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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dickey Downy, by Virginia Sharpe Patterson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dickey Downy
+       The Autobiography of a Bird
+
+Author: Virginia Sharpe Patterson
+
+Release Date: July 10, 2005 [EBook #16255]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DICKEY DOWNY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Dickey Downy
+
+
+The Autobiography of a Bird
+
+
+
+by
+
+VIRGINIA SHARPE PATTERSON
+
+
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"The Girl of the Period," "All on Account of a Bonnet," "The Wonderland
+Children," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+With Introduction by
+
+HON. JOHN F. LACEY, M.C.
+
+
+
+
+Drawings by
+
+ELIZABETH M. HALLOWELL
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+
+A. J. Rowland--1420 Chestnut Street
+
+1899
+
+
+
+
+Copyright 1899 by the
+
+AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
+
+
+From the Society's own Press
+
+
+
+
+To
+
+my dear children
+
+Laura, Virgie, and Robert George
+
+this little Volume is
+
+Affectionately Inscribed
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+This beautiful volume has been written for a good purpose.  I had the
+pleasure of reading the proof-sheets of the book while in the
+Yellowstone National Park, where no gun may be lawfully fired at any of
+God's creatures.  All animals there are becoming tame, and the great
+bears come out of the woods to feed on the garbage of the hotels and
+camps, fearless of the tourists, who look on with pleasure and wonder
+at such a scene.
+
+"The child is father of the man," and this volume is addressed to the
+heart and imagination of every child reader.  If children are taught to
+love and protect the birds they will remember the lesson when they grow
+old.  When children learn to prefer to take a "snap-shot" at a bird
+with a camera, rather than with a gun, they will protect these
+feathered friends for their beauty, even if they do not regard them for
+their usefulness.
+
+Nature has supplied a system of balances if left to itself.  Some forms
+of insect life are so prolific that but for the voracity and industry
+of the birds the world would become almost uninhabitable.
+
+Bird life appeals to the eye for its beauty, to the ear for its music,
+and to the interest of man for its utility.  Shooting-clubs have
+foreseen the extermination that awaits many of the finest of the game
+birds, and are taking much pains to enforce the laws enacted for game
+protection.  A selfish interest thus is called into activity, and one
+class of birds is receiving protection through the aid of its own
+enemies.
+
+But the birds of beautiful plumage are now threatened with extinction
+by the desire of womankind for personal decoration.  Against this
+destruction Audubon societies are organizing a crusade, and Mrs.
+Patterson's principal purpose in this book is to direct attention to
+the wholesale slaughter of the birds of plumage and song.
+
+The Princess of Wales was requested to write in an album her various
+peculiarities.  Among the inquiries was: "What is your greatest
+weakness?"  She answered: "Millinery."
+
+When Napoleon was banished to Elba it is stated that the fallen monarch
+was followed by Josephine's old millinery bills.  How many of these
+bills were for the plumage of slaughtered birds the historian does not
+say.  But the passion for the beautiful is very strong in the tender
+hearts of women, and an earnest appeal to the natural gentleness of the
+sex must be made to enlist them in the defense of the birds.
+
+Mrs. Patterson enters upon this task with enthusiasm, and many a bird
+will live to flutter through the trees or glisten in the sunshine and
+gladden the earth with its beauty that but for this little book would
+have perched for a brief season upon the headgear of some lovely woman.
+
+Let the good work go on until the mummy of a dead bird will be
+recognized by all persons as an unfitting decoration for the head of
+womankind.
+
+JOHN F. LACEY.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I.  THE ORCHARD
+   II.  DICKEY DOWNY'S MEDITATIONS
+  III.  THE RULER WITH THE IRON HAND
+   IV.  DICKEY'S COUSINS
+    V.  "DON'T, JOHNNY"
+   VI.  THE PARROT AT A PARTY
+  VII.  A WINTER IN THE SOUTH
+ VIII.  THE PRISON
+   IX.  THE HUNTERS
+    X.  A NEW HOME
+   XI.  THE ILL-MANNERED CHILD
+  XII.  TWO SLAVES OF FASHION
+ XIII.  DICKEY'S VISIT
+  XIV.  THE COUNTRY SCHOOL
+   XV.  POLLY'S FAREWELL
+
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+
+The Indigo Bird
+
+The Summer Tanager
+
+The Baltimore Oriole
+
+The Bobolink
+
+
+
+
+  Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan Sonnet
+  And many humming birds were fastened on it.
+  Caught in a net of delicate creamy crêpe
+  The dainty captives lay there dead together;
+  No dart of slender bill, no fragile shape
+  Fluttering, no stir of radiant feather;
+  Alicia looked so calm, I wondered whether
+  She cared if birds were killed to trim her bonnet.
+  Her hand fell lightly on my hand;
+  And I fancied that a stain of death
+  Like that which doomed the Lady of Macbeth
+  Was on her hand.
+
+      --Elizabeth Cavazza
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE ORCHARD
+
+  Bobolink, that in the meadow
+  Or beneath the orchard's shadow
+  Keepest up a constant rattle,
+  Joyous as my children's prattle,
+  Welcome to the North again.
+          --_Thos. Hill._
+
+
+My native home was in a pleasant meadow not far from a deep wood, at
+some distance from the highway.  From this it was separated by plowed
+fields and a winding country lane, carpeted with grass and fringed with
+daisies.
+
+While it was yet dawn, long before the glint of the sun found its way
+through the foliage, the air was musical with the twittering of our
+feathered colony.
+
+It is true our noisy neighbors, the blue-jays, sometimes disturbed my
+mother by their hoarse chattering when she was weary of wing and wanted
+a quiet hour to meditate, but they disturbed us younger ones very
+little.  My mother did not think they were ever still a minute.
+Constantly hopping back and forth, first on one bough, then on another,
+flirting down between times to pick up a cricket or a bug, they were
+indeed, a most fidgetty set.  Their restlessness extended even to their
+handsome top-knots, which they jerked up and down like a questioning
+eyebrow.  They were beautiful to look at had they only possessed a
+little of the dignity and composure of our family.  But as I said, we
+little ones did not trouble ourselves about them.
+
+The air was so pleasant, our nest so cozy, and our parents provided us
+such a plentiful diet of nice worms and bugs, that like other
+thoughtless babies who have nothing to do but eat, sleep, and grow, we
+had no interest in things outside and did not dream there was such a
+thing as vexation or sorrow or crime in this beautiful world.  When our
+parents were off gathering our food, we seldom felt lonely, for we
+nestled snugly and kept each other company by telling what we would do
+when we should be strong enough to fly.
+
+At this stage of our existence we were as ungainly a lot of children as
+could well be imagined.  To look at our long, scrawny necks and big
+heads so disproportioned to the size of our bodies, which were scantily
+covered with a fuzzy down that scarcely concealed our nakedness, who
+would have thought that in time we would develop into such handsome
+birds as the bobolink family is universally considered to be?
+
+Our mother, who was both very proud and very fond of us, was untiring
+in her watchful care.  No human mother bending over the nursery bed
+soothing her little one to rest, showed more devotion than did she, as
+she hovered near the tiny cradle of coarse grass and leaves woven by
+her own cunning skill--alert and sleepless when danger was near and
+enfolding us with her warm, soft wings.  Thus tenderly cared for we
+passed the early sunny days of life.
+
+After we could fly we often visited a fragrant orchard that sent its
+odors across the grain fields.  From its green shade we made short
+excursions to the rich, black soil in search of some choice tid-bit of
+a worm turned up by the plow expressly for our dessert.  We were indeed
+glad to be of use to the farmer by devouring these pests so destructive
+to his crops, but did not limit our labors to these places; we also
+made it our business to pick off the bugs and slugs that infested the
+fruit trees, and often extended our efforts to the tender young grape
+leaves in the arbor and the rose bushes and shrubs in the flower garden.
+
+On a warm morning after a rain was our favorite time for work, and it
+was pleasant to hear the tap-tap-tapping of our neighbor the
+woodpecker, as he located with his busy little bill the bugs in the
+tree limb.  It was like the hammer of an industrious blacksmith
+breaking on the still air.  His jaunty red cap and broad white shoulder
+cape made of him a very pretty object as he worked away blithely and
+cheerily at his useful task.  While the rest of us did not make so much
+noise at our work, we were equally diligent in picking off the larvae
+and borers that ruined the trees, and on a full crop we enjoyed the
+consciousness of having aided mankind.
+
+On several occasions I had seen our enemy, the cat, slinking stealthily
+on his padded feet from the direction of the great brick house which
+stood on the edge of the orchard.  Crouched in a furrow he would gaze
+upward at us so steadily and for so long a time without so much as a
+wink or a blink of his green eyes, that it seemed he must injure its
+muscles.  Aside from the many frights he gave us it is sad to relate
+that he succeeded before many days in getting away with one of our
+number.  One morning he crept softly up to a young robin which had
+flown down in the grass, but had not sufficient power to rise quickly,
+and before the unsuspecting little creature realized its danger, the
+cat arched his back, gave a spring, and seized it.  A moment later he
+softly trotted out of the orchard with the poor bird in his mouth and
+doubtless made a dainty dinner in the barn off our unfortunate comrade.
+This incident cast a deep gloom over us, and our songs for many days
+held a mournful note.
+
+But while cats were unwelcome visitors from the great brick house, we
+sometimes had others whom we were always glad to see.  The two young
+ladies of the family, together with their mother and little niece,
+occasionally came out for a saunter under the trees, and it was very
+delightful to listen to their merry chat.  So affectionate toward each
+other, so gentle and withal so bright and lively, they seemed to bring
+a streak of sunshine with them whenever they came.  Miss Dorothy, who
+was tall and stately, seldom sat on the grassy tufts which rose like
+little footstools at the base of each tree, but rambled about while
+talking.  This was perhaps because she disliked to rumple her
+beautifully starched skirts.  But Miss Katie--impetuous, dimple-cheeked
+Katie, would fling herself down anywhere regardless of edged ruffles or
+floating sash ribbons.
+
+"For it is clean dirt," she laughingly said, when Miss Dorothy
+playfully scolded her for it.  "This kind of dirt is healthful, and it
+isn't going to hurt me if a few dusty twigs or a bit of dried grass or
+weeds should cling to my gown.  You must remember, Sister Dorothy,
+there are different kinds of dirt.  I haven't any respect for grease
+spots or for clothes soiled from wearing them too long.  I don't like
+that kind of dirt, but to get close to dear old mother earth, and have
+a scent of her fresh soil once in a while is what I enjoy.  It is
+delightful.  I like nature too well to stand on ceremony with her."
+
+"You like butterflies too, don't you, aunty?" asked little Marian.
+
+"To be sure I do, dear.  I love all the pretty things that fly."
+
+"And the birdies too?" asked the child.
+
+"Yes, indeed; I love the birds the best of all."
+
+"And the old cat was awful naughty when he caught the baby robin the
+other day and ate it up.  Wasn't he, aunty?"
+
+"Yes.  Tom is a cruel, bad, bad cat," responded Miss Katie, as she
+squeezed Marian's little pink hand between her own palms.  "That
+naughty puss gets plenty to eat in the house and there are lots of nice
+fat mice in the barn, and yet he slips slyly out to the orchard and
+takes the life of a poor, innocent little bird."
+
+"And it made the mamma-bird cry because her little one was dead," added
+Miss Dorothy, who had drawn near.
+
+Little Marian heaved a deep sigh and her rosy lips trembled
+suspiciously.  "Poor mamma-bird!  It can never have its baby bird any
+more," she said, with a sob of sympathy.  "Don't you feel sorry for it,
+Aunt Dorothy?"
+
+"Yes, dear.  I feel very sorry for it."
+
+"And I expect the poor mamma-bird cries and cries and weeps and grieves
+when she comes home to supper and finds out her little children are
+gone forever and ever."  And with her bright eyes dimmed with tears of
+pity, Marian, clasping a hand of each of the young ladies, walked
+slowly to the house still bewailing the fate of the robin.
+
+My heart warmed toward these sweet young girls for their tender
+sympathy.  I almost wished I were a carrier pigeon, that I might devote
+myself hereafter to their service by bearing loving messages from them
+to their friends.
+
+But, alas!  I was to have a rude awakening from this pleasant thought.
+As we flew that evening to our roosting-place, I observed to my mother
+that if there were no cats in the world what a delightful time we birds
+might have.
+
+"You have a greater enemy than the cat," she responded sadly.  "It is
+true the cat is cruel and tries to kill us, but it knows no better."
+
+"If not the cat, what enemy is it?" I asked in surprise.  "I thought
+the cat was the most bloodthirsty foe the birds had."
+
+My mother dipped her wings more slowly and poised her body gracefully a
+moment.  Then she said impressively, "Our greatest enemy is man.  No,"
+suddenly correcting herself, "not man, but women, women and children."
+
+"Women and dear little children our enemies?" said I, in astonishment.
+"The pretty ladies who speak so sweet and kind!  The pretty ladies who
+gather roses in the garden!  Would they deprive us of life?"
+
+My mother nodded.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "the pretty ladies, the wicked ladies."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+DICKEY DOWNY'S MEDITATION
+
+  It hath the excuse of youth.
+          --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+That night I pondered long upon what my mother had told me.  Ever since
+I left my shell I had been taught to respect my elders, and that it was
+a mark of ill manners and bad breeding for children to question the
+superior knowledge of those much older than themselves.
+Notwithstanding this, in my secret heart I could not help thinking that
+my mother was mistaken in her estimate of women when she called them
+wicked.  She had surely misjudged them.  However, I took good care not
+to mention these doubts to her.
+
+I had heard from my grandmother, who had traveled a great deal from the
+tropics to the North and back again, that women were the leaders in the
+churches and were foremost in all Christian and philanthropic work;
+that they provided beautiful homes for orphan children, where they took
+care of them and nursed them when they were sick.  She told me about
+the hospitals where diseased and aged people were kindly cared for by
+them.  She said they were active in the societies for the prevention of
+cruelty to children and to animals.  They fed armies of tramps out of
+sheer pity; even the debauched drunkard was the object of their
+tenderest care and their earnest prayers.  They held out a friendly
+hand to the prisoners in the jails and sent them flowers and Bibles;
+they pitied and cheered the outcast with kind words.  They offered
+themselves as missionaries for foreign lands to convert the heathen and
+bring them to Christ.  They soothed the sick and made easy the last
+days of the dying.
+
+On the battlefield, when blood was flowing and cannon smoking, my
+grandmother had seen the Red Cross women like angels of mercy binding
+up the gaping wounds and gently closing the glazed eyes of the expiring
+soldier.  In woman's ear was poured his last message to his loved ones
+far away, and when death was near it was woman who spoke the words of
+consolation and her finger that pointed hopefully to the stars.
+
+Did not all this prove her to be sweet and tender and loving and gentle
+and kind?  Yes--a thousand times yes.
+
+My grandmother once had her nest near a cemetery, and often related
+pathetic incidents which had come under her observation at that time.
+One in particular I now recalled.  It was of a woman who came every day
+to weep over the mound where her babe was buried.  She was worn to a
+shadow from her long watching through its illness, and when it was
+taken from her, her grief was deep.  The bright world was no longer
+bright since she was bereft of her darling, and her moans for the lost
+loved one were heartrending.
+
+This incident was only yet another instance of the tenderness of
+woman's nature, and I could not reconcile it with what my mother had
+told me.
+
+"No, no," I repeated as I cuddled my head under my wing, "never can I
+believe that woman, tender-hearted woman, who is all love and mercy,
+all gentleness and pity, never can I believe she is our enemy."  And
+resolving to ask my mother to more fully explain her unjust assertion I
+fell asleep.
+
+But a source of fresh anxiety arose which for a time caused me to
+forget the matter.
+
+The lindens which fringed the wood were now in full leafage, adorned
+with their delicate ball-like tassels, and hosts of birds flitted among
+them daily.  Many of them were of the kind frequently known as indigo
+birds, smaller than the ordinary bluebird.  In color they were of the
+metallic cast of blue which has a sheen distinct from the rich shade
+seen on the jay's wings or the brilliance of the bluebird.  Flashing in
+and out among the hanging blossoms their beautiful blue coats made them
+an easy target for the boys who attended the neighborhood country
+school.
+
+[Illustration: The Indigo Bird.]
+
+To bring down a sweet songster with a shower of stones, panting and
+bleeding to the ground, they thought was the best sport in the world,
+and the woods rang and echoed with their whoops and cheers as each poor
+bird fell to the earth.  A mere glimpse of one of the blue beauties as
+he hid among the leaves seemed to fire these cruel children with a wish
+to kill it.
+
+One half-grown boy, who went by the name of Big Bill, was noticeable
+for his brutality.  He encouraged the others in cruelties which they
+might not have thought of, for such is the force of evil example and
+companionship.  A distinguishing mark was a large scar on his cheek,
+probably inflicted by some enraged animal while being tortured by him.
+I always felt sure Big Bill would come to some bad end.  My mother said
+that a cruel childhood was often a training school for the gallows, and
+the boy who killed defenseless birds and bugs deadened his
+sensibilities and destroyed his moral nature so that it was easy to
+commit greater crimes.
+
+So dreadful became the persecutions of the schoolboys that the indigo
+birds finally held a council and determined to leave that part of the
+country and settle far from the habitations of men, where they might
+live unmolested and free from persecutions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE RULER WITH THE IRON HAND
+
+  But evil is wrought by want of thought
+  As well as want of heart.
+          --_Hood._
+
+
+One morning as we flew across the open space which lay between the wood
+and the wheat fields, we noticed two gentlemen in the orchard who were
+carefully examining the trees, peering curiously into the cracks of the
+rough bark or unfolding the curled leaves.
+
+As we came nearer we discovered that one of them was the owner of the
+place, the father of Miss Dorothy and Miss Katie.  The other was a thin
+gentleman in spectacles, who held a magnifying glass through which he
+intently looked at a twig which he had broken off.
+
+After a few minutes' inspection he said: "Colonel, your orchard is
+somewhat affected.  This is a specimen of the _chionaspis furfuris_."
+
+"Is it anything like the scurfy-bark louse?" inquired the colonel.
+
+"The same thing exactly.  It occurs more commonly in the apple, but it
+infects the pear and peach trees.  You will find it on the mountain
+ash, and sometimes on the currant bushes," he answered.
+
+The colonel asked him if he would recommend spraying to get rid of the
+pests, and was advised to begin immediately, using tobacco water or
+whale-oil soap.
+
+"By the way," said the colonel, "there is a beetle attacking my shade
+trees.  They are ruining that fine row of elms in front of the lawn."
+
+"It is undoubtedly the _melolontha vulgaris_," said the professor.  I
+designate him in this way because he used such large words we did not
+understand.  My mother told us that she was positive he was president
+of a college.  "The _melolontha vulgaris_ is the most destructive of
+beetles, but the larvae are still more injurious.  They do incalculable
+damage to the farmer.  Fortunately enormous numbers of these grubs are
+eaten by the birds."
+
+"Unfortunately the birds are not so numerous as they used to be.  They
+are being destroyed so rapidly, more's the pity!  These grounds and
+woods yonder were formerly alive with birds of all kinds.  Flocks of
+the purple grakle used to follow the plow and eat up the worms at a
+great rate.  You are familiar with their habits?  You know they are
+most devoted parents.  I have often watched them feeding their young.
+The little ones have such astonishingly good appetites that it keeps
+the old folks busy to supply them with enough to eat.  They work like
+beavers as long as daylight lasts, going to and from the fields
+carrying on each return trip a fat grub or a toothsome grasshopper."
+
+"I am a great lover of birds," returned the professor enthusiastically,
+"and I find them very interesting subjects of study.  By the way, I was
+reading the other day a little incident connected with one of America's
+great men which impressed me deeply.  The story goes that he was one
+day walking in company with some noted statesmen, busily engaged in
+conversation.  But he was not too much occupied to notice that a young
+bird had fallen from its nest near the path where they were walking.
+He stopped short and crossing over to where the bird was lying,
+tenderly picked it up and put it back into its nest.  There was a
+gentleman of a noble nature!  No wonder that man was a leader and a
+liberator!"
+
+"Who was he?"
+
+"The grand, the great Abraham Lincoln," responded the professor
+impressively.
+
+"Well, he'd be the very one to do just such a kind deed as that," was
+the colonel's hearty response.  "No man ever lived who had a bigger,
+more merciful heart than 'Honest Abe.'"
+
+For myself I did not know who Abraham Lincoln was.  I had never heard
+the name before, but I was quite sure from the proud tone of the
+professor's voice that he was a distinguished man, as I was equally
+sure from the story of his pity for the helpless bird, that he was a
+good man.
+
+"You mentioned the industry of the grakle a moment ago," resumed the
+professor.  "Do you know that the redwing is equally as useful, and
+besides he is a delightful singer?
+
+  "The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee.
+
+"Do you remember that line, colonel?" and the professor softly whistled
+a strain in imitation of a bird's note.  "The services of our little
+brothers of the air are exceedingly valuable to the horticulturist.
