Kind neighbours

1.  THREE  SMALL  SMALL  HOUSES  FOR  BIRDS
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This history, rather remarkable and exclusively building as to my work in the garden, purely the joyful history  has begun in the early spring.
     There was a cat, and it went along  my garden path once. This important fur  creature with sharp claws steped by the left leg and then by the right leg, also by the headmost leg, also by the back leg. 
     It afforded to go not under the army routine, this cat went just so, how the nature  recommended to cats.
     The panjandrum has paced not onto the war  - onto successful hunting.
     At such state of affairs it has gone step by step quickly, confidently.
     The moustaches stick up to the sides. The eyes burn.
     Is there a need  at the  cat  to have a walk here? It seems, a small bird in the thicket of  cherrytrees gives a voice. For this reason it would be at all not bad to have breakfast.
     And suddenly on a garden path… who has met to the cat ? Well,  the owner of a garden has. Who has been here else?
     During that time  the local person was  not very old.  He was more likely youthful. However this person was  rather resolute:  his fingers  clenched fixedly a  hand-saw  and a chisel.
     -  Let me salute you, the cat with the long moustaches!  -  I have told,  having been not very old during that time.  -  There is desire at me to say, that your moustaches are very good. They are  long and fluffy. I can  declare confidently, that some music sounds in your stomach. When there is hunger there,  each stomach makes noise. If you wish,  I shall deliver you from catching birdies.
     What has the cat told to me?
     You may be sure, it has answered nothing. However  certain  thoughts were at the cat. And more likely, they had concern to such things:
     “Thanks,  you did not chase me by a  stick or  by your chisel. And all   I am not the fool for you in order that to refuse my tasty breakfast. Go quickly, pass, the young person  with the sharp hand-saw and the wide chisel!”
     In front of me... oh, it is the impudent creature, the important cat with greater moustaches!
     -  Excuse me,  but I have the right  to tell to you something, -  now there is possibility at me to speak with all necessary gravity.  -  You should notice the chisel and the hand-saw.  These remarkable instruments of a carpenter must say anything to you, must not they? Open your eyes wider. Look at the sharp teeth of this hand-saw more intently. Pay attention to the strong stinger of my chisel.
     The cat has looked at me carefully.
     Its sight was not surprised, was rather serious. Also it was possible to see a question in this not foolish being.
     -  I have  a desire  to know nothing about your skill in masterliness of a carpenter.  If you operate dexterously  with any iron, then  you can  knock here by a hammer and can use, how you want,  your hand-saw.
     Certainly, there were some ideas at me now. I would wish also to you, the garden traveller, such thing, as the happy way.
Only you want to eat a bird from my garden, where there are  high cherry trees. It is a pity,  for me it will be better, when you will forget about this vocalist, small  and soniferous.
     Take into account, I know how to use my hand-saw in order that to make a large number  of pine plates.  Four  of them will be useful for strong walls. And then there will be two more:  one of them will go for a roof of a small house for the bird. Another should be fitted for a bottom.
     All wooden plates will be knocked together by long nails, but in the beginning I shall take care about an accurate little  hole in one plate.  In order that  to the bird it was convenient  to hide from claws of the cat in this cosy small house. Is it clearly?
     And if you will get your paw into the small small house,  I shall  notice you  on any cherry tree. I shall take at once  and shall slap by my palms. I think, you will be frightened, will rush away. Such deal will be among the cherry trees by means of  my tool and by means of absolutely not lazy my hands.
     To tell it briefly,  the urgent explanation has gone to the cat.
     Does it happen something like a loud clangour, when the hand-saw begins drudgingly to labour? Yes, the song turns out especial. When you work by the hand-saw, its iron becomes resounding  very much. And if then during the work you beat nails into the wooden plates,  you brandish by the hammer very strongly.
     Why is there  a desire at me to say about these things? To the visitor, who has unexpectedly come to my garden, I wish to give a suave prompting, for what reason a noise can be necessarily here.
