By the Roadside (Dunn and Troxell)/Thistle Birds

"Dearie, Dearie, hear me! Dearie, Dearie, hear me!"
A little bird was singing on a twig in the sunshine. He looked like a little bit of sunshine himself. He was bright yellow, except his wings and tail and his little cap. They were black as jet. The little cap was pulled down over
The little bird perked his head to one side, and swelled out his yellow throat. Over and over he sang: "Dearie, Dearie, hear me!"
But Dearie was not paying much attention to him. She was too busy. She was beginning to build her nest.
Dearie could not sing so well as Goldy, and she was not so prettily dressed. Her back was more greenish brown than yellow. Her breast was yellowish white. Her wings were dark gray, and she wore no pretty cap.
But there was one thing Dearie could do as well as any bird in the world. She could make a bed for her babies.
It was time for Dearie to go to work. She and Goldy had had a long, long playtime. It was now June, and they had been playing ever since early in the spring.
​The thistle birds' playtime began when the seeds came out on the elm tree. That was very, very early, long before the leaves had begun to come out on any of the trees.
One day in early spring Dearie had b

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