+And think of the damage done to arboriculture by the woodborers alone
+were it not for the help given by the birds.  Did you ever notice those
+borers at work, colonel?  Some writer has well described them as
+animated gimlets.  They just stick their pointed heads into the bark
+and turn their bodies around and around and out pours a little stream
+of sawdust.  The birds would pick off such pests fast enough if people
+would only give them a chance and not scare them off with shotguns."
+
+"Yes, the birds earn their way, there is no denying it, and he is a
+very stupid farmer who begrudges them the little corn and wheat they
+take from the fields.  The account is more than balanced by the good
+they do."  Then the conversation ceased, for the colonel and his friend
+moved off to inspect the quince bushes.
+
+Pleased by the praises they had bestowed on us for our efforts in
+cleaning the fruit trees and cornfields of injurious insects, I went to
+work with new vigor to get out some bugs for my luncheon, and was thus
+pleasantly employed when a sharp twitter from my mother attracted my
+attention.
+
+"Look, children!" she exclaimed.  "Here come our young ladies with some
+company from the city.  Be careful to notice what they have on their
+heads and then tell me what you think of our sweet, pretty ladies."
+
+One of my brothers was swaying lightly on a little swing below me.  I
+flew down hastily and placed myself on the next bough, where I could
+also get a good view of the ladies as they strolled toward us.  They
+were in a very merry mood and each one seemed striving to say something
+more arousing than her companions.  Miss Dorothy led the way, her arm
+linked in that of one of the stranger guests.  Then followed the others
+with Miss Katie and Marian hand in hand in the rear.  They were all
+very handsomely dressed, and having just returned from a drive had not
+yet removed their hats.
+
+As they came under the tree where we were perched, which was a favorite
+spot with Miss Katie, they halted for some time and consequently I had
+an excellent opportunity to look, as my mother had bidden me.
+
+And what did I see?
+
+I saw six ladies' hats trimmed with dead birds.  Fastened on sidewise,
+head downward, on one was a magnificent scarlet tanager, his body half
+concealed by folds of tulle, his fixed eye staring into vacancy.  On
+another was the head and breast of a beautiful yellow-hammer; it was
+surmounted by the tall sweeping plumes of the egret, which this bird
+produces only at breeding time.  Oh, how much joy and beauty the world
+had lost by that cruel deed!  A third hat had two song sparrows
+imprisoned in meshes of star-studded lace.  Their blithesome carol had
+been rudely silenced, their cheer to the world cut short, simply that
+they might be used for hat trimming.  Of the remaining ones some were
+as yet unknown to me, but my mother, who had an extensive acquaintance
+with foreign birds, said that in that strange murderous mixture of
+millinery, far-away Australia had furnished the filmy feathers of the
+lyre bird which swept upward from a knot of ribbons, and that the
+forests of Germany had contributed the pretty green linnet.  Dove's
+wings and the rosy breast of the grosbeak completed the barbarous
+display.
+
+How my heart sickened as I gazed at these pleasant, refined,
+soft-voiced women flaunting the trophies of their cruelty in the
+beautiful sunlight.
+
+Had they no compassion for the feathered mother who had been robbed of
+her young for the sake of a hat?
+
+"Oh, how can they do such dreadful, such wicked things!" I moaned.  My
+mother heard my lament and signaled for us to come up where she was
+perching.
+
+"You see now who are our worst enemies," said she.  "The cat preys on
+us to satisfy his bodily hunger, but women have no such excuse.  We are
+not slaughtered to sustain their lives but to minister to their vanity.
+For years the women of Christian lands have waged their unholy war
+against us.  We have been driven from our old haunts and forced to seek
+new places.  We have been shot down by thousands every season until now
+many species are destroyed from the face of the earth.  There is no
+security for us in any place.  The hunter with his gun penetrates into
+the deepest forests, he perils his life in scaling the most dangerous
+cliffs, he wades through bog and marsh and mud and tracks us to our
+feeding grounds to surprise us with the deadly shot, and kills the
+mother hovering over the nest of her helpless offspring with as little
+compunction as if she were a poisonous reptile instead of a melodious
+joy-giver.  And all this horrible slaughter is for women."
+
+I grew feverish with excitement at this terrible arraignment of the
+"gentler sex."
+
+"But why are they so cruel?  Why do they do this wicked thing?" I asked.
+
+"For the sake of Fashion," said my mother.
+
+"Fashion, what is that?"
+
+My mother was very patient with me, so when I asked questions she did
+not put me off by telling me she didn't know, or advise me to fly away
+and play, or tell me she was busy and couldn't be bothered just then,
+therefore she now took pains to make me understand.
+
+"You ask me what is Fashion," she began.  "Well, Fashion is an exacting
+ruler, a great, tyrannical god who has many, many worshipers, and these
+he rules with an iron hand.  His followers cannot be induced to do
+anything contrary to his wishes.  He sits on a high throne from which
+he dictates to his slaves what they must do.  Often they do the most
+outrageous things, not because they like to, but because he demands it.
+He is constantly laying down new laws for their guidance, and some of
+these laws are so unreasonable and absurd that a part of his followers
+frequently threaten to rebel.  They do not hold out against him long,
+for he manages to make it quite unpleasant for those who disobey him or
+refuse to come under his yoke."
+
+"Has he any men slaves?" asked my brother.
+
+"Yes, he has some slaves among men, but the larger number of those who
+wear his most galling fetters are women.  If he but crooks his little
+finger these bond-women rush pell-mell in the direction he points.
+They are thus keen to do his bidding, because each woman who is the
+first to carry out his rules in her own particular town or neighborhood
+acquires great distinction in the eyes of the other worshipers."
+
+"His slaves are nearly always rich women, aren't they?" asked my
+brother.
+
+"By no means.  Many of them are poor working women who have to labor
+hard for a living.  But they will rob themselves of necessities and
+needed rest to get the means to follow his demands.  Often it takes
+them a long time to do this, and perhaps just as they have accomplished
+the weary task he suddenly proclaims a new law, and all this toiling
+and drudging and stinting must begin over again.  In this way the
+unhappy creatures have never a breathing spell.  It is utterly
+impossible for them to conform to the new law when it is first
+proclaimed by the god, and so they are always struggling to keep up.
+Their chains are never lifted or lightened a particle."
+
+"If the chain is so heavy why don't they break it?" I asked impatiently.
+
+"Because they are afraid," she replied.
+
+"Afraid of the god?"
+
+"No, no, child, they are afraid of each other.  They are afraid the
+richer slaves, who are able to comply with the demands will laugh at
+them and ridicule them, and that is why they strain every nerve to
+follow the god's wishes.  A slave, whether she is rich or poor, grows
+more cringing year by year, until at last she loses all her
+individuality, and becomes a mere echo of the god."
+
+"What about the slaves who rebel at first and afterward yield?"
+
+"Oh, they denounce the god very severely when he lays down some new law
+they don't happen to like, but as all the other slaves are obediently
+complying with it they dislike to be set off by themselves as
+different, and so they reluctantly give in after a time.  Sometimes
+they try to compromise with the god by going half-way."
+
+I inquired what the other slaves thought of that.
+
+"They mildly tolerate them," said she.  "Sometimes they look askance at
+them when they meet, and try to show their superiority as being
+obedient, full-blooded, genuine slaves, while the others are only
+lukewarm servants of the monarch!"
+
+I wondered how the slaves regarded the woman who was independent and
+wouldn't worship the god.
+
+My mother twittered softly at my question, and I knew she was smiling
+to herself.  "Why," said she, "they call that kind of a woman a
+crank--whatever that is."
+
+It was very evident that this god Fashion was a cruel tyrant, and it
+was clearly through his influence that we were killed, and I so told my
+mother.  She looked very sorrowful as she replied:
+
+"Yes, the women do not hate us.  They do not dislike to hear our pretty
+songs; they have no revenge to gratify; but the god orders them to have
+us killed, and they do it.  He tells them that to wear our poor
+mutilated dead bodies will add to their appearance, and so we are
+sacrificed on the altar of their vanity and silly pride.  As members of
+humane societies women have denounced the docking of horses' tails as
+cruel, but from what I know of woman's indifference to the sufferings
+of the innocent birds, I venture to assert that were Fashion to say
+that she should trim her cloak with horse tails there would not be left
+an undocked horse in the country."
+
+I knew my mother was very excited or she would never have been so
+vehement.
+
+"Just hear how those birds twitter," remarked one of the ladies,
+looking up into our tree.  "One would think they were holding an
+indignation meeting over something."
+
+"Yes, the dear little things; I love to hear them chirp," commented
+Miss Katie, turning a sweet glance toward us, and then the party moved
+to go and we saw the six hats loaded with their mournful freight file
+off to the house.  We followed the retreating hats with sad eyes till
+they were lost to view.
+
+My brother broke the silence by asking, "Are there any Christian women
+who wear birds, and are among the god's worshipers?"
+
+My mother's manner grew very grave and solemn.  "That is not for me to
+say," she replied.  "They know whether they are guiltless of our
+wholesale slaughter, and they know too, how the gentle, merciful Christ
+regarded us when he declared that 'not a sparrow is forgotten before
+God.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+DICKEY'S COUSINS
+
+Another of my airy creatures breathes such sweet music out of her
+little instrumental throat that it might make mankind to think that
+miracles are not ceased.  We might well be lifted up above the earth
+and say, Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven,
+when thou affordest bad men such music on earth?--_Izaak Walton._
+
+
+The fine pasture adjoining was a popular resort for some handsome birds
+that often visited it as a playground.  They were said to be relatives
+of ours, but I do not think they were closer than seventh or eighth
+cousins, which is so distant that it doesn't count--especially if one
+doesn't want it to.
+
+All I know is that their family name was the same as ours, _Icteridae_,
+and means something or other, I forget what.  It was a good honorable
+name, however, and our branch was as proud of our ancestry as any
+Daughter of the American Revolution could possibly be.
+
+There were some tall weeds growing along the margin of a little stream
+in the pasture which produced quantities of delicious seeds, and to
+these we often repaired when we wanted a choice breakfast, as well as
+to watch the playful pastimes of these queer bipeds.
+
+What would you think of a bird taking a bareback ride on a cow?   They
+were extremely fond of settling themselves on the cattle which browsed
+in the field and presented a truly comical picture as they complacently
+gathered in little groups on the backs of those huge animals.  Moving
+slowly along munching the dewy grass, first on one side, then on the
+other, the cows did not seem particularly to mind their saucy bareback
+riders.  Occasionally they would toss their heads backward, when up all
+the birds would fly into the air only to descend again as soon as the
+cattle were quiet.
+
+As I said, they were very handsome.  At a short distance they looked to
+be clothed in black, but the breast and neck were really a very rich
+brown, with the rest of the body like jet and as lustrous as satin.
+They were not general favorites with the other birds on account of some
+dishonorable tricks which they did on the sly.  For instance, they
+never troubled themselves to make nests, but watched their chance to
+sneak in and lay their eggs, only one in a place, in the nests of other
+birds.  For some reason their eggs always hatch a little sooner than
+the eggs rightfully belonging there, consequently the foster-parents,
+not knowing of the deception, are quite delighted with the first little
+one that comes out of the shell, and immediately fly off to get food
+for it.  This is very unfortunate, for during their absence their own
+eggs get cold and will not hatch.  After a time the old birds grow
+disgusted and tumble the poor eggs all out of the nest and bestow their
+whole attention to the juvenile cowbird, entirely ignorant of the fact
+that they are the victims of a "put-up job."
+
+Once when we were dining in the pasture we found out the cause of the
+booming noise we had often heard sounding through the woods.  Two men,
+each carrying in his hand a long club, shaped large at one end,
+appeared in the meadow and began looking among the long grasses which
+sheltered the nests of some meadow larks.  A number of the larks were
+on the wing, others sat on the rail fence rolling out cadenzas in
+concert in a gush of melody from their downy throats.  The men moved
+cautiously nearer under cover of the weeds.  Raising their long clubs
+to their shoulders they gazed along their narrow points a moment.
+Without exactly knowing why, we took alarm, and larks, bobolinks, and
+cowbirds sped upward like the wind.  At the same instant something
+bright shimmered in the sunlight, and with it a horrid burst of noise
+and a puff of smoke.  We did not all get away, for some of the
+beautiful larks fell to the ground pierced by the sportsman's deadly
+hail.
+
+Again and again, all through that long, sad day we heard the ominous
+booming crash, and knew the savage work of killing was going on.
+
+Among our acquaintances was a lame redbird who at one time had been
+trapped and made a prisoner, confined behind the bars of a wire cell
+for many weeks and months.  Luckily he made his escape one day when his
+grated door was accidentally opened, and he speedily made his way back
+to his dearly loved forest.
+
+During the period of his imprisonment in the city he had picked up a
+great deal of information regarding the bird trade, and some of the
+facts recited by him of the terrible cruelties perpetrated and the
+carnage which had been going on for years, almost caused our feathers
+to stand upright in horror as we listened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+"DON'T, JOHNNY"
+
+  Farewell happy fields, where Joy forever dwells.
+          --_Milton._
+
+
+A very pleasant, sociable fellow was this redbird, and often when on
+hot afternoons we were hiding in the treetops from the rays of the sun
+he told us stories and anecdotes about the people he had seen while he
+lived in the city.
+
+He and his brother had been caught in a trap in the woods set by a
+farmer's boy.  One cold spring morning when the boy came to look at his
+trap he was overjoyed to find he had snared two redbirds, and forthwith
+carried them to the village nearby and sold them to the grocer for five
+cents apiece, which sum he said he was going to invest in a rubber ball.
+
+As he put the dime into his coat pocket he told the man that one of the
+birds was named Admiral Dewey and the other Napoleon Bonaparte.  The
+groceryman agreed that these names were good enough names for anybody,
+but he thought he'd change Bonaparte's name to Teddy Roosevelt, as
+being easier to pronounce, and the two birds were accordingly given
+these titles then and there.  Not having any cage at hand to put them
+in, the man thought that for a few days the new-comers could share the
+quarters of an old sparrow he had in the rear end of the store until an
+extra cage could be procured.
+
+But alas for Teddy Roosevelt!  The very first night he was
+ignominiously whipped by the spiteful occupant of the cage, who
+resented having these country visitors thrust into his house without
+his leave.  Poor Teddy died the next day.  Admiral Dewey stood the
+battle better than his unfortunate friend, but he too was pecked at in
+a way so threatening that the groceryman concluded it would be wise to
+get rid of him immediately.  Because the admiral had not defended
+himself better from his pet's attack, the grocer regarded him with some
+disgust.
+
+"Being as there was two of you and only one of the sparrow, 'pears as
+if you hadn't much grit," he said.  "I would better take your
+high-soundin' name away from you and call you something else besides
+Dewey, if you can't fight."
+
+For all the man's censure, the redbird knew that if Teddy Roosevelt had
+killed the sparrow instead of being killed by it, the grocer would have
+been much more grieved at the loss, for he had heard him say the
+sparrow was like one of his family.  The man forgot that the result
+might have been different if the redbirds had been older.
+
+Having decided to dispose of the admiral, the grocer, who had an errand
+in the city the next day, carried the bird with him.  He knew of a
+probable customer for it in a gentleman named Morris, who had been
+advertising in the papers for a redbird.  He soon found the street and
+number where was located the gentleman's office, at which the
+advertisement was to be answered, and displayed the admiral.
+
+"Your bird looks kind of ragged, as though he hadn't been treated
+well," said Mr. Morris, as he examined the scarlet plumage.  "My boy
+wants a redbird, and I promised him one if he would get the highest
+grade in arithmetic in his class this term and he did it, so of course
+I must keep my word.  What d'ye ask for this bird?"
+
+"He'd be cheap at five dollars," answered the groceryman.  "A nice
+redbird is hard to get, and they're powerful nice singers, but bein' as
+it's for your boy that has earned it by studying his lessons so good--I
+always like a boy that is fond of his books--you can have it for two
+dollars and a quarter."
+
+As he had paid but five cents for it this advance in price would be a
+fine business speculation.  After a little further talk, Mr. Morris
+counted out the money, and the man went back to his home doubtless
+wishing he had a hundred more redbirds to sell at the same handsome
+profit.  After he had gone, Mr. Morris went to a box hanging against
+the wall, and turning a handle began talking to the box as if it were a
+human being.  Though it was just a plain wooden box, the admiral said
+there was something mysterious about it, for Mr. Morris actually seemed
+to be carrying on a conversation with it, though the bird could not
+hear what the box answered, but he felt sure it talked back.
+
+Mr. Morris' residence was a fine stone house with wide porches and
+sunny bay windows, over which were trained graceful creeping vines.  A
+boy of about eleven years of age and a very pretty lady stood arm in
+arm on the broad steps leading up to the front entrance that evening
+when Mr. Morris and the admiral arrived.  They were Johnny Morris and
+his mother, who had already learned that Mr. Morris had bought the bird
+and would bring it when he came to dinner.  The admiral discovered the
+next day that Mrs. Morris owned a box like the one at the office, into
+which she talked, and that it was called a telephone.  He often
+mentioned this mysterious box as one of the most remarkable things he
+saw during his stay among men.
+
+Johnny Morris capered and danced and jumped so hard in the exuberance
+of his joy at receiving the redbird that all the way to the sitting
+room his mother was coaxing him to be quiet.
+
+"Don't act so foolishly," she begged; but he only capered and kicked up
+his heels still harder.  When the cage was placed on a stand in the bay
+window he pranced around it, whistled and chirped, threw the bottom of
+the cage floor full of seed and splashed the water about so recklessly
+in his attempts to be friendly as nearly to frighten the poor admiral
+to pieces.
+
+"Now, Johnny, don't," pleaded his mother.
+
+"Johnny, don't do that," commanded his father every few minutes.
+
+It was a constant "Don't, Johnny, do this" and "Don't, Johnny, do
+that," until, the admiral said, the conversation was so mixed up with
+"Don't-Johnny's" as made it almost unintelligible.  Of course these
+expostulations made not a bit of impression on Johnny Morris.  To be
+sure, he might stop for the moment, but the next second he was doing
+something else which brought a fresh round of "Don't-Johnny's" from
+each parent.
+
+He was such a generous, affectionate, pretty boy, with his rosy cheeks
+and wavy yellow hair, it was a great pity that he should keep a whole
+household in a state of constant commotion by his habit of not promptly
+minding when he was spoken to.  His father and mother were very
+indulgent to him, and the admiral believed he had every kind of a toy
+known to the boy world.  He also had a machine to ride on, which they
+called a "wheel."  On this he went out occasionally, although Mrs.
+Morris declared she never felt at ease a minute while he was gone,
+because he never came back at the hour he promised he would.  Besides
+this, he had a dear little pony, named Jock, on whose back he often
+cantered about the big park.  Frequently from the bay window the
+admiral watched him as he mounted Jock and rode away, while his mother
+stood on the house step and called after him as long as he was in
+sight: "Don't ride in that reckless way, Johnny; you'll tumble off," or
+"Don't, Johnny; the pony will throw you," at which Johnny would laugh
+and make the pony go faster.
+
+Among the boy's other possessions was a parrot, which the admiral
+asserted was the smartest bird in the world.  She was a highly educated
+parrot, and much time had been spent on her training, and she was
+usually very willing to show off to company all her various
+accomplishments.  Occasionally she assumed an air of offended dignity
+when asked to display her talents, and no amount of threats or coaxing
+could change her purpose.  At such times she impatiently flapped her
+wings and croaked "No, no" in her harshest tones.
+
+Her favorite retreat when her temper was ruffled was on the back of an
+armchair, where she would sit with her bill in the air and her head
+cocked disdainfully on one side, pretending not to hear or see any one.
+In her affable moods, however, no one could be more complaisant and
+entertaining than Bessie.
+
+Her name was an uncommon one for a parrot.  Strangers usually accosted
+her as Polly, at which mistake she was greatly displeased.
+
+"No, no--not Polly; call me Bessie," she would scream, so angrily that
+it always made people laugh, which angered her still more.
+
+Bessie could sing a verse of an old-time song, at least she thought she
+could.  The admiral said nothing could have induced him to sing for
+company if his voice had been as harsh and cracked as hers, but he said
+it was a fact that everybody seemed to enjoy her noise more than his
+music; that when she took up her position on top of the piano to sing,
+they crowded around and called her "nice Bessie," "nice lady," and
+praised her, and gave her bits of sugar, as if she were the finest
+singer in the world.  The admiral thought they showed very poor taste,
+for her music was simply horrid and couldn't compare with the warblings
+of the woods birds.  It is well, however, to make allowance for the
+admiral's opinion, for musicians are proverbially jealous of each other.
+
+The song the parrot sang was "Listen to the Mocking Bird," to which
+Mrs. Morris played a little gliding accompaniment on the piano.  Great
+hand-clappings always followed the performance.  These Bessie accepted
+with an air of studied indifference.  But if for the purpose of teasing
+her they did not applaud her performance, she shrilly screamed:
+"Bessie's a good bird, a good bird I tell you," raising her voice
+higher and higher at each repetition.
+
+Then she would wait a moment for some one to assure her that she was
+indeed a very good bird, quite the smartest bird that ever breathed.
+But if these soothing assurances were not quickly forthcoming, she
+would retire to the back of her favorite chair and, elevating her bill
+to show her disdain, sulk in silence.
