS                   121
    SILVERTIP LEARNS A LESSON                 132
    THE ROBINS' DOUBLE BROOD                  145
    THE SPARROWS INSIDE THE EAVES             158
    A RAINY DAY ON THE LAWN                   173
    THE PERSISTENT PHOEBE                      183
    THE SAD STORY OF THE HOG CATERPILLAR      199
    THE CAT AND THE CATBIRD                   210
    THE FRIENDLY BLACKB