He couldn't tell why if you were to ask him.

Children, do you know there is a society whose members pledge themselves to protect the birds?
I wish we might organize one here to-day.

I am sure, from a spirit of kindness, you would like to unite in a promise not to willfully harm any of these wonderful creatures that God has placed around us." When Alice Glenn drove home that evening she carried with her a glad heart, for in her pocket was a copy of the rules and by-laws of the "Anti-Cruelty Society, of Mount Airy School," which Miss Harper had organized that afternoon.

And it was signed not only by the girls and all the smaller boys, but by big Jim Stubbs and the boy who winked with his nose..