+
+"Did she like you?" I asked the admiral one day when he was telling us
+about her funny tricks.
+
+"No, she was a little bit jealous of me; yet she was not unfriendly,
+except when Johnny or some other member of the family paid me
+attention.  She always wanted to be the center of attraction herself,
+which showed she was a vain creature.  No matter how silent she had
+been or how firmly she might have refused to talk only the minute
+before, if Johnny came to my cage and called, 'Hello, Admiral! you're a
+daisy,' Bessie immediately struck up such a chattering as would almost
+deafen one.
+
+"'Johnny dear, open my cage.  I want to take a walk,' she would say in
+her most coaxing manner.  If she happened to be already out of her cage
+and walking about the room, she endeavored to get him to leave me by
+saying: 'Here, Johnny, boy, put me on your finger.  Kiss poor
+Bessie--p-o-o-r Bessie.'
+
+"Mrs. Morris used to laugh at these schemes of the parrot to attract
+notice, and said Bessie reminded her of some people she had met who
+always wanted to monopolize the conversation."
+
+"Monopolize?" said I.  "That's a large word.  I don't know the meaning
+of it."
+
+"Well, I think it means getting the most of anything and crowding other
+people out," replied the admiral; "and it was true in Bessie's case,
+for she always wanted the most attention.  A gentleman friend of the
+Morrises had this habit too.  He had been a general in a war that took
+place in the South a good many years ago, and was often entertained at
+dinner at the Morrises'.  Though he was a well-informed, genial man, he
+was almost rude in making himself heard, so determined was he that
+people should listen to his jokes and stories, which were generally
+something about himself.  At a large tableful of guests, General
+Peterson's voice was always heard above that of every one else.  He
+seemed to compel the rest of the company to listen.  His big voice
+drowned the others out.  Though Mr. and Mrs. Morris liked him very
+much, when they were alone they often ridiculed this disagreeable habit.
+
+"'Bessie and General Peterson are just alike,' Mrs. Morris used to say
+jokingly, when the parrot pushed herself into notice by her loud
+jabbering.  'Neither of them can endure to have any one else receive
+attention when they are present.'
+
+"Although Bessie had not a pony to ride on as Johnny had, she took a
+great many jaunts around the parlors on the cat's back.  This cat was a
+great pet in the house.  A very striking-looking cat he was too.  He
+was jet black with a flat face and long white whiskers.  Johnny always
+said he resembled an old colored man who used to be their coachman, and
+he wondered if they were any relation to each other.
+
+"When Bessie was out of her cage the cat did not often visit the
+parlor, because he was afraid of her.  He always appeared to be much
+relieved when she did not notice him.  If she had decided to take a
+ride, however, he never was quick enough to get away from her.  With a
+shrill laugh of triumph she would fly upon his back, and holding on by
+digging her claws into his fur, around and around the room they would
+go, the poor cat feeling so completely disgraced that he dragged his
+body lower and lower at every step, until his legs could scarcely be
+seen at all.
+
+"Bessie enjoyed it greatly.  She seemed to take a wicked satisfaction
+in making poor Jett ridiculous, and laughed and chuckled and scolded
+till the cat looked as if he were ready to drop from very shame.
+Urging him on with, 'Get up, get up, you lazy thing,' she refused to be
+shaken off till his body was actually dragging on the floor, a sign of
+his complete humiliation.  As soon as he threw off his unwelcome
+burden, Jett always ran away to hide.  With his tail slinking, his ears
+drooping, and crawling rather than walking, he was the most
+abject-looking, miserable cat in existence.  Bessie meanwhile flirted
+herself saucily and chuckled with the conscious air of having done a
+very smart thing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE PARROT AT A PARTY
+
+  A parrot there I saw, with gaudy pride
+  Of painted plumes, that hopped from side to side.
+
+
+"How did you happen to get away from the Morrises?" asked my brother.
+
+The red-bird laughed heartily, as if the recollection were exceedingly
+amusing.
+
+"Well," said he, "it all came about through Johnny's having a tea
+party.  For months he had been coaxing and begging his mother to invite
+his schoolfellows to the house and entertain them with games and plays
+and music, ending with a fine supper.  Early in the spring when he
+began talking of it, it was too cold, his mother said.  Then after a
+while it was too rainy, or too warm, or they were house-cleaning, or
+something, and so she kept putting him off from one time to another,
+hoping by deferring it to make him forget it.  The Morrises always
+spent the month of August at their seaside cottage, and the night
+before they left home, Johnny tried to get Mrs. Morris to promise that
+he might have the party the very first thing on their return.
+
+"'I'll think about it, my dear,' she answered.
+
+"'Whenever you say you'll think about it then I'm pretty sure not to
+get what I want,' sighed Johnny."
+
+[Illustration:  The Summer Tanager.]
+
+"His mother seemed to be much amused at this statement.  'Oh, no, my
+son, it doesn't always turn out that way; but you know it wouldn't do
+for me to promise to have it just as soon as we get back,' she
+objected.  'I am always very busy just at our return.  It might be very
+inconvenient for me to prepare for a children's evening at that time;
+but when I am ready I shall take pleasure in getting up a nice party
+for you sometime in the autumn.'
+
+"This sounded well, but it was not definite enough to suit Johnny.
+However he said no more at that time.  While the family were gone
+Bessie and I had the back porch to ourselves, and no one being there
+except the housemaid to whom she could display her superiority over me,
+she grew to be quite agreeable.  For some time before the Morrises had
+bought her, which was years and years before, long before Johnny was
+born, she had lived in a taxidermist's shop.  The owner of the shop was
+also a bird dealer in a small way.  On account of her accomplishments
+he had held her at a price that few were willing or able to pay, and so
+she had been forced to stay with him a long time.  She much preferred
+being owned by a refined family to living in a dingy store, for she was
+a bird of luxurious tastes, she said.
+
+"I too had never ceased being glad that the grocer had sold me to the
+Morrises, for I was sure that life would not have been so comfortable
+for me in the back part of a country store, inhaling the odors from
+fish barrels and molasses kegs, and with the dreary outlook afforded by
+shelves full of canned vegetables and cracker boxes.  The only point in
+favor of a life at the grocery was that I would have been nearer to the
+woods; but if I could not be in the woods, of what avail was that?  The
+Morrises were people of elegance and refinement, and their home
+expressed their culture.  I had made a pleasant exchange, and I felt it
+was wise to be as contented as possible.
+
+"August slowly passed, and Johnny came back.  The big house that had
+been so quiet for four weeks was suddenly wakened as from a sleep.  His
+noisy, joyous voice rang through the halls, and from cellar to garret.
+
+"'Bless the b'y! he's that plazed to git back, it does one's sowl good
+to hear him,' said the housemaid.
+
+"Mrs. Morris was so busy for the first day or two that she saw little
+of Johnny.  He was sent on several errands, and took his own time in
+returning, but every one had too much to do to inquire what kept him so
+long.
+
+"'Can't I shine up Bessie's and the admiral's cages?' he asked his
+mother after dinner the second day.
+
+"Mrs. Morris was delighted with her son's thoughtfulness.  'Why,
+Johnny,' she said, 'I'll be so glad to have you do it.'
+
+"So master Johnny wiped and dusted our cages till we felt very clean,
+although I own I did not enjoy having him work about me with his brush
+and dust cloth.  Just as he had finished and put us back in our places
+the doorbell sounded, and presently we heard children's voices in the
+hall asking the maid if Johnny Morris was at home.
+
+"'It is some one to see you,' said Mrs. Morris.  But Johnny did not
+reply.  He was nowhere to be seen.  At the first sound he had quietly
+slipped out of the room and I could now see him hiding behind the
+curtains in the library.  Soon Sarah came ushering three or four little
+barefooted children into the parlor.
+
+"'They've come to Johnny's party, ma'am,' she explained to Mrs. Morris,
+who looked up from her work as the children entered.
+
+"'How do you do, my dears?' said Mrs. Morris sweetly, though I could
+see she was greatly surprised.  'I believe I don't know your names, so
+you will have to introduce yourselves.'
+
+"The children looked bashful, and made no reply.
+
+"'You are not Johnny Morris' schoolmates, are you?' she questioned.
+
+"'No, ma'am,' answered the tallest girl, as she gazed about the
+handsome room with wide-open eyes, I could see that she was not
+accustomed to such beautiful things.
+
+"Where did you get acquainted with him, then?' went on Mrs. Morris
+kindly.
+
+"'We hain't acquainted at all, ma'am; but he seed us on the street this
+morning, and said for us to come to his party to-day.  He thought as
+how maybe they'd be ice-cream to eat, and he told us where he lived,
+and so we are here.'
+
+"'Well, we must try to make you have a pleasant time,' she replied.
+'Sarah, please call Johnny and tell him his guests have arrived.'
+
+"But Sarah had been answering a second peal of the bell, and now
+appeared with a very queer smile on her face at the head of a line of
+three girls and a small boy, whom she introduced by saying:
+
+"'A few more children, ma'am, who have come to take tea with master
+Johnny.'
+
+"'Why, really,' exclaimed Mrs. Morris, in a sort of flutter, as she
+helped Sarah to seat the new arrivals.  'The house is hardly in order
+for company.'
+
+"The children appeared quite embarrassed, and ranged themselves
+silently and sedately on the chairs to which they had been directed.
+
+"'Dear me, Sarah, what a predicament to be in!  Where do you suppose
+Johnny scraped up all these youngsters?  I don't know what I ought to
+do to him for playing me this trick.'  Mrs. Morris said this to the
+maid as they came to my side of the room.  'Think of all the work to be
+done, and which will have to be stopped for the day--the house all
+upside down--no chance for preparations for an extra supper for his
+company.  And that big girl bespoke ice-cream as soon as she entered.'
+And then Mrs. Morris and Sarah turned into the recess of the bay window
+and laughed softly.  Her vexation seemed to pass away in a few minutes,
+for she added, 'We must make the best of it, since they are here, and
+let everything else go.  But there's the bell; I expect it's another
+batch of Johnny's friends.'
+
+"And so it proved, for these were old acquaintances, eight or ten of
+his schoolmates.  Little misses dressed in fine style, in dainty
+ruffled frocks and necklaces and bright hair-ribbons, tripped
+gracefully in and advanced to meet Mrs. Morris, quite like grown ladies
+in their manners.  Behind them came several boys, spick and span in
+fresh white linen waists and silk neckties and well-fitting shoes.
+
+"'Ah! here are Frances and Naomi and Justice and Karl and Mary Ethel
+and Philip and Jessica and all the rest,' said Mrs. Morris, giving them
+each a hand of welcome as they gathered about her in a pretty group.
+'Will you make yourselves quite at home and help me to entertain these
+other visitors till Johnny comes in?  I don't know what keeps him so
+long.  If you'll excuse me I'll go and look for him.  There are the
+pictures in the portfolio that you might like to show to these little
+girls.  And there's the admiral, our redbird, and Bessie, the parrot.
+Maybe they would like to look at them.'
+
+"The two girls whom she had designated as Jessica and Frances looked at
+the strange children a minute but made no movement to carry out Mrs.
+Morris' wishes.  Instead they drew a little apart and began to talk to
+each other.  Mary Ethel, a round-faced girl who giggled a great deal
+behind her fan, crossed over to where sat the large girl who had
+mentioned the ice-cream, and started a conversation by remarking that
+it was a warm day.  The girl made no audible answer, only nodded.
+
+"'Do you like to go to school?' inquired Mary Ethel.
+
+"The girl again nodded.  There was a little pause.  Mary Ethel, who was
+bent on carrying out Mrs. Morris' suggestion to help her entertain
+them, began again on the weather.  I suppose she couldn't think of
+anything new to say, so she observed:
+
+"'It's a nice warm day for the first of September, don't you think?'
+
+"The girl's head once more wagged up and down in assent, but not a word
+did she utter.  At this a subdued titter came from Frances and Jessica.
+Mary Ethel's face grew red and she frowned at them.
+
+"Just at this moment in ran Johnny.  He had put on his best suit.  His
+yellow hair was freshly brushed and his face was wreathed in smiles.
+He reminded one of a dancing sunbeam.  It was wonderful to see how
+quickly he set the social wheel moving in the parlor.  In three minutes
+he had them all acquainted and talking to each other.  At one side I
+noticed Naomi and Jessica who were trying to make the parrot talk for
+the big girl.  Mary Ethel was turning the crank of a small music box,
+around which were clustered a group of the stranger children.  On a
+sofa three or four others had the portfolio of pictures spread out.
+Others came to my cage coaxing me to whistle for them, while Johnny
+capered hither and thither and joked and had more funny things to say
+than anybody in the room.  When he let Bessie out of her cage and put
+her on the piano to sing the 'Mocking Bird,' the joy of the visitors
+knew no bounds.
+
+"'Have you a parrot, Jeannette?' he asked one of the little barefooted
+girls, whose dancing black eyes showed how much she enjoyed Bessie's
+performance.
+
+"'No, but I have two lovely cats.'  She made the announcement as if
+very proud of their ownership.
+
+"'I have a cat too.   He dresses in black and wears long white
+whiskers, and looks just like a respectable old colored man.'  This
+description amused the children very much.
+
+"'What's your cat's name?' they shouted.
+
+"'Jett.  What do you call your cats, Jeannette?'
+
+"'The big one is _Boule de Neige_ and the little one is _Jaune
+Jaquette_.'
+
+"'What queer names!'  exclaimed Mary Ethel.  'How did you happen to
+select such names for them?'
+
+"'Oh, miss, because the names do suit them so well.'
+
+"'They don't sound like any cats' names that ever I heard.  I don't
+understand how they would suit.'  Mary Ethel looked perplexed.
+
+"'Why, miss, on account of the color of those cats, to be sure,' said
+Jeannette in surprise.
+
+"'Pooh!' explained Johnny, 'that's easy.  _Boule de neige_ is the
+French for snowball, and _jaune_ means yellow, so _jaune jaquette_
+means yellow jacket.  I learned that in our French reader.  I expect
+one of the cats is all white and the other is a yellow one.  Is that
+it, Jeannette?'
+
+"'Yes, sir,' said the French child, and she tipped him a polite little
+bow that was very pretty indeed.
+
+"'_Boule de Neige_! what a funny name.  I haven't named our white
+kitten yet.  I believe I'll call it _Boule de Neige_ for a change,'
+said Karl.
+
+"Then Jett was brought in and Bessie pounced upon him for a ride, she
+chuckling and singing and looking from side to side with proud
+satisfaction, knowing she was being observed by everybody.  The
+children almost screamed with delight at this performance.
+
+"'Now, Bessie,' said Johnny, as the poor cat at last shook her off and
+slank away.  'You did that beautifully, and you deserve something to
+eat.  I am going to let you have some bread and milk right here in the
+parlor, and the company can see how nicely you can feed yourself with a
+spoon.'
+
+"'All right,' croaked the parrot.  Sarah brought in a saucer in which
+was a little bread moistened with milk, and two spoons with it.  A
+cloth was spread over one corner of the table and Bessie crawled up to
+the top of a chair which had been placed with its back close to the
+table.  This brought the bird almost in line with the saucer.  Johnny
+took his seat beside her and broke the bread into tiny pieces with his
+spoon, shoving the particles into the other spoon as fast as Bessie
+disposed of them.  She gravely clasped her spoon with one claw and
+brought it to her mouth quite dextrously and ate the contents with
+evident relish, though it was plain that she enjoyed being admired for
+being able to do it really more than she enjoyed the bread.  Once in a
+while her grasp was uncertain and the food was spilled on her breast
+feathers or fell to the floor.  At this she scolded herself roundly and
+seemed quite ashamed.
+
+"'One of these days, when I get time, I am going to train her to use a
+napkin when she eats,' said Johnny.
+
+"'She'll be a perfectly accomplished lady then,' added Mary Ethel.
+
+"By this time some of the stranger children had left the table and had
+come over to my cage to look at me.
+
+"'The admiral's an awful purty feller,' said one.
+
+"'Wouldn't his tail be sweet on a Sunday hat?' suggested another.
+
+"'Oh, I choose his wings for my hat,' exclaimed a third.
+
+"'I choose his head and breast for mine,' said the first one who had
+spoken.  'And Naomi chooses his whole body for her hat, I expect,' she
+added as Naomi joined them.
+
+"'No,' said Naomi, 'we don't wear birds any more in our family.  My
+sister and I used to have our hats trimmed with them, but we've quit.
+I had a lovely one on my blue velvet hat last year.  It was a beautiful
+hat," and she smiled at the recollection.  'But we've quit now,' she
+added gravely.
+
+"'Why?' asked the other girls in a breath.
+
+"'Oh, because my mother thinks it is wrong to wear them.  Little boy,
+little boy, be careful or you'll let the bird out,' she called hastily.
+
+"But the warning was too late.  While the girls had been talking the
+small boy who was with them had been entertaining himself by slightly
+opening my cage door and letting it spring back to its fastening.
+Suddenly he was seized with fright at discovering that it had stuck
+while half-way back, and refused to come together.
+
+"Oh, dear!' he called.  'He's out.'
+
+"'Mercy on us!  Oh, dear!' screamed the girls as I made a dash through
+the opening, and flew to the top of a picture frame.  'Johnny, Johnny,
+your redbird's out,' they called.
+
+"All was confusion in an instant.  Boys and girls ran hither and
+thither, tumbling over each other, and over the chairs and stools, and
+all talking and screaming at once.
+
+"'Bring a broom or a flagpole, Johnny,' called Philip.  'I'll shoo him
+down for you while you stand underneath and catch him.'
+
+"'Shoo, shoo!' said Jeannette, catching her dress skirt with both hands
+and waving it back and forth rapidly.  In a minute all the girls were
+waving their dress skirts at me and saying 'shoo.'
+
+"'Oh, my pretty Admiral Dewey, my dear old admiral,' wailed Johnny,
+almost in tears.
+
+"I didn't wait for the broom or the flagpole to help me from the
+picture frame.  I balanced myself steadily and then I flew out of the
+open window and away into the world, without saying good-bye to
+anybody.  I suppose they all crowded to the window to look after me as
+I disappeared, for the last thing I heard was Mrs. Morris' voice
+saying, 'Don't, Johnny; you'll fall out if you lean over so far.  Papa
+will get you another bird.  Don't grieve so hard.  Don't, Johnny.'"
+
+"Did you ever see Johnny afterward?" we asked the redbird.
+
+"Yes, once I saw him cantering along slowly on Jock.  He could not go
+very fast because he was holding a great bunch of red and pink roses in
+one hand.  His cheeks were as pink as the flowers and his yellow hair
+curled up under the edge of his cap the same as it used to.  I knew him
+in a minute.  A great many carriages were on the street trimmed in
+flags and flowers.  Little flags were fastened to the horses' harness.
+Jock had one on each side of his head, which made him look very pretty.
+Children were running about carrying wreaths.  On a corner of the
+street where a band was playing some men were holding banners.  I heard
+some one say it was Decoration Day, and that everybody strewed flowers
+on the graves in the big cemetery that day.  I thought it was a very
+beautiful custom.  Through all the buzz and confusion I kept an eye on
+Johnny.  He didn't seem to be riding anywhere in particular, but was
+just looking around for the fun of the thing.  Presently he drew up to
+the sidewalk where a little ragged boy was leaning up against a tree.
+He had a wistful look, as if he would like to be taking part.
+
+"'Hello!' said Johnny, as he reined Jock in.  'Aren't you going to help
+to decorate?'
+
+"'Naw--ain't got any posies, I tell you.'  The boy said this in a
+sullen tone.
+
+"'Here, take these.  I brought you a big bunch so you could divide 'em
+with some of your friends.  There's enough for all of you boys to have
+a few flowers to take to the cemetery.'  Johnny extended the roses with
+a smile as he spoke.
+
+"The boy grabbed them eagerly.  'My!  You're a jolly one, I'll say that
+for you,' he said heartily by way of thanks, then he ran off with a
+whoop.
+
+"I saw from this action that Johnny was the same generous, kind-hearted
+boy he used to be, and I felt proud to have had the honor of his
+acquaintance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A WINTER IN THE SOUTH
+
+    I was wrong about the Phoebe bird;
+  Two songs it has, and both of them I've heard;
+  I did not know those strains of joy and sorrow
+  Came from one throat.
+
+
+As the season advanced our May songs became less melodious until
+finally our music was merely a metallic but pleasant, "chink, chink,"
+and we knew we would soon be putting on our new fall attire, as toward
+the close of the summer our family exchange their pretty
+black-and-white suits, so much admired, for a becoming yellowish-brown
+one.  The different flocks were also now arranging for their regular
+winter trip to the sunny Southland, where their winters were spent.
+
+I was very glad to know that we bobolinks were to travel only in the
+daytime, as that would afford us younger ones a better opportunity to
+see the country.  The return trip to the North is always made by night.
+A great many people have wondered why we do this, and those who are
+interested in our habits have tried to find out; but it is a secret the
+birds have never yet divulged, and probably never will.
