The Bird House

The Bird House
by Elizabeth Madox Roberts

We bought us a box and some nails
that were cheap,
And built a house for the birds to keep.

It had a roof and a smooth, good floor,
And a little square hole that we cut
for the door.

And then we covered it over with
bark;
I peeped inside at the little brown
dark.

We hung it up on a tall still gate
Where the birds very often came to
wait.

And then one day, when I happened to
watch,
A wren flew down from the apple-
tree's crotch.

He saw that the door was opened wide;
Then he tweeked his tail and went
inside.