     You, certainly, understand: when there are a lot of resounding knocks, a lot of any thunder, someone needs to rush only away, to get not someplace, but only to the nook under the house. In order that to sit there, to be silent,  not to rollick, not to miaoul and  not to frighten birdies.
Now  I should  guess after long explanations, what this cat began to think about.  When it stopped and started to nuzzle the garden path, then interesting thoughts could be in its head.
     On its place I would reflect so:
     « It seems, I can not reach now the little bird on the tree. There was no this happiness.  Also this happiness  will not be all day long. Forasmuch as the noise becomes much more. »
     I told to the hesitant cat:
     -  Have you stopped? Have you started to think ?  Well, you have the right to protect your health from any noise.
     It means, the cat continues to stand, and at it there is not this obligatory interest, why here some are such benevolently talkative. Submit for the creature with long moustaches  other knowledge!
     No  interest is  present, but there is the mewing, and the cat mews exactingly.  If it is so, something is required from me in this case, is not it? I should give the immediate answer in order  that  there would be a significant arrangement by all means.
     As to me there is some attempt to speak, however the interlocutor has no desire to be quiet. I hear  the such proposition, which can not be very ingenuous:

     -  Miaou-miaou!  Also once again miaou!  Will something come to me, to the brave cat, when I shall recollect about my important deals, when shall not begin to eat birdies? When I shall go to neighbours, where one small mouse lives under the house?
     I have to answer, therefore  speak politely:
- There it cheeps, and that is just interesting for you. I understand.
-  Miaou! There  will be  the mouse for my dinner compulsorily. But
all… something  will come to me from you in addition, will not it?
     This interlocutor, I think, is too clever. Also the cat does not feel embarrassed and wants to show: the clever guest is not against to have some eating in addition.
     If to say about some incomes, then this contrary pedestrian is far not a simpleton, precisely knows, how to get any profit. I began to think, thereupon the understanding came to me: here someone had the not foolish desire to recieve a can of milk.
     No doubts, here some are aimed to have a lot of milk  after the hot hunting under the house. Certainly, the cat can dream about the mouse and the milk. However  we,  the lawful inhabitants of the garden, have the right to reason.
     To be armed with the big can, to walk to a crossroads of asphalt roads, where there is the trade by cottage cheese and milk? It is all far, and it is unprofitable. Why should I  take care of  cat’s profit? All this deal will need a lot of money.
     I am not silent, because there is the necessity to continue the conversation. Meantime  the eyes of the cat are more round with each minute. That, as far as I see, is wonderstruck.  A can!  How much milk may this metal water-can contain? If to count, it is very simple figure. Three litres! Is it really too much?
     It seems to me, the cat believes: it is vain to speak here about unreasonable expenditures. It will be completely not convincing.
     Wait for a minute, the shaggy creature with long moustaches. I shall say one thing. We have here  no high stone fence. Of course, there is  something in our garden, but it is the fence, that was made of wooden planks in last year.
     When the heap of wooden ledges, which were cut off cruelly in  last year,  lays near  your fence, what does the owner of the garden  mean by that?  Are they really not necessary for him? Be sure, these wooden pieces will fit  all the same for a  bird's  house.
     But as to 3 litres, what does arithmetic speak  today? There is no  superfluous money at me. Milk is in the greater price now.
     Do not dispute with me,  the fur creature  with the  long moustaches, do not make eyes  more round, they are today rather big, as if they are  solid metal coins.
     While we stand  here, while we discuss the vital problem,  a little girl appears, she  declares immediately:
     -  The cat may go there,  where it  will wish, and  to think  is necessity for us. If to build not one house for birds, but   three … then all birdies   will move  higher onto  trees with good houses. The bird songs will not stop in the garden. But artful hunting will not be here.
     I ask: will this thing not happen?  At whom hunter?
     -  It will be in the garden at the cat.
What a prudence! No doubt, I see the very clever girl!