+
+The blue jays were going to remain behind, for the winters which we
+dreaded so much had no terrors for them.  Sometimes when we were
+preening our feathers under the radiant skies near the Southern gulf, I
+thought of our old neighbors the jays, and fancied them in their bleak
+Northern home flitting about in the tops of the leafless trees, swayed
+by the icy winds from the upper lakes, and with perhaps but little to
+eat.  I would not have exchanged places with them for the world.  But
+my older comrades assured me the jays were not in need of my sympathy
+or pity.  They liked the invigorating cold and chattered merrily in the
+desolate boughs and enjoyed many a nice meal from under the melting
+snow.  The crimson dogwood berries, standing out like rosettes of
+coral, at which they liked to peck, also furnished them an aesthetic
+and sumptuous feast.  Much more to be dreaded than the winter's cold
+was the cruel sportsman, said my comrades.
+
+The day of our departure came.  The concourse of birds setting out on
+their annual journeys was immense, and oh, what joy it was to soar
+aloft on buoyant pinion high up in the blue sky, over housetops and
+tops of trees, skimming along above rushing waters or tranquil streams
+in quiet meadows.  Mere existence was a keen delight.  The sense of
+freedom, of lightness, of airiness, was gloriously exhilarating, a
+delicious sensation known only to the feathered tribes of all God's
+creation.
+
+Our trip took us across some densely wooded mountains, where we rested
+for a time.  A thick undergrowth of young saplings prevented any roads,
+and only occasional narrow footpaths showed that people sometimes
+passed that way.
+
+The mountain was grand in its loneliness; but doubtless was a desolate
+spot to the settlers, whose cabins were scattered at long distances
+from each other in the depths of the wood.  I could imagine how cut off
+from the whole world the women and children in these cabins would feel,
+for it is natural for human beings to love society.  The perpetual
+stillness must have been hard to bear when months sometimes passed
+away, especially in the winter season, without their getting a glimpse
+of other human faces.
+
+The mountains were full of wildcats too, which made their situation
+worse, as these fierce animals were frequently known to attack men as
+savagely as wolves do.  One day while we were there two travelers
+camped under the tree where our family was roosting.  They had
+evidently had a hard time making their way through the tangled
+undergrowth, for as one of the men flung himself down on the ground and
+stretched himself out at full length, he exclaimed peevishly:
+
+"Well, I don't want any more such experiences.  I'm dead tired; my face
+is all scratched with the thorns and bushes; and I haven't seen a
+newspaper for a week.  If the railroad company needs any more work of
+this kind done, they must get somebody else."
+
+"Fiddle-dee-dee!  You mustn't be so easily discouraged," answered the
+other young man, who had already set to work scraping up dry chips and
+pieces of bark to make a fire, "Think of these poor mountaineers who
+stay here all their lives.  Your little tramp of a few days is nothing
+to what they do all the time and never think of complaining.  The half
+of them are too poor to own a mule.  They eat hog and hominy the year
+around, and are thankful to get it.  Their clothes are fearfully and
+wonderfully made, but for all that they don't give up and think life
+isn't worth living."
+
+As the two young fellows talked on in this strain I named them Growler
+and Cheery, because the one was so determined to look on the dark side,
+while the other took a cheerful view of everything.  Growler continued
+to lounge on the ground, looking with careless interest at Cheery, who
+was preparing dinner.
+
+The dinner was in a small tin box which he took from his coat pocket.
+Opening it he disclosed some eatables very compactly put in.  He took
+out several articles and set them on the ground in front of him.  In
+the box was a bottle stoutly corked containing a dark liquid, some of
+which he poured into a flat tin cup which formed a part of the lid of
+the box.  This he set over the fire, which by this time was snapping
+cheerily.
+
+"Come," he said.  "Here's a lunch fit for a king.  Get up and have your
+share.  Maybe when your stomach is warmed up with a few ham and mustard
+sandwiches, some cheese and coffee, you'll be in better spirits.  These
+crackers are good eating too."
+
+"Fit for a king, eh?  Mighty poor kind of a king, I should say,"
+growled Growler sarcastically; but he rose and flicked the leaves and
+twigs from his clothing before he helped himself to the coffee which
+was now hot.
+
+"One cup for two people is just one too few," laughed Cheery when it
+came his turn to take some.  "My! but it tastes good.  There's nothing
+like the open air to give one an appetite."
+
+"I don't like coffee without cream," objected Growler, chewing moodily
+at his cracker.
+
+"Well, we'll get to Girard by to-night, and then possibly we will get a
+good supper."
+
+While they were lunching I had observed another traveler slowly
+approaching through the underbrush.  Over one shoulder was slung a
+leather strap in which were a few books.  He carried a rifle, and from
+his coat pocket bulged a small package.  As he drew nearer the sound of
+his footsteps startled Growler who nervously upset his coffee over his
+shirt front.
+
+"What d'ye suppose he is?" he asked of Cheery as the stranger
+approached.
+
+"I judge he's a parson, from the cut of his clothes," observed Cheery.
+Then as the new-comer advanced he called: "Hello, friend!  Who'd 'a
+thought of meeting company this far back in these mountains?"
+
+"This is only about eight miles from the town where I live," answered
+the gentleman, who now seated himself near them with his back against a
+tree, "I know the paths through here fairly well, for I come this way
+several times through the summer.  But this will be my last trip for
+the season, and I'm giving a little more time to it on that account.
+I've taken it somewhat leisurely to-day."
+
+He was a delicate-looking, middle-aged man, with a mild voice and a
+kind face.
+
+"You're a drummer for a publishing house, I take it?" said Growler,
+nodding toward the books in the strap.  "I've just been wondering where
+you'd find any buyers in these infernal woods."
+
+The gentleman laughed.  "No," said he, "this is my regular route; but
+I'm not a commercial traveler in any sense.  I'm a pastor at a town
+near here, and I go out to these mountain families to hold services
+every few weeks."
+
+"You don't mean you foot it through these bushes and among these
+wildcats to preach to the mountaineers!" exclaimed Growler in
+astonishment.
+
+"Certainly I do.  These poor people would never hear the sound of the
+gospel if some one did not take it to them.  They have souls to be
+saved, my friend.  I feel it is my duty to carry the word to them.  As
+for the wildcats," he continued, smiling, "I have my rifle.  Besides
+the government offers a small bounty for every wildcat."
+
+"Oh, yes, I see.  You combine business with pleasure and have your
+wildcat bounty to pay expenses as you go along--or else keep it for
+pin-money," and Growler laughed good-humoredly at his own fun.
+
+"You're the parson from St. Thomas, I judge," said Cheery.
+
+The gentleman bowed, and said he was the pastor of that little church.
+
+"I've heard of your mission work, and I understand you've done a great
+deal of good among the mountain whites."
+
+"How many churches have you in these mountains?" interrupted Growler.
+
+"I have but the one church organization, for outside through the
+mountains there are no churches--no buildings, no organizations.
+People ten and fifteen miles apart can't very well have churches.  I
+visit the families.  I have three on this mountain side.  I am well
+repaid for all the sacrifice of comfort I make, in knowing how glad
+they are to have me come.   To many of them I am the connecting link
+with the rest of mankind.  Ah! the world knows nothing of the
+privations and sorrows and ignorance of many of these poor creatures!
+Through the winter I am obliged to stop my visitations, but I generally
+leave a few books and papers for those who can read, and pictures for
+the children."
+
+"Well, parson, I didn't know there was enough goodness in any man in
+the United States to make him willing to tramp right into the wildest
+part of the Allegheny.  Mountains to preach the gospel to half a dozen
+poor people!" exclaimed Growler, still more astonished.
+
+"My friend," responded the gentleman earnestly, "the world is full of
+Christian men and women who are trying to help others."
+
+Just then my mother said to me, "When I hear the beautiful words that
+minister speaks and see what he is doing, then indeed do I believe that
+human beings have hearts."
+
+As we resumed our journey I wondered if Growler would profit by the
+sunshiny example of Cheery and the devotion of the parson of St. Thomas.
+
+Later in our travels we came upon some old acquaintances.   Our
+stopping-place was near an ancient house on a mountain side.  The
+outlook was the grandest I had ever seen, and though I have traveled
+much since then I have never found anything to exceed it in beauty.  A
+glistening river wound its way in a big loop at the foot of the
+mountain, and beyond it lay stretched out a busy city.
+
+A good many years before a battle had been fought on these heights,
+which people still remembered and talked about.  I heard them speak of
+it as the "Battle above the clouds."  There was still a part of a
+cannon wagon in the yard which visitors came to see and examined with
+much interest.  They also often requested the landlady to let them look
+at the walls of an old stone dairy adjoining the house, because the
+soldiers had carved their names there.
+
+To me it seemed strange that the guests would sit for hours on the long
+gallery of this hotel, and go over and over the incidents of the
+battle, telling where this regiment stood, or where that officer fell,
+as if war and the taking of life were the most pleasant rather than the
+most distressful subjects in the world.  In the distance was a mammoth
+field of graves, miles of graves, beautifully kept mounds under which
+lay the dead heroes of that sad time.
+
+The days up here were beautiful, but it was at night that this was a
+scene of surpassing loveliness.  Far below the lights of the city
+glowed like spangles in the darkness.  Above us was the star-encrusted
+sky.  It was like being suspended between a floor and a ceiling of
+glittering jewels.
+
+On this plateau grew the biggest cherry trees I ever saw, and they bore
+the biggest and sweetest cherries, though I could not taste any at that
+time, as the season was past.  I heard the landlady complaining one day
+to some of her guests that the rascally birds had hardly left her a
+cherry to put up.
+
+"The saucy little thieves! they must have eaten bushels of the finest
+fruit," she said.
+
+"And didn't you get any?" inquired a childish voice.  There was
+something familiar in the voice and I flew to the porch railing to see
+who it was.  And who should it be but dear little Marion.  And there
+too was her aunty, Miss Dorothy, and the professor, and in the parlor I
+caught a glimpse of Miss Katie and the colonel.  They were having a
+pleasant vacation together.
+
+Marion looked inquiringly into the landlady's face.  No doubt she was
+thinking the mountain birds were very greedy to eat up all the cherries
+and not leave one for the poor woman to can.
+
+"Our birds always eat some of our cherries too," she said, "but they
+always leave us plenty."
+
+"There were bushels left on our trees," observed the landlady's
+daughter.  "We had all we wanted, mother.  We couldn't possibly have
+used the rest if the birds had not eaten them.  We had a cellar full of
+canned cherries left over from the year before, you remember, and that
+is the way it is nearly every year."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," answered her mother impatiently; "but for all that
+I don't believe in letting the birds have everything."
+
+"I never begrudge a bird what it eats," commented the professor.  "Of
+course you can discourage the birds, drive them off, break up their
+nests, starve them out, and have a crop of caterpillars instead of
+cherries.  But, beg pardon, madam, maybe you don't object to
+caterpillars," and he bowed low to the landlady.
+
+The laugh was against her and I was glad of it, for I didn't consider
+it either kind or polite to call us "saucy little thieves."
+
+We were amused one morning when, flying over a piece of pretty country,
+we saw a lady moving rapidly along on the red sandy path below.  She
+seemed to be neither exactly riding nor walking, as she was not on foot
+nor had she a horse.  On closer inspection it was seen that she was
+propelling a strange-looking vehicle.  Two of her carriage wheels were
+gone, and between the remaining two the lady was perched.  At sight of
+it I was immediately reminded of the queer thing that Johnny Morris
+rode which the admiral had described to us and called a "wheel."  I
+felt sure that this was the same kind of a machine.  The lady looked
+neither to the right nor to the left, but her glance was fixed intently
+on the road before her.
+
+Farther along another lady leaned against the fence awaiting her
+approach.  As she bowled along the friend asked enthusiastically: "Is
+it not splendid?"
+
+The rider called back to her: "It is grand!  It is almost as if I were
+flying.  I know now how a bird feels."
+
+Think of comparing the sensation produced by moving that heavy iron
+machine, with the rider but three feet from the ground, to the
+exhilaration felt by a bird spurning the earth and soaring on delicate
+wing through the fields of heaven!  It was truly laughable!
+
+Our amusement was cut short, however, when we noticed that the lady's
+hat was decorated with a dead dove.
+
+"Can we never get away from this millinery exhibition of death?" I
+exclaimed in horror.
+
+"No," said my mother sorrowfully.  "The god, Fashion, I told you of has
+his slaves all over the land.  We will find them wherever we go, north,
+south, east, and west.  No town is too small, no neighborhood too
+remote, but there will be found women ready to carry out his cruel
+laws."
+
+Had we not been haunted by this vision of death which we were
+constantly meeting wherever women were congregated, we might have been
+happy in the fair land of rose blossoms and magnolias where we now
+sojourned.  The air was soft and balmy, and the atmosphere filled us
+with a serene, restful languor quite new to those who had been
+accustomed to the brisker habits of a colder clime.  Besides the birds
+there were many human visitors from the North spending the winter
+months here.  Some sought this warmer climate for their health, others
+for pleasure, and these also soon fell into the easy-going,
+happy-go-lucky ways induced by the sluggish climate.
+
+Among the birds the waxwings most readily acquired this delightful
+Southern habit of taking life easy.  In fact the waxwings are inclined
+to be lazy, except when they are nesting; they are the most deliberate
+creatures one can find, but very foppish and neat in their dress.
+Never will you find a particle of dust on their silky plumage, and the
+pretty red dots on their wings and tails look always as bright as if
+kept in a bandbox.  They have, indeed, just reason to be proud of
+themselves, for they are very beautiful.
+
+Hunters by scores were after them with bag and gun mercilessly killing
+them for the New York millinery houses.  The slaughter was terrible,
+and made more easy for the hunters by reason of the poor birds flocking
+together so closely in such large numbers when they alighted in circles
+as is their habit.  As they came down in dense droves to get their
+food, the red dots on their wing tips almost overlapping those of their
+fellows, dozens were slain by a single shot.  They were very fond of
+the berries of the cedar trees, and after the other foods were gone
+they hovered there in great numbers.  Here too, the hunters followed
+them and made awful havoc in their ranks.  One man made the cruel boast
+that the winter previous he had killed one thousand cedar-birds for hat
+trimmings.
+
+Many of our family had located for a time near the coast, but here too,
+on these sunny plains, the death messengers followed us and slew us by
+the thousands.
+
+We learned that one bird man handled thirty thousand bird skins that
+season.  Another firm shipped seventy thousand to the city, and still
+the market called for more and yet more.  The appetite of the god could
+not be appeased.
+
+I am sure this account of the loss of bird life must have seemed
+appalling to my mother, for I heard her moan sadly when it was talked
+about.
+
+It was during my stay in the Southern islands that I first saw the
+white egret, whose beautiful sweeping plumes, like the silken train of
+a court lady, have so long been the spoils of woman, that the bird is
+almost extinct.  As these magnificent feathers appear upon the bird
+only through the mating and nesting season, the cruelty of the act is
+still more dastardly.  The attachment of the parent birds for their
+young is very beautiful to witness, yet this devotion, which should be
+their safeguard, is seized upon for their destruction, for so great is
+the instinct of protecting love they refuse to leave their young when
+danger is near, and are absolutely indifferent to their own safety.
+
+Never shall I forget one sad incident which occurred while I was there.
+Overhanging the water was an ancestral nest belonging to a family of
+egrets which had occupied it for some seasons.  Unlike the American
+human species, in whom local attachment is not largely developed, and
+who take a new house every moving day, the egret repairs and fixes over
+the old house year after year, putting in a new brace there, adding
+another stick here, to make it firm enough to bear the weight of the
+mother and the three young birds which always comprise the brood.
+
+The three pale-blue eggs in this nest had been duly hatched, and the
+fond mother was now brooding over her darlings with every demonstration
+of maternal affection.  She was a beautiful creature with her graceful
+movement, her train of plumes, and her long neck gracefully curved.
+
+The quick sharp boom, boom of the guns had been echoing through the
+swamp for some time, and the men were now coming nearer.  The efforts
+of the poor mother to shield her babies were piteous, but the hunters
+did not want them.  Their scant plumage is worthless for millinery
+purposes.  Possibly the mother might have escaped had she been willing
+to leave her dear ones; but she would not desert them, and was shot in
+the breast as the reward of her devotion.  The nestlings were left to
+starve.
+
+Would you think the woman who wore that bunch of feathers on her bonnet
+could take much pleasure in it?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE PRISON
+
+  Like a long-caged bird
+  Thou beat'st thy bars with broken wing
+  And flutterest, feebly echoing
+  The far-off music thou hast heard,
+          --_Arthur Eaton._
+
+
+This was my last day of liberty for many, many months.  The very next
+evening I was stunned by a stone thrown by a small boy who accompanied
+a hunter.  Picking me up he ran toward his father, who was coming back
+from the neighboring swamp with his loaded gamebag.
+
+"This bird isn't dead," said the boy, holding me up to view, "and I'm
+going to put it in a cage and train it to talk."
+
+"Crows are the kind that talk.  That's no crow nor no starling
+neither," answered the man.  "Better give it to me to kill.  I'll pay
+you a penny for it."
+
+"Naw, you don't," and the boy drew back, at the same time closing his
+hand over me so tightly that I feared I would be crushed.  "I'm going
+to keep him, I tell ye.  He's mine to do what I please with, and I
+ain't agoing to sell him for a penny, neither."
+
+So saying he ran along in front of his father till we reached the mule
+cart.  Into this clumsy vehicle they climbed and soon we were jogging
+over the sandy road to their home.  As we drove along the man computed,
+partly to himself, partly aloud, how much money the contents of his
+game-bag would bring him.  The result must have been satisfactory, for
+presently he observed:
+
+"Purty fair day's wages, but I believe I could make more killing terns
+and gulls than these birds.  Bill Jones and the hunters up on Cobb's
+Island last year got ten cents apiece for all the gulls they killed.
+Forty thousand were killed right there.  Oh, it's bound to be a mighty
+good business for us fellows as long as the wimmen are in the notion,
+that is, if the birds ain't all killed off."
+
+"Air they getting scarce?" questioned the boy.  The man ejected a
+mouthful of dark, offensive juice from between his grizzled whiskers
+before replying.
+
+"Yes, purty tol'ble scarce.  So much demand for 'em is bound to clean
+the birds out.  There used to be heaps of orioles an' robins an' larks
+an' blackbirds an' waxwings through the country, but they're getting
+played out too, since the wimmen tuk to wearin' 'em on their bunnets."
+
+"Well, no woman sha'n't have my bird for her bunnet," and the boy gave
+me another friendly pinch that nearly broke my bones.  "I'm a going to
+put it in that old cage that's out in the shed and give it to Betty, if
+she wants it."
+
+"Humph! she won't keer for it.  You'd better kill it.  Betty won't be
+bothered with it."
+
+"She may give it away, or let it loose, or do what she pleases with it,
+then," was the boy's reply.
+
+I learned from their further conversation that the hunter sold his game
+to another man who cured the skins for shipment to the city.  To this
+dealer the bag which held my dead companions was taken and I saw them
+no more.  Arriving at the hunter's home I was put under a bucket that I
+might not escape, while my captor prepared my prison for me.  It was an
+almost needless precaution for I had been so cramped between his
+fingers that I feared I could never again use my legs or wings.  Just
+before putting me in my rude prison house he brought a pair of shears
+and bade Betty clip my wings.
+
+"Oh, I'm afraid it will hurt it!" she exclaimed, pushing away the
+extended scissors.
+
+"Nonsense, you ninny!  What if it does hurt it?" and he roughly knocked
+my bill with his hand.
+
+"Now that's real mean, Joe.  You're a scaring it to pieces.  Here,
+Dickey Downy, I'm going to give you a pretty name if you belong to me;
+let me hold you.  Why, its little heart is a thumping as if 'twould
+burst through its body."
+
+Joe was reluctant to loosen his grasp, and between being pulled first
+one way and then the other by the two children, I was badly bruised.
+Finally I was permitted by my young captor to enter the cage, where I
+sank, trembling and exhausted, to the floor, and remained there all
+night, being too sore to ascend the perch.
+
+As may be imagined I was very sorrowful and unhappy.  The separation
+from my mother and my dear companions, coupled with the fear that I
+might never again wing my blithesome flight through the bright blue
+sky, but spend the balance of my life in this miserable cell, filled me
+with despair.  Frantic but useless were my efforts to escape.  In vain
+I beat my head against the hard steel bars; in vain I endeavored to
+crowd my body between them.  My prison was too secure.
+
+At length I found that fluttering back and forth buffeting my wings
+against the sides of my cell only injured me and availed nothing.  Then
+it was I wisely made the resolution to endure my imprisonment as
+cheerfully as possible.  I soon began to regain my strength and spirits
+and, save that I was deprived of my liberty, I had no special fault to
+find for some days with my treatment from Betty, who was now regarded
+as my owner and keeper.
+
+I was always glad when Joe was absent from home, for he was vicious as
+well as rough.  One of his favorite tricks was to dash my cage hard
+against the wall, laughing boisterously as he did so to see how it
+frightened me.  The concussion was frequently so great that my claws
+could not hold to the perch, and I would be tossed helplessly from side
+to side with my feathers ruffled and broken.  There was but one thing
+Joe liked better than this cruel sport, and that was gingerbread; and
+my tortures were often stopped by Betty's producing a slice of this
+delicacy which she had saved from her own luncheon for this particular
+purpose.  When I discovered that Joe could be bought off with
+gingerbread it can be imagined that I was always glad on the days when
+the pungent odors of cinnamon, ginger, and molasses issued from the
+cook-stove.  It was a surety of peace, of a cessation of hostilities as
+long as the cake lasted.
