We loved to watch him work. When Dad needed something, we ran to get it. If we called it a "thingamabob he would say, "That's a nail set" (the tool for sinking the head of a nail below the surface of the wood). "It has an ame. Use it."Dad carried a spirit of craftsmanship into every job and expected the same from all six children. Each job had its claim on your best efforts. And ever tool had its name. Those were his principles, and we lived by them just a SD ad did.
His playful spirit would set us to giggling-like the time he was building fireplace in the back yard. He sent us to look for the "stone-bender" he need to make the comer stones fit more evenly. "Guess I'll have to bend theia myself," he said when we retuned empty-handed. We saw the sparkle in.bijeyes, and knew we'd been had.
Sitting in the hospital waiting room, I thought back to an after on in Dad's workshop several years ago.He was retired by then, but he kept busy building beautiful furniture, now for his children's homes. A volunteer naturalist,I was eager to tell him about the help bluebirds needed.
When the early settlers had cleared forests for farmland, I explained, bluebirds flourished, nesting in fence-posts and orchard trees. But their habit twas disappearing, and now the birds needed nesting boxes.Dad listened as-I spoke, his hands gently moving a fine grained sand-paper over a piece of oak. I asked him if he would like to build a box. He said he would think about it.
Several weeks later he invited me into his workshop. There, on his workbench,sat three well-crafted bluebird nesting boxes.Think the birds will like them.he asked.
"As much as I do,"I replied, hugging him. Dad put up the boxes, and the next spring bluebirds nested in his yard. He was hooked.
Dad became quite an expert on the species. Bluebirds, he would say, are harbingers of hope and triumph, renowned for family loyalty. A pair will have two or three broods a year, the earlier young sometimes helping to feed the later nestlings.
The presence of his children must have boosted Dad's spirits after his attack because he grew stronger and left the hospital on Valentine's Day When I visited my parents at the end of March, Dad was confined to the downstairs.
But I noticed that he paused longer and longer at the windows facing the back yard. I knew what he was hoping to see. And one day a bright flash of color circled the nesting box closest to our house.
"Well, it's about time the rascals showed, don't you think?" Dad said.
我們喜歡看著他幹活，爸爸需要什麼東西，我們跑著去取，如果我們把那件東西叫作「某東西」，他總說：「那是敲釘子的工具（把釘子楔進木頭裡的工具）」，「它有個名字。」
爸爸幹什麼活兒都講究技藝，而且希望所有六個孩子也同樣做。
每一件活兒都要求你盡最大努力，並且每件工具都有名稱。這些是他的原則，正如爸爸按照這些原則辦事一樣，我們也按照這些原則辦事。
他愛開玩笑的態度常使我們咯咯發笑。像那一次，他在後院修建壁爐，派我們去尋找他所需要的所謂石頭折彎機，以便把邊角石塊砌得更平穩。我們空手而回，他說：「看來我只得自己把石頭弄彎嘍。」我們看到他眼睛裡閃耀的神色，於是知道我們受騙了。
我坐在醫院候診室裡，回想起幾年前在爸爸車間裡的一個下午，那時他已經退休，但是還不斷地忙著製造漂亮家具。作為一個自願研究動物的人，我迫切地要把藍知更鳥需要幫助告訴他.
我解釋道，早來的移民砍伐森林開墾農田的時候，藍知更鳥就成群結認地在籬笆樁和果園樹上築巢，但是它們的棲息地越來越少，如今，藍知更鳥急切需要築巢箱。爸爸聽著我說話，他的手輕輕地在一片橡樹上移動著一張細粒的砂紙。我問他是否願意做一個盒子，他說他會考慮的。
幾個星期後，他邀請我到車間去，在工作檯上放著三個製作精巧的藍知更鳥巢箱。「你認為鳥兒喜歡它們嗎？」他問道:「像我一樣，非常喜歡。」我緊緊擁抱著他回答說。爸爸支架起巢箱，於是第二年春天，藍知更鳥便在他院裡落了戶，而他也迷上了藍知更鳥。
爸爸成了這種鳥的行家裡手，他常說藍知更鳥是希望和成功的預言者，它們家族成員的忠誠出了名，一對藍知更鳥一年下兩三窩蛋，早孵出的幼鳥有時幫助餵後來出殼的雛鳥。
爸爸犯病後他的孩子們都來了，這一定提高了他的情緒，所以他精力剛剛恢復就在情人節那天出院了。我於三月底去看望父母，爸爸被安置在樓下，可是我注意到，他在窗前向後院佇立的時間越來越長了。我知道他盼望看到什麼。一天，有個色彩鮮明閃亮的東西，在緊靠我們房屋的巢箱周圍盤旋。
「喔，大概壞傢伙們該露面了，你認為是不？」爸爸說。