     So, I have constructed three small small houses for birds.
     And about  this conversation I have to tell something.  There was here not a simply little girl,  but  there were  itself  charm,  itself wisdom and happiness.
     Since that time  prosperity was  in my garden for cherry trees, for apple-trees, for little birdies. It is very well, when  there are three  small bird houses on trees. I have to notice: it is definitely, assuredly, exactly.
    
2.  THE FOURTH SMALL HOUSE  ON THE TREE    
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     Let me be serious now.  When the author of the story wants to speak about  the  fourth  small  house  for  birds, it is necessary  to lead  the narration with  solidity,  because  these prolonged constructional works  take  away  many forces.
     When you expend  many forces, it would be not bad  to explain by the  by, why  you are engaged in this business.
     I love families of small birds,  where gentle melodies are had in greater plenty.
     You should  agree: for example,  birds, known  as yellow-hammers, are  excellent songsters. They pour out their quiet music though in gardens, though near green forests, everywhere. Their talent does not  cede sometimes  to alluring talent of a bird, which is named canary.
     Different birds lived in my garden.  I shall not begin to tell about all of them. However here… in the spring a brave yellow-hammer has built a nest near my house.
     What has this pretty creature liked first of all? Thickets of  sorbs with  black fruits near bushes of my raspberry, I think,  have been very good.
     It was visibly for me:  this  neighbour,  the nice songbird,  did not hurry up to fly a long way off from the garden house.    
     Here it was unquietly enough, and still the yellow-hammer  did not leave us, till  it has not fledged nestlings. The small houses for birds on trees, which were in   my garden, did not attract it for that simple reason, that a nest at these birds is usually not above meter above the ground.
     To dangerous visitors, cats and dogs, it was impossible to get into the thicket, to catch nestlings. As to people, they tried not  to discompose  the small  mother.
     Whether did the yellow-hammer know, that here obligatory kind souls lived? It was the deal of the bird. But it was important, that the little mother did not  disgrace all brave small birds.
      I love the singing  of yellow-hammers, therefore the owner of the garden  can tell a lot of different things about families of small birds. But  I shall be brief, having made public only the history about flytraps.
     For the first time  I have begun to reflect, when the small one, able to fly both  fast, and dexterously, have lodged among branches of my cherry tree.  It  came to my mind to pay attention:  this bird  managed  to sing, as  a gentle flute.
     Yes, that guest was very nice, because its singing was tuny. I have begun to dream, the grateful fan of alive music and sweet sounds: a new couple of the birds could be invited into the thicket of the garden in the next year.
     For skilful builders nobody did not strive here, simply the owner of the garden took for the fourth house   - I already had three small small  houses  for birds  -  wooden planks, which  were not adzed and were purely get-at-able.
     After  my construction was come to be under  the roof, it was erected on the high barling near the old apple-tree.
     A starling has started to twist by the first around this barling. But    for the rather big guest it has been the difficult deal. Forasmuch it has      not turned out so, that immediately the guest would get  into a cosy room   of the  bird's house.
     Other starlings have arrived, in turn have used their skill:  they have decided to expand the entrance into the fourth small small house by      sharp beaks.
     Osseous sharp chisels  of the guests have created a breach with uneven edges in lieu of the accurate hole in the plank.
     Also what has turned out?  Street visitors, different accidental pairs, could not  pass through all the same there,  where they wanted to have unexpected, notably cultural cohabitation .      
     Having  flown to more comfortable premises, they have decided to  lodge in rooms, which have been disposed on vicinal birches.
     But  other birdies, not loud, rather tiny and grey,  -  subsequently  I have managed to know:  they can lodge along all European continent  - have not become despairingly puzzled.
     Bristly roughnesses of the wooden plank  were accepted  with some contentment. In general any artificial wooden constructions are not an obstacle for them, always they are willing to start settling and to take care of nestlings.
     I could not understand long time some things. 