+
+All went fairly well for a little while, but as the novelty of
+possession gradually wore off, my little jailer grew negligent and left
+me much of the time without water or food.  Frequently my throat was so
+parched from thirst that I could not utter a protesting chirp.  I knew
+no other way to attract attention to my wants than to flutter to the
+bars and thrust out my head; unfortunately this action was attributed
+to wildness and a desire to escape, and I was allowed to suffer on.
+
+"That bird is the most annoying, restless thing I ever saw," complained
+Betty's mother one evening when I was thus trying to tell them my cup
+was empty.  "It spends all its time poking its head through the wires
+or thrashing around in the cage, instead of getting up on its perch and
+behaving itself quietly as a decent bird should."
+
+"Do you reckon it's sick?" suggested Betty, and she came to my cage and
+looked at me attentively.
+
+"Reckon it's hungry, you mean," growled her father, who was in one
+corner of the kitchen cleaning his gun.
+
+"She never feeds it any more," commented the mother.  "What's the use
+of keeping it?  I'd wring its neck and be done with it.  Betty don't
+keer a straw for it."
+
+"Yes, I do," cried the little girl.  "I'll get it something to eat this
+very minute."
+
+These spasms of attention only lasted a day or two, however, when my
+young keeper would lapse into carelessness, and again I would be
+allowed to go with an empty crop and a dry throat.  My beautiful
+plumage grew rusty from this irregularity and continual neglect, and
+although I am not a vain bird, my dingy appearance was a source of
+daily grief and mortification to me.  When Betty was not too busy
+playing she sometimes hung my cage outside the door of the cottage, but
+often for days together through the pleasant summer I was left hanging
+in the kitchen, sometimes half-choked with smoke or dampened with
+steam.  No wonder I drooped and ceased my cheerful song.
+
+The days when I was put out of doors were indeed gala days to me.  Many
+families of young chickens lived in the back yard, and the pipings of
+the little ones and the scoldings of the mothers when their children
+ran too far away from them, were always amusing to listen to and gave
+me something to think about which kept my mind off my own troubles.
+
+I liked to watch the hens with their fuzzy broods tumbling about them,
+or with the older chicks when they scratched the ground and ceaselessly
+clucked for them to come to get their share of what was turned up in
+the soil; meanwhile they kept a sharp lookout with their bright eyes to
+see that no outsider shared in the feast.  And how angrily did they
+drive it away should a chick from another brood heedlessly rush in
+among them to get a taste.
+
+One old hen in particular interested me very much.  I noticed her first
+because of her pretty bluish color and the dark markings around her
+neck, but I soon came to pity her, for she made herself quite unhappy
+and seemed to take no comfort in anything.  She was usually tied to a
+tree by the leg, and although her string was long it seemed always just
+a little too short to reach the thing she wanted.  To make matters
+worse she had a bad fashion of rushing wildly around the tree and
+getting her string wound up shorter and shorter until at last she could
+not stir a step, but would hang by one foot foolishly pulling as hard
+as she could.  It always seemed to me that her chickens were more
+disobedient than the rest, because they knew she could not get to them
+nor follow them.
+
+Joe sometimes slyly threw pebbles at this blue hen to scare her and
+make her jump and pull at the string, when he thought his mother was
+not looking.  As pay for his sport he often got his ears cuffed, for
+though his mother did not seem to notice how cruelly he teased me, she
+would not allow him to frighten her fowls.
+
+"Don't you know that a hen that's all the time skeered won't lay?" was
+the lesson she tried to impress on him as she punished him.
+
+But the thing I liked best of all was to see Betty's seven white ducks
+crowd up to the kitchen door every time any one appeared with a pan of
+scraps.  Such gabbling and quacking, such pushing and such stepping on
+each other and on the chickens, in their eagerness to get there first,
+was almost laughable.  In fact, the pink-toed pigeons that walked up
+and down the ridge of the barn roof, did make fun of them openly.  Had
+I not known the ducks were well fed and so fat they could scarcely
+waddle, I might have thought they were really hungry, but I soon
+discovered that they were simply greedy.
+
+Standing on tiptoe and stretching up their long necks they often seized
+the food before it had a chance to fall to the ground.  By this good
+management they usually got more than the chickens.  Joe accused Betty
+of being partial to the ducks.
+
+"You allus give 'em the best of everything, and twice as much as you do
+the chickens," he complained.
+
+"They get the most because they've got the most confidence in me," said
+Betty, putting on a very wise look.  "They come close up to me, while a
+chicken shies off and misses the goodies coz she's silly enough to be
+afraid.  Besides, the ducks are mine.  I raised 'em.  I paid twenty
+cents a setting for the eggs out of my own money, and when you raise a
+thing you generally like it the best.  Ducks are a heap smarter'n
+chickens, anyway," she asserted.  "I never can get one of the chickens
+to feed out of a spoon, and the ducks like it the best kind."  To
+convince him she held toward them a large baking spoon of soured milk.
+This milk was thickened into a paste or ball by being put on the stove
+and separated from the whey, or watery part, by the action of the heat.
+
+It was a favorite dish with the fowls, and they all smacked their lips
+when they saw it coming.
+
+As fast as Betty could fill the spoon it was emptied by the ducks, who
+stuck their big yellow bills into it and devoured the contents, letting
+the chickens below scramble and push and pick each other for any stray
+bits that fell to the ground.
+
+"Didn't I tell you?" said Betty triumphantly.  "Them chickens had just
+as good a chance as the ducks, but they wouldn't take it."
+
+"Huh!" answered Joe.  "Their necks ain't long enough, is what's the
+matter."
+
+There were several trees in the yard, and often when the fowls were
+fed, birds flew down from their leafy recesses to pick up the crumbs
+left lying about.  How I used to wish they would come near enough to my
+cage that I might converse with them, but it always happened that just
+at the time when one of them would settle close to the house, either
+Joe's little dog, Colly, would run across the yard, or Betty or her
+mother would appear at the door and frighten my feathered friend away.
+Only once did I exchange a word with any of these birds, and that for
+but a few short minutes.
+
+The bird did not belong to our family, nor had I ever met any of his
+relatives before, but that made but little difference.  He was a bird,
+and that was enough.  We did not wait for any formal introduction; but
+as he balanced himself on the edge of my cage he hurriedly told me news
+of the woods, and how he wished I might get free and come to live
+there.  He told of the lovely dragon flies, with purple, burnished
+wings that floated in the forest, mingling their drowsy hum with the
+chirping of the birds.  He told of the great mossy carpet spread under
+the trees; how at set of day the owls came out, and the moles rustled
+in the fallen leaves, and the frogs raised their evening hymn to the
+sinking sun.
+
+I could have listened for hours to the sweet familiar tale my feathered
+brother told of life in the happy woodland, but Betty's mother suddenly
+hurrying out to the pump to fill her bucket, cut short the story, and
+away my bird friend skimmed out of sight without so much as saying
+"good-bye."  Though I saw him several times after that, he never came
+so close again.
+
+"Oh, what heaps and heaps of fireflies!" exclaimed Betty, as she
+unhooked my cage to move me into the house that evening.  "It looks as
+if our door-yard was full of moving lanterns."
+
+"Nothin' but lightnen bugs!" said Joe contemptuously.  "Here, see me
+catch 'em," and in a few minutes he showed her a handful which he had
+killed by crushing between his hands.
+
+"Hold on, I want to catch some too!" and hustling me into the kitchen,
+Betty ran along with him and was soon engaged in catching and killing
+the beautiful fireflies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE HUNTERS
+
+Song birds, plumage birds, water fowl, and many innocent birds of prey,
+are hunted from the everglades to the Arctic Circles for the barbaric
+purpose of decorating women's hats.  The extent of this traffic is
+simply appalling.--_G. O. Shields._
+
+
+When Joe and his father came back from their gunning expeditions, the
+accounts they gave of the day's slaughter made me very homesick and
+miserable, and wore sadly on my spirits in my captivity.
+
+The heartless indifference with which the woman would ask her husband
+if it had been "a good day for killings," almost made me wail aloud.
+
+"Best kind of luck; I bagged nearly a hundred this trip," he replied
+exultingly, one night when she put the usual question.  "The birds were
+as thick as blackberries in the high weeds along the creek, and were
+havin' a mighty good time stuffing themselves with seeds.  Joe fired
+the old gun to start 'em and, great Jerushy! in a minute the sky was
+dark with 'em; I just blazed away and they dropped thick all around us,
+and it kept us tol'ble busy for a while a pickin' 'em up."
+
+"Pop, tell 'em about the old water bird down in the swamp," said Joe
+with a wicked laugh.
+
+"Yes, tell us; what was it, pop?" urged Betty.
+
+"Oh, nothin' partickler, I reckon; just an old bird that hadn't the
+grit to get away from me," and the man gave a low chuckle at the
+remembrance.
+
+"My, oh! the way them old birds hung around and wouldn't scare worth a
+cent when we was right up close to 'em was funny, I tell ye," and Joe
+leaned back in his chair and slapped his knees in a fresh burst of
+merriment.
+
+"There was eggs in the nest was the cause," said the man; "them birds
+are always as tame as kittens then.  You can go right up to 'em and
+they won't leave the nest.  Them birds has two broods in a season, and
+then's the chance to get a good whack at 'em."
+
+Joe rubbed his hands together in delight as he turned to his sister,
+"You'd ought to have seen 'em, Betty.  There was pop in his rubber
+boots a creepin' along--a c-r-e-e-p-i-n' along as sly as a mouse toward
+'em, and there they stayed.  The male bird he fluttered and' squawked,
+and the female she stuck to the nest till pop he got right up and he
+didn't even have to shoot her.  He just clubbed her over the back and
+down she went ker-splash as dead as you please.  Them there eggs won't
+hardly hatch out this year, I don't reckon," and at the prospect Joe
+broke into a malicious guffaw.
+
+"I think to club it was meaner'n to shoot the poor thing," said Betty
+indignantly.  "And, anyway, I wouldn't a-killed it on the nest.  It's
+mean to treat an 'fectionate bird so."
+
+"Pshaw, you'd do big things!" was Joe's scornful reply.
+
+"Well, I wouldn't be so tremenj'us cruel," persisted Betty; "I don't
+believe in killing a pretty bird."
+
+"But what would the wimmen do without bunnet trimmen' if we didn't kill
+'em, hey?" and Joe finished his question with a taunting whistle.
+
+As the shadows of each evening gathered around the cottage, the shadow
+over my life seemed to deepen and grow more gloomy.  Outside the door I
+could hear the hum of the bees as they flew homeward, the wind-harp
+played in the yellow pines its softest, sweetest music, and I scented
+the odor of honeysuckles and roses far away.  The rushing of the waters
+over the stones in the creek tinkled dreamily, but in the midst of all
+earth's loveliness I was desolate, because I was not free.
+
+And thus the summer days dragged wearily along, and the autumn came.
+It is not surprising then that I was overjoyed when later on I learned
+that I was to be given as a present to a young relative of Betty's, who
+lived to the northward in a distant State.  My present existence had
+grown almost intolerable, and I felt that any change could scarcely
+make my condition worse, and there was a chance of its being better.
+The prospect put new life into me.
+
+Preening my feathers became a pleasant task once more.  I whetted my
+bill till it glistened, and my long-neglected toilet again became my
+daily care.
+
+"I shall be mighty glad to get rid of the mopy creature," Betty's
+mother had, said when they talked of my departure.  "I wouldn't give
+the thing house-room for my part."
+
+"Cousin Polly will like it, though," Betty answered her mother.  "Polly
+was always fond of pets, and she'll be powerful pleased to get it as a
+present from her Southern kinfolks."
+
+"We'll have to go to the cost of a new cage, I reckon, and I don't feel
+like spending the money, neither," mused the mother.  "Polly might like
+a bresspin better.  I don't know as it will pay to send her the bird
+after all."
+
+How my heart sank at this announcement! so fearful was I that I might
+have to remain at the cottage; but Betty's answer gave me new hope.
+
+"Oh, certain it will pay!" she exclaimed eagerly.  "You know how many
+nice things Cousin Dunbar's sent us off-and-on, and only last Christmas
+Polly sent me my string of beads.  As for giving her a bresspin for a
+keepsake, she can get a heap nicer one out of their own store than any
+we could send her, and I'm certain she'd like the bird best of all;
+it's such a good chance to send it by Uncle Dan when he is going to
+their town and can hand it right over to Polly."
+
+"I reckon you're right.  Well, it will be only the cost of the cage,"
+said her mother, and so the matter was settled, much to my satisfaction.
+
+My new cage was very pretty, if anything can be said in praise of a
+prison, and was much lighter and pleasanter than the old, heavy,
+home-made structure in which I had been shut up so long.  Its rim was
+painted a cheerful green, and the wires were burnished like gold.
+Ornamental sconces held the glass cups for my food and there were
+decorated hoops to swing in.  Altogether it was a very handsome house,
+yet I could not forget it was a prison house.
+
+Betty busied herself in fixing it comfortably for me, and was full of
+kind attentions.  She begged me many times not to get frightened when
+the cover would be put on my cage.  The hood was necessary when I was
+traveling, but Uncle Dan would be sitting right near me all the time
+and would be very good to me.  She further assured me that I would find
+the motion of the cars delightful, and that all I would have to do was
+to sit on my perch and munch my seed and have a good time.  How jolly
+it would be to go whizzing past fences and over bridges and through
+tunnels and towns and never know it, she said.  She also charged me
+particularly not to be scared when I would hear an occasional horrible
+shriek and a rumbling like thunder, as if the day of judgment was at
+hand.  I must remember it was only the locomotive, and it was obliged
+to do those disagreeable things to make the cars go faster'n, faster'n,
+faster'n------
+
+How much faster I did not have time to find out, for Uncle Dan just
+then called to get me.  A light cover with a hole in the top was
+slipped over my cage, and I started on my journey.  Of my trip, of
+course, I knew nothing.  Part of the way we rode in a wagon through the
+country to the station where we took the train, but as Uncle Dan did
+not remove my cover in the railway car the time spent on the journey
+was almost a blank to me.
+
+Right glad was I, after what seemed a long, long time of jarring and
+jolting, to find the cage once more swinging from his hand and to hear
+the click of his boot heels on the pavements as we went through the
+streets of the town where Polly lived.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NEW HOME
+
+Should it happen that the last egret is shot and the last bird of
+paradise is snared to adorn a lady's dress, then--then I would not like
+to be a woman for all that earth could hold.--_Herbert O. Ward._
+
+
+When at last my covering was removed I found myself in a large, long
+room, which I afterward learned was a millinery store.  In fact the
+store was the front part of the family residence, the living rooms
+being behind and upstairs over it.  My cage was hung near the wide
+doorway at the end of the apartment and my new mistress at once ran to
+fill my cup with fresh water and bring me a supply of clean millet.
+After I had refreshed myself I began to look about me and study my
+strange surroundings.
+
+My new home was so unlike the little log house in the South from which
+I had come that it was many days before I could accustom myself to the
+clatter of voices which buzzed monotonously all day through the store.
+From ten o'clock in the morning, if the day were fine, till three in
+the afternoon, the din at times was almost deafening; for it was the
+busy season and customers were constantly coming and going, not all of
+them to buy, merely to look over the ribbons and tumble up the goods,
+as I heard the tired clerks say complainingly more than once.
+
+Numerous glass cases were placed near the walls, and running cross-wise
+were a counter and shelves much frequented by ladies who stood eagerly
+examining the array of bright gauzes, the glittering buckles, the
+flowers and plumes displayed there.  And what a chattering they kept
+up!  What a stir and a hubbub they made!  So many "Oh-h's" and
+"Ah-h's," so many "How lovely's," and other ecstatic exclamations, were
+mingled with their conversation as was quite bewildering.  In time,
+however, I became accustomed to this and discovered it was simply a way
+ladies have of expressing their approval of things in general.  Around
+the glass cases which held the trimmed hats the women buzzed like a
+swarm of flies, their volubility assuming a more emphatic character as
+they gazed within at the fashionable headgear placed on long steel
+wires.  Almost every hat held one, or a part of one, of my slaughtered
+race.  Frequently there were parts of two or three varieties on one
+hat--a tail of one kind, a wing of another, or a head of a different
+species.  The ends of the world had been searched to make this
+patchwork of blood.  The women raved over the cruel display; they
+gloated over our beauty; but they cared nothing for the pathetic story
+the hats told of rifled nests and motherless young.
+
+My new owner was a soft-voiced, gentle child, from whom I soon found I
+had nothing to fear.  She was most careful to keep my cage in order and
+never neglected to feed me.  Unlike her little friend Betty, she never
+allowed her sports or pleasures to interfere with this duty.  Often her
+playmates came for a romp in the garden behind the store, but she did
+not join them till she had first attended to my wants.  I was fond of
+having her talk to me, for her voice was sweet and kind, and the little
+terms of endearment she often used were very pleasing and made me feel
+she was my true friend.  She once tried to pet me by stroking my
+feathers, but I did not like it.  Although I knew she did not mean to
+hurt me, the motion of her hand made me nervous.  Instead of
+persisting, she only said reproachfully, as she put me back on my perch:
+
+"Dear Dickey Downy, why are you afraid of me?  Your own little Polly
+wouldn't hurt you for the world.  I wanted to softly stroke your pretty
+plumage just out of pure love and, you dear little coward, you won't
+let me."
+
+In her affection for me, Polly did not forget the wild birds outside,
+which flew about in the big evergreen trees near the garden gate.  She
+showed her thoughtfulness for the little creatures by strewing bread
+crumbs for them on the window sills on snowy days.  She often gathered
+up the tablecloth after the housemaid had removed the breakfast dishes
+and, running out under the trees, would shake it vigorously that her
+wild pets might get all the little pieces of food that fell.  Not a
+bird came down as long as she remained in the yard, but as soon as she
+had tripped back to the house and the door closed upon her brown curls,
+I could see a drove of hungry snowbirds swoop from the trees, and in a
+minute every crumb would be picked up.  I am sure they must have loved
+dear little Polly, for many a choice bit did they get through her
+kindness.
+
+While the majority of the customers at the store were well-dressed
+women, there were many who came to buy hats who looked poor and
+pinched.  A few looked slatternly.
+
+A sudden swing of their dress skirts would disclose a badly frayed
+petticoat or a tattered stocking showing above the shabby shoe.  Their
+gloveless hands were red and cold and coarse, and the milliner told the
+clerk that she dreaded to have them handle her filmy laces or
+glistening satins, because their rough fingers stuck to the delicate
+fabrics and injured them.
+
+These poor women worked hard, early and late.  Beyond the barest
+necessities they had little to spare, and yet not a woman among them
+would have bought an unfashionable or out-of-date hat could she have
+had it at one quarter the price.  Feathers were fashionable, and
+feathers she must have.  Might not one "as well be out of the world as
+out of the fashion"?
+
+All this dreadful traffic in my murdered comrades, and their display in
+the glass cases as well as on the heads of the customers, naturally
+made me very sad, and I now looked with aversion at every woman who
+entered the store.  But that all were not heartless fiends who were
+robed in feminine garb I found out another day when a daintily dressed
+lady came in to purchase a winter hat.  The contents of the glass cases
+were looked over critically for some time before she selected one which
+she tried on before the long mirror.  The milliner, who deftly adjusted
+it for her, tipping it first forward a little, then setting it back a
+trifle, stood off now to view the effect, at the same time assuring her
+how beautiful it was, and how vastly becoming to her.
+
+"I like this hat very much," said the lady; "or at least I shall like
+it when the bird is taken off."
+
+"You think the oriole too gay?  Orange is quite the vogue," answered
+the milliner, who seemed reluctant to make any change, and yet was
+anxious to please her customer.  "Perhaps you'd prefer some wings; or
+stay, here is a sweet little gull that will go all right with the rest
+of the trimming.  We will take off the oriole if you wish."
+
+"Thank you, but I have decided not to wear birds any more," said the
+customer.
+
+"But the effect would be quite spoiled without a wing, or an aigrette,
+or something there," exclaimed the milliner.  "You wouldn't like it.  I
+wouldn't think of taking off the bird, if I were you."
+
+"Yes, I shall like it much better with the bird off," returned the lady
+quietly.  "I have sufficient sins to answer for without any longer
+adding the crime of bird slaughter to the list."
+
+The milliner bestowed on her a pitying smile, but evidently was too
+politic to get into a discussion of an unpleasant subject.  Having
+given her final order for the hat, the lady crossed over to the other
+side of the room and shook hands with a friend whom she addressed as
+Mrs. Brown, who had just come in and was making a purchase at the lace
+counter.
+
+"I have been putting my new resolution into effect," she remarked after
+the first greetings; "I have just ordered my new hat, and it is not to
+have a bird or a wing or a tail on it."
+
+"Oh, I'm glad to hear of one convert to the gospel of mercy," said Mrs.
+Brown heartily.  "The apathy of our women on this subject is
+heart-sickening.  Men are denouncing us; the newspapers are full of our
+cruelty; the pulpit makes our heartlessness its theme; and yet we keep
+on with our barbarous work with an indifference that must make the
+angels weep."
+
+Her face glowed with righteous indignation.  It was easy to see that
+any cause to which she might commit herself was sure of an ardent and
+untiring champion.
+
+"But they tell me that chicken feathers, and those of other domestic
+fowls are being largely used now instead of birds," said the other lady.
+
+"Oh, yes; they tell us so because they want to prevent us from getting
+alarmed, since so much has been said against the destruction of the
+birds.  It is true that chicken feathers always have been used to some
+extent, the straight quills for instance.  I know it is frequently
+broadly asserted that the most of the birds used are made birds, but
+the manufactured creatures are poor deceptions; they are mixed with
+bird feathers, and are sold only to the less fastidious customers.  The
+demand for genuine birds is as great as ever."
+
+"But do you think as many are used now as formerly?" questioned her
+companion.
+
+"Yes, indeed!  Just think of the feather capes and muffs and
+collarettes made of birds.  The market for them is increasing all the
+time.  It takes from eighteen to twenty-five skins for each collar, and
+I don't know how many for the muffs.  Oh, I tell you, women are heaping
+up judgment on themselves."
+
+The other lady looked grave.  "I understand," said she, "that in many
+places down on the New Jersey coast the boatmen have given up fishing,
+as they can make so much more money killing terns and gulls for women's
+use.  They earn fifty dollars a week at it, at ten cents apiece for the
+birds.  Isn't that a horrible record for women?"
+
+"I don't doubt they earn that much, and perhaps more," answered Mrs.
+Brown; "for one season there were thirty thousand terns killed in one
+locality alone.  And at Cape Cod, and up along the shore near where I
+lived, they are slain by thousands every season and shipped to New
+York.  Oh, I can't tell you how distressing it used to be to hear the
+report of the guns day after day and know that every piercing sound was
+the sign that more innocent lives were being taken.  I used to cover up
+my ears and try not to hear them.  It made me shiver to know that those
+poor gulls were being shot down for nothing.  Their only crime
+consisted in being beautiful."
+
+Both women turned at that moment attracted by the sight of a young lady
+who was standing on the pavement outside in an animated talk with
+another girl.
+
+"There's Miss Van Dyke, with her new feather collar on," observed Mrs.
+Brown, in a low voice.
+
+The young lady in question was a dashing, radiant creature, bright with
+smiles and a face like a picture.  On her shapely shoulders was a
+magnificent cape, lustrous as satin, of silvery white, into which pale
+dark lines softly blended at regular intervals.  Twenty-two innocent
+lives had been taken to make that little garment.  Twenty-two beautiful
+grebes slain that their glossy breasts might lend splendor to a lady's
+wardrobe.
+
+The two friends looked at Miss Van Dyke in silence for a moment, then
+sighed as she passed along out of their view.
+
+"When I see such perversion of woman's nature I wonder that the very
+stones do not cry out against us," exclaimed Mrs. Brown.  "And mark my
+words, the slaughter will go on; the unholy traffic will not long be
+confined to grebe's breasts for muffs and cape trimmings.  Other birds
+will be used.  The gentle creatures are not all put on hats."
+
+"Oh!  I must not forget to tell you that the new preacher over at the
+Second Church has begun a course of lectures on the work of mercy that
+women might do.  He says that as mothers in the homes, and as teachers
+in the public schools and the Sabbath-schools, we have a grand
+opportunity."
+
+"So we have; but what avails our opportunity if our eyes are blinded so
+that we do not see it?" assented Mrs. Brown.
+
+"Last night," resumed the lady, "he spoke particularly of the crime of
+wearing birds; and he accuses us of being more cruel than men."
+
+"He does?" questioned Mrs. Brown, in great surprise.  "Why, we all know
+that woman's part in this wickedness comes from her desire to look
+pretty; at least she thinks that wearing birds adds to her beauty.  Her
+wickedness does not come from actual love of butchery.  But men and
+boys have shot innocent creatures since the world began for the mere
+brutal pleasure of killing something.  It seems as though they were
+born with a blood-thirsty instinct, a wanting to destroy life, to hunt
+it and shoot it down.  They beg to go gunning almost before they are
+out of dresses and into trousers.  Every mother knows there is a savage
+streak in her boy's nature.  No," continued Mrs. Brown, with a decisive
+nod of her head, "I say let the man who is without sin among them be
+the first to cast stones now.  Perhaps this very preacher spent all his
+Saturdays robbing birds' nests and clubbing birds when he was a little
+boy, and kept it up until he was big enough to kill them with a gun.
+Of course there are some who do not; not all boys are cruel.  But this
+cruelty does not excuse ours.  Man's wickedness does not make us the
+less guilty.  We will be held responsible all the same."
+
+The other woman looked thoughtful.  "Well," she said at last, "I
+haven't quite lost all faith in womanly mercy.  Women don't mean to be
+cruel; the trouble is they don't think."
+
+"Don't think!" echoed Mrs. Brown scornfully.  "Don't think!  That is an
+excuse entirely too babyish for women to offer in this age of the
+world.  Do they want to be regarded as irresponsible children forever?
+Don't you know that childish thoughtlessness on a subject as important
+as the needless taking of life argues tremendously against us?  Here we
+are at the twentieth century, and with all our boasted advancement we
+are as cruel and savage as Fiji Islanders.  Oh, don't talk to me about
+women!" and she made an outward motion of her hand as if pushing away
+an imaginary drove of them that was coming too near.  "I haven't a
+particle of patience with them.  If they're not in the habit of
+thinking, let them begin it right off.  Let them begin it before the
+birds are all destroyed.  If they have the least spark of tenderness
+left in their hearts------"
+
+The rest of the sentence was lost in the louder tones of a pert little
+miss, who in company with her mother was rummaging over a box of
+trimmings on the counter nearest my cage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE ILL-MANNERED CHILD
+
+  O wad some power the giftie gie us
+  To see oursel's as ithers see us.
+          --_Burns._
+
+  There lived of yore a saintly dame,
+  Whose wont it was with sweet accord
+  To do the bidding of her Lord
+  In quaintly fashioned bonnet
+  With simplest ribbons on it.
+
+
+"I won't have ribbon loops, I tell you," exclaimed the child.  "I want
+an owl's head and I'm going to have it."
+
+"Why, my dear, the ribbon is ever so much prettier," urged the mother
+soothingly.  "An owl's head is too old a trimming for your hat, dear.
+It wouldn't do at all.  Here, select some of this nice ribbon."
+
+"Didn't I say I wouldn't have it?" answered "dear" pettishly, as she
+reached into another box containing an assortment of wings, quails,
+tails, and parts of various birds jumbled up together.  Picking out a
+pair of blackbird's wings she placed them jauntily against the rim of
+an untrimmed hat which her mother held.
+
+"There, that looks nice," was her comment.  "If I can't have an owl's
+head I'm going to have these wings."
+
+Her mother mildly assured her that the ribbon was more suitable only to
+be met with the reply: "You can wear it yourself then, for I sha'n't
+wear it."
+
+This shocking disrespect caused two old ladies who were pricing hat
+pins to turn quickly and view the offender.
+
+"Goodness gracious!" ejaculated one of them, drawing a deep breath.
+"If that youngster belonged to me for about twenty minutes, wouldn't I
+give her something wholesome that she'd remember?  I'd take the
+tantrums out of her in short order."
+
+"She deserves it, sure," said her companion.  "But the mother is more
+to blame than the child for letting it grow up with such abominable
+manners.  I dare say the woman at first thought it was cute and smart
+in the little thing, and now she can't help herself.  La, sakes! just
+listen to that."  She re-adjusted her spectacles and gazed with added
+interest at the pair in altercation.
+
+With the hat poised on her finger the milliner was bending smilingly
+toward the little girl who was giving her order in a very peremptory
+tone.
+
+"I want those wings put on my hat.  I won't wear it if you trim it only
+in ribbon."
+
+The mother seemed a little embarrassed as she told the milliner that
+she supposed the hat would have to be trimmed in the way Elsie wanted
+it.
+
+"Humph!  I knew the child would get what she wanted," observed the old
+lady who had first spoken.  "I felt all the time that the mother would
+have to give in.  What on earth did she let her take those big black
+wings for?  Two of those little yellow sugar birds would have been
+better for a child's hat.  The idea of letting a youngster rule you
+that way!  My!" and then she took another deep breath.  "She needs a
+trouncing, if ever a child did," and with that she and her friend
+resumed their shopping.
+
+The cloud had vanished from Elsie's face, and all was serene again.
+Her mother seemed somewhat ashamed of her little girl's bad manners, as
+was shown by her apologetic air when she observed to the trimmer that
+Elsie was as queer a child as ever lived.  When she set her mind on a
+thing, it was so hard for her to give it up.
+
+They waited for the new hat to be trimmed, and on its completion Elsie
+seized it and put it on her head, much against her mother's wishes, who
+preferred not to have it displayed until the next day at Sunday-school;
+but the insistence of the child was so vehement that again the mother
+thought it wise to yield, and Elsie tripped off in triumph to the other
+end of the store with the black wings showing out stiffly on each side
+of her head.  The mother remarked, with forced playfulness, as she
+watched her, "Elsie's a g-r-e-a-t girl, I tell you.  You can't fool
+her."
+
+[Illustration: The Baltimore Oriole.]
+
+As the trimmer returned the boxes to the shelves, I overheard her
+mutter, "Oh, yes, Elsie is a g-r-e-a-t girl, a perfect little jewel, so
+well-behaved.  Her polite manners show her careful home training; quite
+a reflection on her dear mamma."  But from the peculiar laugh she gave
+I didn't believe she really meant it as praise.
+
+When the nights grew longer and the store was closed for the evening,
+the milliner and her husband usually spent an hour or two in the back
+room looking over the newspaper which came every day from the city.
+The man always turned at once to the wheat reports, and the price of
+wool, which he read aloud to his wife, though I could see she did not
+care very much to hear about them; but she hunted first for the fashion
+notes and the bargains in millinery before she read the other news.
+One night while thus engaged she suddenly exclaimed:
+
+"Here's something that is bound to hurt trade."
+
+By trade she meant the millinery business.
+
+"What is it?" her husband inquired, looking over the top of the page he
+held.
+
+"Why, here's a lot of women who have been meeting in a convention in
+Chicago and getting excited and losing their heads, and passing some
+ridiculous resolutions."
+
+"What kind of resolutions?" he inquired.
+
+"Oh, they've been denouncing the fashion of wearing birds.  They belong
+to a society called--called--something or other, I forget what.  Let me
+see," and she ran her eye down the column.  "Oh, yes, here it is.  They
+are members of the O'Dobbin society, and they got so wrought up on the
+subject they took the feathers out of their hats right there in the
+meeting and vowed never to wear bird trimming again.  Well, if such
+outlandish notions spread, you'll soon see how it will injure the
+millinery trade."
+
+"Pshaw! you needn't worry.  The protests of a handful of fanatical
+women can't do your business any harm," he answered carelessly, and
+turned to his paper again.
+
+She shook her head.  "I'm not so sure of that.  I think there are some
+women in this very town just cranky enough to endorse such foolishness.
+There's Mrs. Judge Jenkins for one.  I've never yet been able to sell
+her a real stylish hat.  She won't wear birds, because she thinks it's
+wicked.  I hope to goodness she won't consider it her duty to start an
+O'Dobbin society here."
+
+From the depths of my heart I blessed those kind women who had shown
+their disapproval of the nefarious traffic in bird life, and had
+pledged themselves to our protection.  True, they were but a handful
+compared with the millions whom the god Fashion still held in bondage,
+only a handful who were fighting the good fight; but would not the
+influence of their noble example and their pledge of mercy be spread
+abroad till all the women in Christian lands would join in the crusade
+against the wrong?
+
+In my joy at the thought I chirped so loudly that the lady looked up
+from her reading.  She seemed suddenly to recall a thought as she
+glanced at my cage, for she said, "I must not forget to ask Katharine
+if she can take the bird home with her next week and keep it while
+Polly is gone to the country.  I'll be sure to forget to feed it.
+Anyway, I haven't time to bother with it."
+
+The day before Polly left for the country I heard her inquiring for the
+"Daily," which I remembered was the name they called the newspaper
+containing the account of the noble city ladies who had pledged
+themselves not to wear us any more.
+
+"Tuesday's paper?" her mother asked; she was busy at the time fastening
+a poor, little, mute swallow on a rich hat.  "Perhaps it was thrown
+behind the counter.  Did you want it for any special purpose?"
+
+Polly replied that she wanted to read something in it.
+
+"Well, it is probably torn up by this time," said her mother.  "If it
+isn't on the table in the back room, or on the shelf by the window, or
+behind the counter, I'm sure I don't know where it is."
+
+The young clerk who was arranging the goods on the counter had heard
+Polly's inquiry, and she now asked if it was the newspaper that told
+about the women who thought it wrong to wear birds.  It seemed to me
+that Polly hesitated a little as she replied that that was the very
+paper she wanted.
+
+"Goodness, child, is that the piece you want to read?"  Her mother's
+voice sounded rather sharp, as if she were vexed.  "I hope that subject
+hasn't turned your head too," but she said no more, for just then a
+customer coming in, she laid down her work and went forward to greet
+her.
+
+Polly looked troubled, but she confided to Miss Katharine that she
+wanted very much to read the account.
+
+"Fortunately I cut the piece out to give to my sister.  I knew she'd be
+interested in it, but I have always forgotten to give it to her," said
+the clerk.  She seemed to be very much in earnest as she continued, "I
+do wish something could be done to save the birds.  If women must have
+feathers, why can't they content themselves with wearing ostrich tips
+and plumes?  There is nothing cruel or wicked in the way they are
+procured."
+
+She opened the little satchel hanging at her belt, and from it took a
+folded slip of paper which she handed to Polly, telling her she might
+have it to read, and when she had finished it to please bring it back
+to her.  Polly thanked her, and ran away to a quiet corner of the back
+room, where I saw her slowly reading the clipping as she rocked herself
+in her pretty birch chair.  When she had read it through, she sat for
+some time looking very thoughtful.  At last she rose and carried the
+paper back to Miss Katharine, halting a moment as she passed my cage,
+to whisper softly:
+
+"Dickey Downy, you dear little fellow, I'm going upstairs right this
+very minute to take the feathers off my best Sunday hat and I'm never,
+never going to wear birds any more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+TWO SLAVES OF FASHION
+
+  I do not like the fashion of your garments.
+          --_Shakespeare._
+
+  I'm sure thou hast a cruel nature and a bloody.
+          --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+Two young ladies, fashionably dressed, met each other that afternoon
+just in front of our side window, which had been raised to let in the
+air.  From the warmth of their greeting I saw that they were on terms
+of friendly intimacy.
+
+One of the girls stood a little out of the range of my vision,
+therefore I could not hear her voice when she talked, if, indeed, she
+had a chance to say anything, but the vivacious monologue carried on by
+her friend was amply sufficient to show the theme which interested them.
+
+How glibly that pretty creature chattered!  How fast the words flew!
+How she arched her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders and winked her
+eyes and wrinkled her forehead and pursed her rosy lips and tilted her
+nose and gesticulated with her slender hand and tapped the pavement
+with her umbrella point, passing from each phase of expression to the
+next with a rapidity truly wonderful.  Occasionally she went through
+with these strange grimaces all at once.  She was indeed a whirlwind of
+language, an avalanche of emotion.
+
+Her voice was high pitched and shrill, so that every one on the street
+must have heard her as she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Nell, how perfectly lovely your new hat is!  Turn around so that I
+can see the other side.  Oh-h, ah-h, that darling little bird with its
+glossy plumage among the velvet is too sweet for anything!  If anything
+it is prettier than Kate Smith's hat with the thrush's head and wings,
+although I'll admit hers is awfully stylish.  You ought to see my new
+hat.  Ah, I tell you it's a beauty; soft crown of silvery stuff, and on
+one side a tall aigrette and a dear little cedar-bird, and toward the
+back is the cutest, cunningest humming-bird with its tiny green body
+and long bill.  It looks as if it were ready to fly or to sing.  I
+selected the trimming for sister May's new hat too.  It is brown velvet
+and has an oriole on it; you know they are so showy and bright it makes
+you almost think you are in the woods.  At Madame Oiseau Mort's, where
+I get my millinery, there was another hat I had a notion to take.  It
+was built up with robins' wings and part of a tern was on it too, I
+believe--just lovely! but afterward I was glad I didn't buy it, for
+that decoration is more common.  I counted nine hats in church last
+Sunday trimmed with gulls.  Of course they were pretty, for a handsome
+bird makes any hat pretty.
+
+"By the way, Nell, I must tell you something perfectly ridiculous!  Do
+you know papa pretends it's wicked for women to wear birds on their
+hats or trim their gowns with feather trimming?  Did you ever?  I told
+him we'd be a mighty sorry-looking set going around like a lot of
+female Dunkards or Salvation Army women, without a bit of style, and he
+said those women hadn't the sin on their souls of wearing birds that
+had been killed on purpose to minister to their vanity; that he'd
+rather be a peaceful-faced Dunkard woman or Salvationist with her plain
+bonnet and her gentle heart than a gay society butterfly with her empty
+head loaded down with dead birds.
+
+"Isn't it perfectly horrid for him to talk like that?  He is such an
+old fogy in his ideas he actually makes me tired.  Then he went on to
+say that never again could he believe that women are the tender-hearted
+creatures they have always been supposed to be, when they show
+themselves so eager to be decked with the innocent songsters whose
+lives are sacrificed by the million on the altar of fashion; the men
+have always been taught that woman's nature was morally superior to
+theirs, but we'd have to give up this criminal fad which we have
+persisted in at such a fearful price of bird life before we could be
+regarded as other than monstrously cruel and bloody.  However, he
+prophesied that the fashion can't continue much longer anyway, because
+there soon won't be any birds left, and then, he says, we'll have a
+world without its sweetest music.  It will be hushed by the folly of
+woman.
+
+"Oh, Nell, don't you dislike to have anybody lecture you like that?  It
+makes one feel so uncomfortable.  I don't suppose it's so very wrong to
+wear bird trimming or our minister's wife wouldn't do it.  You know her
+black velvet hat with that big bird on it with the red points on the
+wings, is one of the most striking hats that come to church.  And her
+feather muff is so elegant, awfully expensive too.  And what would her
+hat look like without that bird on it, I'd like to know?  So if it
+isn't wicked for her it isn't wicked for us, Nell, and I'm not going to
+give up looking nice just to please papa.  He'd like to have me dress
+as antiquated as old Mrs. Noah when she came out of the ark, but I'm
+not going to encourage him in his old-fashioned notions.  And here,
+Nell, just listen to this!  Don't you think, he says the Episcopal
+Prayer Book ought to be revised for the women worshipers and omit that
+part of the litany where it says, 'From pride, vain-glory, and
+hypocrisy, good Lord, deliver us.'  What fol-de-rol!"  And being out of
+breath she stopped talking and they walked away down the street
+together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+DICKEY'S VISIT
+
+  Kind hearts are more than coronets.
+          --_Tennyson._
+
+
+Plainly furnished and small was the house to which I was taken by Miss
+Katharine to stay during Polly's absence at her grandmother's in the
+country.  But though it was destitute of fine furnishings, it was the
+abode of peace and love, and its lowly roof sheltered noble and kindly
+hearts.  The two sisters lived there alone, supported mainly by
+Katharine's earnings in the millinery store, though occasionally the
+sister, who was lame, added something to their little income by making
+paper flowers and other articles of bright tissues.  It was her
+business to keep the house while Miss Katharine was at the shop, and
+very long and lonely the hours must have seemed to her while her sister
+was away.
+
+The first day I was there a boy whom she addressed as John Charles came
+to the house.  Apparently he had been carefully trained, for he raised
+his cap when the lame girl opened the door to his knock.  His manners
+were fine, for he remained standing after he entered until she had
+first seated herself, as if to say, "A gentleman will not sit while a
+lady stands."
+
+He had come to inquire if she wished to buy some cooking apples.
+
+"They are very nice," said John Charles briskly, quite as if he were an
+old salesman.  "No mashed or decayed ones among them."
+
+"I have been wanting some apples," said Eliza.  "If I knew what yours
+were like I might buy some."
+
+"I have a few here to show," and John Charles drew from a small paper
+sack one or two bright rosy apples.  "There, try one," he said.  "You
+will find them nice and juicy and sour enough to cook quickly."
+
+Eliza bit into one and expressed her approval of the fruit.  "They will
+make delicious apple-sauce, I'm sure," she said.  After inquiring the
+price she told the young merchant he might carry in a peck.
+
+With a business-like flourish John Charles took a small note-book and
+pencil from his pocket and wrote something at the top of the leaf.
+
+"I'm not delivering now," he said as he returned the note-book to his
+pocket.  "I'm only taking orders; but I'll have your apples here in an
+hour."