     What couple has appeared in  my garden on the barling, in the small small house?  It was difficult  for me to get onto the upper part of the apple-tree. Also some cumber was had to descry coloration of these birds.
     The neighbour's doggie  came running regularly, visited my earthen saucer near our porch. It ate up the contents of the flat dish thoroughly and pretentiously barked  to the side, where were  the inhabitants of the fourth small house.
     Those were in the habit to sit on one branch. It stretched from the trunk of the apple-tree far enough and hung above the first stair of the porch.    
     However on the branch  the birdies sat for a while strongly. No, to take wings and to seize  some flying insect... it was  in the nature of things.
     It was noticed by me eventually:  yellow-hammers, which  adored to potter about in a grass,  could not be some decree, some solid ponderability, for the inhabitants of the fourth small house.
     What did it mean? Most likely  the new guests  were indifferent to seeds of plants, which, as a rule,  inhabited on meadows.
     Also here still that strangeness could be noticed: if to fly downwards
from  the long branch in order that to walk along  the garden path,  they allowed to themselves the such never.
     It was uninteresting for the couple to have a walk  on the garden path  and to  lunch by my sunflower seeds.    
     Therewith  they  glanced from theirs tree so hardily onto the sonorous doggie, that necessarily you will become to fall to thinking:  it will be not bad to pay attention to the literature of some proficient people.
     The remarkable fact was found out.  In different books there is  one quite   interesting  story about  mysterious inhabitants of the small small house near the apple-tree.
     The rural boy has seen a little bird together with its nestlings, has caught all of them and has brought home.
     The mindful mother-songstress  has begun to do there… what things? You are quite right:   it is necessary to feed posterity,  therefore it  begins to chase flies. All  of them were caught, forasmuch strongly closed doors of the room have helped.
     It has turned out, that to inhabit in the house without flies was incomparably more convenient for people.  Along the village the  rumour  has gone also about this case.
          All rural dwellers began to entreat the boy, the owner of the capable bird: give us, please,  disposal of annoying flies.
         
     He has begun to go with winged songstress along all village, till one house, another, the third house have not sighed in freedom of the calmed residing. This bird is known on all European continent as a flytrap.   
     My new visitors had such skill  to flit near an apple-tree dexterously, and there was  a doubtless bravery  at them. This bravery was astonishing for the doggy of the neighbours and  forced it to yelp loudly.
     Up to now it continues to give his voice, to chide indignantly.
     All it did not disturb me so strongly, that it was impossible  to work in the garden. Having learned something about grey flytraps,  this sedulous worker has continued to grin onto the restless doggie.
     So, the days of the summer go, I start to think judiciously:
     « It is impossible to regard a bird as some person. Bravery is a human quality, forasmuch is an overcoming of an animal instinct, about which all of us know very well. This instinct is relating to an obligatory survival of a kind. Only human minds  are capable to manage with it, with its natural-steady dictatorship ».
     It turns out so:  your life, dear reader, will be  more free and more delightsome. All things around will be good for us,  if everybody will believe: we, people, will be always in ourselves, always  birds  will be in flying independence, too in themselves.
     In the meantime the trend of my thoughts  starts to change. The idea becomes more thorough, more deep.
      

     If to understand the situation, all we, living on the planet,  are neighbours. Also we  should perform the unwritten law of good neighbourship, because  the mutual understanding is put into principles of planetary calmness, in any case it will be useful to have  respect for  the general rights to the well-being.
There are no peoples, which would not have the rights to the   
 existence.
     Therewith  it is necessary to tell: the life on the Globe has the right   to remonstrate in any possible way against cases, when the militarism appropriates the right to destroy all   -  though nearby, though   in the distance  -  the alive.
     Therefore … you, birdies, our neighbours, have to live and to prosper. We esteem all inhabitants of the Earth, we try to understand    them better. 
     Not always it turns out so, how it is wanted to us, but people take pains to come nearer to secrets of the terrestrial  life. We  take
pains …