+
+Eliza bit her lip to keep back a smile.  A boy in knee pants
+transacting business like a grown man, appeared quite amusing to her.
+
+"Oh, I see," she said.  "You take orders for your goods.  You don't
+sell from door to door."
+
+"No, indeed!" answered John Charles with a lofty air.  "That's too much
+like peddling.  I won't peddle.  I prefer to get regular customers and
+take orders and fill them."
+
+While he had been talking he had been glancing toward me where I hung
+in the window, and he now politely asked if he might come to look at
+me.  Eliza gave a surprised consent, but watched the boy closely as he
+stood near and chirped to me calling me, "Po-o-o-r Dickey Downy," as
+soon as he found out my name.  I saw from the way Eliza kept her eyes
+on his movements that she was expecting he would do something to hurt
+me, but in this she was pleasantly disappointed, for he never once
+touched my cage and cooed as softly when he spoke to me as Polly
+herself might have done.
+
+I was quite afraid of him at first, for ever since my experience with
+the wicked schoolboys who clubbed us in the linden trees, and my later
+experience with Joe, I disliked boys very much.
+
+[Illustration: The Bobolink.]
+
+When John Charles had bidden Eliza "good-morning" and tipped his hat
+again and the door closed after him, she said to me: "Why, Dickey, that
+was a new kind of a boy!  He never once tried to hurt you or to scare
+you.  It shows that all boys are not rough, and I shall always like
+John Charles, for he is a little gentleman."
+
+To this sentiment I fully agreed, and I thought, "Alas! why are not all
+boys as gentle as John Charles?"
+
+In a few hours I felt as much at home with Eliza as if I had always
+lived there, and I was much pleased when I heard her tell Katharine at
+the supper table the next evening how much she had enjoyed having me
+with her.
+
+"A bird is ever so much better company than a clock," she said; "though
+when I'm here by myself I always like to hear the clock tick.  It seems
+as if I were not so entirely alone.  But a bird is better.  I talked to
+Dickey to-day and he twittered back.  He has such a cute way of perking
+his little head to one side just as knowing as you please, and he acts
+exactly as if he were considering whether he should answer 'yes' or
+no' to what I say, and then it is such fun to watch him smooth down his
+feathers.  He washes and irons them so nicely and works away as
+industriously as if he were afraid he'd lose his 'job.'"
+
+Miss Katharine rose from the table and stuck a lump of sugar for me to
+taste between the wires of my cage.
+
+"I am surrounded by poor dead birds in the store all day," she
+observed, "and spend so much of my time sewing their wings and heads
+and tails on hats and sort boxfuls of them for customers to look at,
+that even a living bird saddens me."
+
+"Yes, it must be very depressing.  What a shame to kill them; they are
+so cute and pretty and such happy little creatures!  See how cunning he
+looks nibbling at that sugar," and the sister joined Miss Katharine in
+watching me.
+
+"But do you know, Kathy, I don't believe that women would continue
+wearing bird trimmings if they stopped a minute to think about it.  It
+doesn't seem wrong to them because they never considered the question.
+They simply haven't thought about it at all."
+
+"Somebody set the fashion and they all followed like a flock of sheep,"
+answered the other with a sneering laugh.
+
+"Yes, that's just the way.  They go along without thinking.  They only
+know it is the style, and they don't stop to inquire whether it can be
+indulged in innocently or hurtfully.  Now I believe that if their
+attention was particularly called to it, the most of them would quit
+it."
+
+Miss Katharine brightened into a smile and half unclasped her little
+satchel.
+
+"If a bird could talk," pursued the lame girl, "what a revelation it
+could make.  What lovely things it could tell us of that upper kingdom
+of the air where it floats and the distant land it sees!  What sweet
+secrets of nature it knows that man with all his wisdom can never find
+out.  And then its gift of song!  Why, if thousands and thousands of
+dollars were spent in training the finest voice in the world it could
+never equal the notes of a bird.  A woman who could perfectly imitate a
+lark's carol would make her fortune in a month.  The world would go
+wild over her."
+
+"But as she can't do that she has the lark killed to stick on her hat,
+and then she goes wild over it," interrupted Miss Kathy.
+
+Her sister smiled at this outburst and continued: "While I was working
+at that morning-glory wreath to-day I couldn't help but watch this bird
+of Polly's with its innocent little antics, and it made me see more
+than ever how wrong it is to cage and kill them.  I just felt as though
+I ought to do something to help save the birds and, Kathy, I wonder if
+we were to invite some of our friends here some evening and call their
+attention to the subject, and explain the wrong to them, if we couldn't
+do some good that way?  Maybe they'd decide not to wear birds on their
+hats."
+
+"We might try, sister, I would be perfectly willing to try; but I'm
+afraid it wouldn't do much good, for we have but little influence.  As
+long as fashionable and wealthy ladies will do it, the poorer classes
+will not give it up very readily."
+
+"But they have hearts which can be appealed to.  They have feelings
+which can be roused," answered the lame girl eagerly.  "Being alone so
+much I have more time to think over these things than the shop girls
+who are hurried and busy all day, and perhaps nobody has ever tried to
+show them how wrong it is; but I really believe some of them could be
+influenced, if once they would seriously think of the wrong they are
+doing.  That is the reason, Kathy, I suggested to get a lot of them
+together to talk about saving the birds."
+
+The gentle cripple had never even heard of the great Audubon.  She did
+not know that societies existed in many States called by the name of
+the distinguished naturalist, engaged in the same merciful work.
+
+Miss Katharine drew from the satchel the paper clipping and handed it
+to her sister, saying: "This is a coincidence surely; I cut this out of
+the daily paper at the store some time ago, intending to give it to
+you, but I always forgot it.  It is an account of the proceedings of a
+convention in one of the big cities.  You will see by reading it that
+somebody else has been thinking your identical thoughts."
+
+"How lovely that is!" exclaimed Eliza when she had carefully read the
+notice.  "How I should have enjoyed being at that meeting.  We will
+help those people all we can, Kathy, by stirring up our acquaintances
+here.  You invite the girls for tomorrow night and I'll have the house
+ready for them."
+
+That I had been an inspiration to this gentle girl in her work of mercy
+was a great joy to me, and all the next day I was constantly bursting
+into a round of cheerful twitters and I swung myself in my hoop as fast
+as I could make it go.
+
+The best room was swept and dusted with the greatest care, and a few
+extra chairs moved in from other parts of the house.  My cage was
+transferred from its usual hook to the parlor, and about eight o'clock
+the guests thronged in and soon every seat was filled.  They were
+principally girls who were clerks in stores, or worked in shops and
+offices, and many of them were very smartly dressed.  A few, like Miss
+Katharine and her sister, were more plainly attired; but all were
+lively and full of girlish fun and seemed to enjoy being together.  My
+cage hung in view of every one, and I was proud to be selected as an
+object-lesson by the lame hostess in her introductory appeal to her
+guests to help save the birds.  She so presented the facts that before
+the evening was over she had roused an enthusiasm in some of them
+almost equal to her own, and several pledges were given not to wear
+birds again.
+
+"There is something new in the way of womanly cruelty which isn't so
+well known as the destruction of the birds," remarked one of the
+company.  "The humane society ought to get after the women who wear
+baby lamb trimming."
+
+"The way sealskins are procured is also very cruel," said another girl.
+
+"I have never read much about it," answered Eliza, "but it surely
+cannot be so wicked as killing song birds, because the sealskin is an
+article of clothing which serves to keep the body warm, while a dead
+bird sewed on your hat is merely for show and doesn't keep you warm or
+cool or anything else."
+
+"It is not the use that is made of the sealskin that is wrong, but the
+cruelty of the hunters in getting it," replied the young lady who had
+first spoken.  "They say when the parent seal is captured the young one
+cries for it exactly as a human baby cries after its mother.  It is
+most pitiful to hear it wail.  The branding of the poor creatures is a
+most brutal thing."
+
+"Why are they branded?" asked Kathy.
+
+"Well, you know, for some years there has been a great strife between
+the United States and Canada, principally over the seal fisheries.
+Each was afraid the other would get more than its share.  To put a stop
+to the seals being entirely killed off, as was likely to be the case
+since so many poachers were in the business, one of our government
+agents suggested that the seals should be branded.  They drive them
+into pens and burn them with red-hot irons."
+
+"It isn't likely that any of us will be called upon to deny ourselves
+the wearing of baby lamb, as it is quite expensive, but we can condemn
+it by word if not by example," observed Kathy.
+
+The good-nights were said and the company dispersed, not so jolly and
+noisy as they came, but with thoughtfulness arising from awakened
+consciences.  The humble lame girl had sowed the good seed.
+
+Polly was to come back from her grandmother's the next week and, though
+I looked forward with pleasure to being with her again, I felt sorry to
+leave this peaceful home.  The worthy lives and beautiful aims of these
+obscure girls of whom the world knew nothing was a sweet remembrance to
+carry with me.
+
+"Thank Polly for me for Dickey Downy's visit and tell her whenever she
+wants to go away anywhere I'll be glad to take care of him for her,"
+Eliza said when the time came for me to go.
+
+She gave the cage into Miss Kathy's hand.  I chirped a farewell to her
+and she whistled back to me and we parted to see each other no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE COUNTRY SCHOOL
+
+  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
+          --_Bible._
+
+
+Polly's welcome to me was most cordial.  She was bright as a cricket
+and full of chat about her visit.  With her usual care she examined my
+cage closely to see that everything was in order and petted and praised
+me for a little while to my full content, then ran to Miss Kathy to
+tell her of the new story book which had been presented to her while
+away.
+
+"And I am going to read you the stories some day," she added.
+
+Her young playmates flocked in to see her and as I listened to their
+glad voices my heart yearned more than ever for my comrades of the
+woods, for a thought of spring was in the air.
+
+As the days went by there were indeed signs all around that spring was
+on the way.  The wind no longer bellowed hoarsely in the treetops, but
+had a mellow, musical sound and the raindrops that struck the window
+pane trickled softly as if glad to come out of the clouds.
+
+Just after school one bright afternoon Polly came to the door on the
+side porch and called in to Miss Katharine:
+
+"I'll be playing out in the yard awhile.  Louise and Nancy have come to
+stay till half-past five o'clock, so if mother needs me you'll know
+where to find me."
+
+"All right" said Miss Kathy.  "Go on and have a jolly time."
+
+And a jolly time they had, judging from the merry shouts that came in
+through the open door.
+
+"I've got your tag!  I've got your tag!" I could hear Polly say, and
+then there was a great scampering of feet and roars of laughter as they
+chased each other up and down the walks.  This was kept up for some
+minutes, then a voice began:
+
+  "Intery-mintery, cutery-corn,
+  Apple-seed and briar-thorn,
+  Wire, briar, limber-lock,
+  Three geese in one flock;
+  One flew east and one flew west
+  And one flew over the cuckoo's nest."
+
+"Oh, Louise, you're out!  It's your turn first."
+
+"I wonder if we are the geese?" said Nancy.  Then they all giggled as
+if what she had said was very funny.
+
+"Louise, Louise, look, look!  You're going to have good luck,"
+presently shouted two voices.  "A ladybird has lighted on your
+shoulder."
+
+"Oh, goody!" said Louise.  "I wonder what my good luck is going to be?"
+
+"Shake it off, Louise, let it light on me," said Nancy.  "I want good
+luck to come to me too."
+
+"It is just the color of my new crimson dress," declared Polly.
+
+"Only your red dress hasn't spots on it," corrected Louise.
+
+"No, but the red is about the same shade as my dress.  Oh, girls,
+wouldn't a row of ladybirds for buttons be pretty on my waist?"
+
+At this quaint conceit the three girls all giggled again.
+
+"I do think they are the cutest little bugs.  I never get tired of
+looking at them," observed Polly.
+
+"Bugs?  You wouldn't call them bugs, would you?" inquired Louise.  "I
+think they are little beetles."
+
+"Beetles?  No, no," said Polly and Nancy both in one breath,  "A beetle
+is a big black thing that flies around only at dusk."
+
+"Do you suppose your father would know?" asked Louise of Polly.  "Let's
+take it in the house and ask him, and so settle whether it is bug or
+beetle."
+
+And they came running into the sitting room behind the store to show
+the lady-bird to Polly's father, who was there looking over his paper.
+
+"Is it a bug or a beetle?" they asked.
+
+He laid down the paper and looked at the pretty little insect a moment.
+
+"It is a ladybird."
+
+"Yes, of course, we know that, papa; but Nancy and I say it is a bug,
+and Louise says it's a beetle," explained Polly.
+
+"Louise is right," was his reply.  "It is classed as a beetle.  It is
+one of the best friends the farmer has, and the fruit grower too."
+
+"How is it useful to him?" asked Nancy.
+
+"Why, it eats the lice that spoil certain plants and leaves and grain.
+I notice that the Australian government is--Do you girls know where
+Australia is?" he asked, interrupting himself.
+
+"Of course we do," they all shouted with much laughing, as if it were a
+great joke to ask them such a question.
+
+"Well, I was going to tell you that the Australian government is taking
+steps to encourage the ladybird on purpose to help the fruit farmers of
+that country.  Perhaps they have heard that it brings good luck," he
+added with a smile.
+
+"Let's show it to Dickey Downy and then put it out of the door and let
+it go home," said Polly.
+
+"Dickey Downy wouldn't know a lady-bird from a grasshopper," answered
+Nancy teasingly.
+
+Polly retorted, "Don't be too sure!  Dickey is a very intelligent bird,
+a very extraordinary bird."
+
+She contented herself with paying me compliments, for instead of
+bringing the crimson beetle into the store she opened the window and
+let him fly away.
+
+"Well, I'm glad I have learned something new about ladybirds," remarked
+Louise, as she tied her hat strings ready to go home.
+
+"And I too," chimed in Nancy.  "I am glad the Australians prize the
+pretty little creatures.  It's nice to be useful and handsome too."
+
+Then both girls said good-bye and ran home.
+
+A few days later Polly announced to Miss Kathy that she was ready to
+read the long promised tale.
+
+"Mother says you will be in the back room sewing this afternoon, so I
+will bring my little rocker and sit here and read to you.  My book is
+full of beautiful stories about children and birds and bees."
+
+I too anticipated a pleasant afternoon, for my cage still hung within
+the doorway where I could hear and see all that took place in both
+apartments.  Soon after dinner Miss Kathy appeared in the back room
+with her thimble and scissors and seated herself at the work-table.
+Polly drew up her chair beside her.  The book she held was a pretty
+little affair bound in red with a silver inscription on the covers, and
+after being duly admired by both, Polly opened it and selected the
+following story, which she read aloud:
+
+
+    THE MOUNT AIRY SCHOOL.
+
+The breath of blossoms was in the air and spicy scents from the woods
+that lined the lane on each side came floating to the delighted senses
+of a little girl who drove slowly along the road leading to Mount Airy
+School.
+
+Young horses frisked in the pastures or came whinnying to the fence as
+she passed.  Lazy cows cropped the grass at the sides of the road,
+pushing their heads into the zigzag corners of the rail fence in
+pursuit of the tender clover that had crept through from the thrifty
+meadows.
+
+The school was a little brick structure standing back a short distance
+from the road, with a playground on each side as enchantingly beautiful
+as it was novel to Alice Glenn, the little girl who had come from town
+by invitation of the teacher to visit the school.  Accustomed to the
+severer discipline of the graded school of which she was a member, the
+unconventional ways of these children amused the young visitor greatly.
+But who could study on a morning like this, with the delicious warbling
+of the birds sounding in one's ears?
+
+Who could be expected to take an interest in nouns and adverbs while
+his heart was out in the woods with the bugs and bees or with the sheep
+over in yonder field, whose ba-a, ba-a, was borne in distinctly through
+the open door?
+
+"I'm sure I would never have my lessons if I went to school here in the
+summer time," thought Alice as she glanced over the room.  "The country
+is too lovely to be spoiled by school books.  Why, that boy has a
+wounded bird in his desk!  I wonder if Miss Harper knows?"  And a
+moment after, Alice met the bold, defiant look of the boy himself,
+which seemed to say, "Well, what are you going to do about it?  That
+bird belongs to me."
+
+The history class being called at this moment the big boy got up,
+shoved the little creature to the farthest corner of his desk and
+giving Alice a parting scowl, went forward to recite his lesson.
+Notwithstanding her desire to befriend the feathered captive she soon
+became interested in the class and could scarcely refrain from laughing
+outright at the answer to the teacher's question, "What happened at
+Bunker Hill?"
+
+"Old Bunker died."
+
+This was bawled out by a freckled-faced boy, who reminded her of a
+rabbit, owing to a fashion he had of twitching his nose and keeping it
+in motion in some mysterious way.  Even the teacher wanted to laugh,
+but assuming her sternest manner she speedily restored order.
+
+It was during the arithmetic lesson that Alice's heart went out in pity
+for the youthful instructor.  The majority of the pupils were bright;
+but an unruly fraction, one child, refused to comprehend.
+
+"If a family consume a barrel of flour in nine weeks, what part of a
+barrel will they use in one week, Matilda?"
+
+Matilda rolled her blue eyes up to the ceiling as if to find the answer
+there, then studied a board in the floor for several minutes, then
+slowly shook her head and sat down.  A dozen hands were raised, and the
+teacher nodded permission to a small boy who analyzed it successfully.
+
+"Now, Matilda, you try it."
+
+But Matilda shook her head and fidgeted with her apron string.
+
+"Try it, and we will help you," persisted the teacher.
+
+Thus urged, Matilda cleared her throat, folded her arms and began: "If
+nine persons use a barrel of flour in nine weeks, in one week they
+would use nine times nine, which is eighty-one."
+
+"What! eighty-one barrels?  But, Matilda, it makes no difference about
+the number of persons.  It may be one hundred or it may be twenty.
+Suppose it were a bushel of potatoes they consumed in nine weeks.  How
+many would they use in one week?"
+
+The girl again shook her head and resumed her upward gaze.
+
+"Would they not use one-ninth of a bushel?  Or, we'll take a peach for
+instance."
+
+Matilda's face brightened perceptibly and almost lost its look of
+dejection.  The teacher noted the change and smiled encouragingly as
+she said:
+
+"We'll suppose a peach will last you nine days.  What part of it will
+you eat in one day?"
+
+The expectant look faded out of the poor girl's face.  One peach to
+last nine days!  No wonder the question seemed impossible of solution.
+
+"Well, then," said Miss Harper quite in despair and almost perspiring
+in her effort to make it plain to the child, "we'll let the peach go.
+Suppose instead, it were a watermelon.  If you ate a carload of
+watermelons in nine days, what part of a carload would you eat in one
+day?"
+
+At the mention of her favorite fruit, Matilda's eyes glistened, her
+features relaxed into a broader smile, and almost before the teacher
+had finished she had her answer ready and gave a correct analysis.
+Watermelons had won.
+
+At last the little clock that ticked away the hours on the teacher's
+table pointed to the time for the noon intermission, and with a whoop
+and halloo almost deafening, the pupils rushed out with dinner pails
+and baskets to eat their luncheon in the shady woods.
+
+Miss Harper led Alice away to her boarding-place across the fields.
+Scarcely taking time to taste the different kinds of jams, jellies,
+grape-butter, and other sauces set out by the hostess in special honor
+of the young visitor, Alice hastily dispatched her dinner and was soon
+back at the playground, where she found a bevy of girls seated on a big
+grapevine which one of the larger girls was swinging backward and
+forward amid shouts of glee.  Nearby two gingham sunbonnets bobbed up
+and down as their owners bent their heads to watch a speckled lady-bug
+crawl up a twig.
+
+  "Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home,
+  Your house is on fire, your children will roam,"
+
+repeated Esther in a low monotone.
+
+"See, it's going now.  I wonder whether it really understands us?"
+
+"Of course it does," replied her companion positively.
+"Daddy-long-legs are real smart too.  I caught one last night and I
+said over three times, 'Tell me which way our cow goes or I will kill
+you,' and it pointed in the direction of our pasture lot every time."
+
+"You wouldn't really have killed the poor thing, though," exclaimed
+Alice, who had drawn near to look at the crimson lady-bug.  "A
+daddy-long-legs is such a harmless creature.  It has a right to live as
+well as we have."
+
+"Oh, Caleb, did you catch it?" interrupted Matilda.  "Bring it here!"
+and she beckoned to a small boy who was busy near a large beech tree
+some distance away.  "He's been after a tree-frog," she explained.
+"There's one up in that tree that sings the cutest every evening and
+morning.  I hear him when I am gathering bluebells."
+
+"It's pretty near dead," said the boy bringing his trophy.  "I guess I
+squeezed it too hard.  We might as well kill it."
+
+"No, no! that would be cruel; the poor little thing will soon be all
+right if you put it back on its tree.  We'll go with you and help you
+put it up," replied Alice.  "Come on, girls."
+
+"It ain't hardly worth the trouble," and the boy looked at the frog
+disdainfully.  "It's uglier than a toad, if anything.  But I never kill
+toads; I know better'n to do that."
+
+"I am glad to hear it," said the visitor from town as they turned
+toward the elm tree.  "Toads enjoy life and it's wicked to molest 'em."
+
+"Oh, I don't know about their enjoyin' life.  The reason I let 'em
+alone is, coz if you kill a toad, your cow'll give bad milk."
+
+Alice did not dispute this wise statement.  She could not help wishing
+that the same law of retaliation protected all birds, beasts, and
+insects.
+
+After seeing the frog deposited in safety in a hole in one of the big
+boughs, she with Matilda and Esther scampered back to the swing
+expecting to find the others there.  To their surprise the big
+grapevine was unoccupied, and the shouts and screams issuing from the
+schoolhouse led them too, to hurry on to see what was the matter.
+
+"Maybe Jim Stubbs has got a mus'rat, or somethin' in there a-scarin'
+the children," suggested Esther, as they entered the door.
+
+A crowd had gathered in front of the teacher's desk on which was placed
+the large dictionary, and seated on the book was the boy who winked
+with his nose.
+
+"Stand back!" he called, "I'm going to let it out, and then you'll see
+fun."
+
+With that he jumped down, removed the dictionary, raised the lid of the
+desk, and out popped a red squirrel.  Round and round over the floor
+flew the frightened animal, dodging here and there and wildly darting
+into corners to evade the books and other missiles that were thrown at
+it.  Not only the boys took a part in the cruel sport, but some of the
+girls helped with sticks, sunbonnets, and whatever they could lay their
+hands on.  Two or three times the little creature was struck.  At last,
+helpless, it stood panting while one of its tormentors dealt it a blow
+that killed it.
+
+A cry of protest broke from Alice's lips, but her voice was lost in the
+roar of applause that followed the big boy's action, as he tossed the
+lifeless squirrel across the room into the face of another boy, who in
+turn pitched the animal at his neighbor.
+
+"The poor little creature!  How could they abuse it and take its life?"
+cried Alice, turning to those nearest her.  The other girls shrank back
+abashed at her reproachful tones, which were noticed by Jim Stubbs, and
+that hero felt called upon to make a speech.
+
+"Bah! boys, that girl is getting ready to cry over a dead squirrel.
+What d'ye think of that?"  And a heartless chorus echoed his laughter.
+
+"No, I'm too indignant to cry," replied Alice with spirit.  "I never
+knew boys could be so awfully wicked, yes, and girls too.  I should
+think you would love these dear little creatures, and pet and protect
+them.  They are what make country life pleasant.  I wouldn't give a fig
+for your pretty woods if there were no living things to be seen there."
+
+This was an aspect of the situation the boys had never before
+considered.  They did not realize that to a lover of nature the
+humblest form of animal life is interesting.  Did other people really
+prize squirrels and frogs and lightning bugs and such things?
+
+Just at this moment the teacher entered, and the crestfallen pupils
+busied themselves in gathering up the scattered books and other
+articles used in storming the squirrel.
+
+"My young visitor is quite shocked by such an exhibition of cruelty,"
+said Miss Harper, when she had learned how matters stood.  "Think what
+the woods would be without the song of birds and the chirp and hum of
+insects.  Your playground teems with happy beings that love the warmth
+and sunlight as well as you do.  Would not the forests be robbed of
+half their beauty and interest if the squirrels and chipmunks and birds
+and butterflies were killed off?"
+
+"Wimmen folks are nice ones to talk about cruelty to birds," sneered
+the big boy to his neighbor, "when they stick wings and tails and whole
+birds on their hats and bonnets whenever they can raise a cent to buy
+'em with.  Oh, yes, wimmen are awful consistent!  They are, for a fact."
+
+Had his words reached Miss Harper's ears she might have replied that
+sensible and humane "wimmen folks" regarded the fearful slaughter of
+birds as little less than a crime; but unfortunately she did not hear
+this and resumed:
+
+"Yet you hunt out these harmless and beautiful creatures and wantonly
+destroy them.  Nearly every boy gives way to this savage, brutal
+impulse to kill something.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+POLLY'S FAREWELL
+
+  Happy little maiden,
+  Give, oh, give to me
+  The highness of your courage,
+  The sweetness of your grace,
+  To speak a large word in a little place.
+          --_E. S. Phelps-Ward._
+
+
+Closing the volume, Polly laid it in her lap.
+
+"That was a good story," observed Miss Kathy, as the child paused.  The
+little girl did not immediately reply, but leaned forward and looked
+wistfully in her companion's face for a moment.
+
+"Do you think it is so very wicked to keep--that is, to--to deprive a
+bird of its liberty?" she asked timidly.
+
+"Oh, I don't know that it could be called wicked.  A canary bird, born
+in a cage, that never knew any other home, would be apt to die if it
+were turned loose to shift for itself and get its own living.  It
+possibly could not stand the exposure to the weather," replied Miss
+Katharine.
+
+"But supposing it wasn't a canary," said Polly hesitatingly; "supposing
+it might be a redbird, or a wren, or--or----"
+
+"Or a bobolink?" Miss Kathy smiled as she supplied the word.
+
+"Well--yes, a bobolink, for instance."  And Polly glanced toward me.
+
+"Any captured bird certainly feels very bad to be shut up in a cage all
+its life, though I have seen robins in captivity that grew to be as
+tame as canaries.  My aunt had one that lived twelve years in a cage.
+It would peck her cheek, and pretend to kiss her, and do all sorts of
+sweet little tricks.  His cage door stood open, and he went in and out
+as it suited him, but he never thought of flying away.  However, it is
+only natural to suppose that hopping about in a narrow space would be
+dreadful to a bird accustomed to spreading its wings and soaring up
+through the sky whenever and wherever it pleased."
+
+Miss Kathy looked at the clock.  She saw it was time for her to go back
+into the store, then gathered up her work and went into the front room.
+When Polly was left to herself I could see she was thinking very hard.
+The rocking-chair kept moving faster, and her forehead was drawn into a
+little pucker between her eyes.  She sighed too, occasionally, as if
+she were sad.
+
+I noticed that Miss Katharine from her post behind the counter looked
+in at the child from time to time, and I heard her say half-aloud: "If
+the fashionable women of the land had hearts as merciful and
+consciences as tender as that dear little Polly's, the slaughter of the
+birds would soon come to an end."
+
+The birch chair finally ceased to rock.  The deep-drawn wrinkle passed
+away from Polly's forehead.  She laid down her book and came to my
+cage, then she stood for a moment looking at me tenderly.  Then she
+took the cage down from its hook and carried it to the door leading to
+the garden.  The air was pleasant, and a sunbeam slanted across the
+porch making a yellow gleam on the lattice.  How beautiful it looked to
+my weary eyes!
+
+"Dearest Dickey Downy, good-bye," she said to me, and her voice had a
+little tremor in it.  "You had a right to be happy and live out of
+doors among the trees, and I kept you a prisoner.  Please forgive me
+for it, and forgive me for wearing birds' wings on my Sunday hat.  I
+shall never do such cruel things again.  It's coming spring now,
+Dickey, so be happy and fly away to the beautiful clouds."
+
+She set the little wire door wide open.  A warm zephyr swept by, laden
+with the scent of wild flowers and all sweet growing things.  My heart
+fluttered with joy.  I heard the far cry of the hills as I floated out
+and upward, higher and higher, on joyous wing.  I was free, free!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Dickey Downy, by Virginia Sharpe Patterson
+
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+<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+
+<TITLE>
+Dickey Downy - The Autobiography of a Bird
+</TITLE>
+
+<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
+BODY { color: Black; background: White; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 10%; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: justify }
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+P.poem {text-indent: 0%; margin-left: 10%; font-size: small }
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+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dickey Downy, by Virginia Sharpe Patterson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dickey Downy
+       The Autobiography of a Bird
+
+Author: Virginia Sharpe Patterson
+
+Release Date: July 10, 2005 [EBook #16255]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DICKEY DOWNY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+Dickey Downy
+</H1>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+The Autobiography of a Bird
+</H2>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+by
+</H4>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+VIRGINIA SHARPE PATTERSON
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+AUTHOR OF
+</H5>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+"The Girl of the Period," "All on Account of a Bonnet," <BR>
+"The Wonderland Children," etc.
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+With Introduction by
+<BR><BR>
+HON. JOHN F. LACEY, M.C.
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+Drawings by
+<BR><BR>
+ELIZABETH M. HALLOWELL
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+PHILADELPHIA
+<BR><BR>
+A. J. Rowland&mdash;1420 Chestnut Street
+<BR><BR>
+1899
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+Copyright 1899 by the
+<BR><BR>
+AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
+<BR><BR><BR>
+From the Society's own Press
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+To
+<BR><BR>
+my dear children
+<BR><BR>
+Laura, Virgie, and Robert George
+<BR><BR>
+this little Volume is
+<BR><BR>
+Affectionately Inscribed
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+INTRODUCTION
+</H2>
+
+<P>
+This beautiful volume has been written for a good purpose.  I had the
+pleasure of reading the proof-sheets of the book while in the
+Yellowstone National Park, where no gun may be lawfully fired at any of
+God's creatures.  All animals there are becoming tame, and the great
+bears come out of the woods to feed on the garbage of the hotels and
+camps, fearless of the tourists, who look on with pleasure and wonder
+at such a scene.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The child is father of the man," and this volume is addressed to the
+heart and imagination of every child reader.  If children are taught to
+love and protect the birds they will remember the lesson when they grow
+old.  When children learn to prefer to take a "snap-shot" at a bird
+with a camera, rather than with a gun, they will protect these
+feathered friends for their beauty, even if they do not regard them for
+their usefulness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nature has supplied a system of balances if left to itself.  Some forms
+of insect life are so prolific that but for the voracity and industry
+of the birds the world would become almost uninhabitable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Bird life appeals to the eye for its beauty, to the ear for its music,
+and to the interest of man for its utility.  Shooting-clubs have
+foreseen the extermination that awaits many of the finest of the game
+birds, and are taking much pains to enforce the laws enacted for game
+protection.  A selfish interest thus is called into activity, and one
+class of birds is receiving protection through the aid of its own
+enemies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the birds of beautiful plumage are now threatened with extinction
+by the desire of womankind for personal decoration.  Against this
+destruction Audubon societies are organizing a crusade, and Mrs.
+Patterson's principal purpose in this book is to direct attention to
+the wholesale slaughter of the birds of plumage and song.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Princess of Wales was requested to write in an album her various
+peculiarities.  Among the inquiries was: "What is your greatest
+weakness?"  She answered: "Millinery."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Napoleon was banished to Elba it is stated that the fallen monarch
+was followed by Josephine's old millinery bills.  How many of these
+bills were for the plumage of slaughtered birds the historian does not
+say.  But the passion for the beautiful is very strong in the tender
+hearts of women, and an earnest appeal to the natural gentleness of the
+sex must be made to enlist them in the defense of the birds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Patterson enters upon this task with enthusiasm, and many a bird
+will live to flutter through the trees or glisten in the sunshine and
+gladden the earth with its beauty that but for this little book would
+have perched for a brief season upon the headgear of some lovely woman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Let the good work go on until the mummy of a dead bird will be
+recognized by all persons as an unfitting decoration for the head of
+womankind.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+JOHN F. LACEY.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CONTENTS
+</H2>
+
+<CENTER>
+
+<TABLE WIDTH="80%">
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"><B>CHAPTER</B></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap01">THE ORCHARD</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap02">DICKEY DOWNY'S MEDITATIONS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap03">THE RULER WITH THE IRON HAND</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap04">DICKEY'S COUSINS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap05">"DON'T, JOHNNY"</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap06">THE PARROT AT A PARTY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap07">A WINTER IN THE SOUTH</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap08">THE PRISON</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap09">THE HUNTERS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap10">A NEW HOME</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap11">THE ILL-MANNERED CHILD</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap12">TWO SLAVES OF FASHION</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap13">DICKEY'S VISIT</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap14">THE COUNTRY SCHOOL</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap15">POLLY'S FAREWELL</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+</TABLE>
+
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+List of Illustrations
+</H2>
+
+<H3>
+<a href="#img-016">
+The Indigo Bird
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<a href="#img-064">
+The Summer Tanager
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<a href="#img-144">
+The Baltimore Oriole
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<a href="#img-160">
+The Bobolink
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan Sonnet<BR>
+And many humming birds were fastened on it.<BR>
+Caught in a net of delicate creamy crêpe<BR>
+The dainty captives lay there dead together;<BR>
+No dart of slender bill, no fragile shape<BR>
+Fluttering, no stir of radiant feather;<BR>
+Alicia looked so calm, I wondered whether<BR>
+She cared if birds were killed to trim her bonnet.<BR>
+Her hand fell lightly on my hand;<BR>
+And I fancied that a stain of death<BR>
+Like that which doomed the Lady of Macbeth<BR>
+Was on her hand.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;Elizabeth Cavazza
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER I
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE ORCHARD
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Bobolink, that in the meadow<BR>
+Or beneath the orchard's shadow<BR>
+Keepest up a constant rattle,<BR>
+Joyous as my children's prattle,<BR>
+Welcome to the North again.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Thos. Hill.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+My native home was in a pleasant meadow not far from a deep wood, at
+some distance from the highway.  From this it was separated by plowed
+fields and a winding country lane, carpeted with grass and fringed with
+daisies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While it was yet dawn, long before the glint of the sun found its way
+through the foliage, the air was musical with the twittering of our
+feathered colony.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is true our noisy neighbors, the blue-jays, sometimes disturbed my
+mother by their hoarse chattering when she was weary of wing and wanted
+a quiet hour to meditate, but they disturbed us younger ones very
+little.  My mother did not think they were ever still a minute.
+Constantly hopping back and forth, first on one bough, then on another,
+flirting down between times to pick up a cricket or a bug, they were
+indeed, a most fidgetty set.  Their restlessness extended even to their
+handsome top-knots, which they jerked up and down like a questioning
+eyebrow.  They were beautiful to look at had they only possessed a
+little of the dignity and composure of our family.  But as I said, we
+little ones did not trouble ourselves about them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The air was so pleasant, our nest so cozy, and our parents provided us
+such a plentiful diet of nice worms and bugs, that like other
+thoughtless babies who have nothing to do but eat, sleep, and grow, we
+had no interest in things outside and did not dream there was such a
+thing as vexation or sorrow or crime in this beautiful world.  When our
+parents were off gathering our food, we seldom felt lonely, for we
+nestled snugly and kept each other company by telling what we would do
+when we should be strong enough to fly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this stage of our existence we were as ungainly a lot of children as
+could well be imagined.  To look at our long, scrawny necks and big
+heads so disproportioned to the size of our bodies, which were scantily
+covered with a fuzzy down that scarcely concealed our nakedness, who
+would have thought that in time we would develop into such handsome
+birds as the bobolink family is universally considered to be?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Our mother, who was both very proud and very fond of us, was untiring
+in her watchful care.  No human mother bending over the nursery bed
+soothing her little one to rest, showed more devotion than did she, as
+she hovered near the tiny cradle of coarse grass and leaves woven by
+her own cunning skill&mdash;alert and sleepless when danger was near and
+enfolding us with her warm, soft wings.  Thus tenderly cared for we
+passed the early sunny days of life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After we could fly we often visited a fragrant orchard that sent its
+odors across the grain fields.  From its green shade we made short
+excursions to the rich, black soil in search of some choice tid-bit of
+a worm turned up by the plow expressly for our dessert.  We were indeed
+glad to be of use to the farmer by devouring these pests so destructive
+to his crops, but did not limit our labors to these places; we also
+made it our business to pick off the bugs and slugs that infested the
+fruit trees, and often extended our efforts to the tender young grape
+leaves in the arbor and the rose bushes and shrubs in the flower garden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On a warm morning after a rain was our favorite time for work, and it
+was pleasant to hear the tap-tap-tapping of our neighbor the
+woodpecker, as he located with his busy little bill the bugs in the
+tree limb.  It was like the hammer of an industrious blacksmith
+breaking on the still air.  His jaunty red cap and broad white shoulder
+cape made of him a very pretty object as he worked away blithely and
+cheerily at his useful task.  While the rest of us did not make so much
+noise at our work, we were equally diligent in picking off the larvae
+and borers that ruined the trees, and on a full crop we enjoyed the
+consciousness of having aided mankind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On several occasions I had seen our enemy, the cat, slinking stealthily
+on his padded feet from the direction of the great brick house which
+stood on the edge of the orchard.  Crouched in a furrow he would gaze
+upward at us so steadily and for so long a time without so much as a
+wink or a blink of his green eyes, that it seemed he must injure its
+muscles.  Aside from the many frights he gave us it is sad to relate
+that he succeeded before many days in getting away with one of our
+number.  One morning he crept softly up to a young robin which had
+flown down in the grass, but had not sufficient power to rise quickly,
+and before the unsuspecting little creature realized its danger, the
+cat arched his back, gave a spring, and seized it.  A moment later he
+softly trotted out of the orchard with the poor bird in his mouth and
+doubtless made a dainty dinner in the barn off our unfortunate comrade.
+This incident cast a deep gloom over us, and our songs for many days
+held a mournful note.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But while cats were unwelcome visitors from the great brick house, we
+sometimes had others whom we were always glad to see.  The two young
+ladies of the family, together with their mother and little niece,
+occasionally came out for a saunter under the trees, and it was very
+delightful to listen to their merry chat.  So affectionate toward each
+other, so gentle and withal so bright and lively, they seemed to bring
+a streak of sunshine with them whenever they came.  Miss Dorothy, who
+was tall and stately, seldom sat on the grassy tufts which rose like
+little footstools at the base of each tree, but rambled about while
+talking.  This was perhaps because she disliked to rumple her
+beautifully starched skirts.  But Miss Katie&mdash;impetuous, dimple-cheeked
+Katie, would fling herself down anywhere regardless of edged ruffles or
+floating sash ribbons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For it is clean dirt," she laughingly said, when Miss Dorothy
+playfully scolded her for it.  "This kind of dirt is healthful, and it
+isn't going to hurt me if a few dusty twigs or a bit of dried grass or
+weeds should cling to my gown.  You must remember, Sister Dorothy,
+there are different kinds of dirt.  I haven't any respect for grease
+spots or for clothes soiled from wearing them too long.  I don't like
+that kind of dirt, but to get close to dear old mother earth, and have
+a scent of her fresh soil once in a while is what I enjoy.  It is
+delightful.  I like nature too well to stand on ceremony with her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You like butterflies too, don't you, aunty?" asked little Marian.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To be sure I do, dear.  I love all the pretty things that fly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And the birdies too?" asked the child.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, indeed; I love the birds the best of all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And the old cat was awful naughty when he caught the baby robin the
+other day and ate it up.  Wasn't he, aunty?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  Tom is a cruel, bad, bad cat," responded Miss Katie, as she
+squeezed Marian's little pink hand between her own palms.  "That
+naughty puss gets plenty to eat in the house and there are lots of nice
+fat mice in the barn, and yet he slips slyly out to the orchard and
+takes the life of a poor, innocent little bird."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And it made the mamma-bird cry because her little one was dead," added
+Miss Dorothy, who had drawn near.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Little Marian heaved a deep sigh and her rosy lips trembled
+suspiciously.  "Poor mamma-bird!  It can never have its baby bird any
+more," she said, with a sob of sympathy.  "Don't you feel sorry for it,
+Aunt Dorothy?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, dear.  I feel very sorry for it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I expect the poor mamma-bird cries and cries and weeps and grieves
+when she comes home to supper and finds out her little children are
+gone forever and ever."  And with her bright eyes dimmed with tears of
+pity, Marian, clasping a hand of each of the young ladies, walked
+slowly to the house still bewailing the fate of the robin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My heart warmed toward these sweet young girls for their tender
+sympathy.  I almost wished I were a carrier pigeon, that I might devote
+myself hereafter to their service by bearing loving messages from them
+to their friends.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But, alas!  I was to have a rude awakening from this pleasant thought.
+As we flew that evening to our roosting-place, I observed to my mother
+that if there were no cats in the world what a delightful time we birds
+might have.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have a greater enemy than the cat," she responded sadly.  "It is
+true the cat is cruel and tries to kill us, but it knows no better."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If not the cat, what enemy is it?" I asked in surprise.  "I thought
+the cat was the most bloodthirsty foe the birds had."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My mother dipped her wings more slowly and poised her body gracefully a
+moment.  Then she said impressively, "Our greatest enemy is man.  No,"
+suddenly correcting herself, "not man, but women, women and children."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Women and dear little children our enemies?" said I, in astonishment.
+"The pretty ladies who speak so sweet and kind!  The pretty ladies who
+gather roses in the garden!  Would they deprive us of life?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My mother nodded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," she answered, "the pretty ladies, the wicked ladies."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER II
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+DICKEY DOWNY'S MEDITATION
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+It hath the excuse of youth.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Shakespeare.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+That night I pondered long upon what my mother had told me.  Ever since
+I left my shell I had been taught to respect my elders, and that it was
+a mark of ill manners and bad breeding for children to question the
+superior knowledge of those much older than themselves.
+Notwithstanding this, in my secret heart I could not help thinking that
+my mother was mistaken in her estimate of women when she called them
+wicked.  She had surely misjudged them.  However, I took good care not
+to mention these doubts to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had heard from my grandmother, who had traveled a great deal from the
+tropics to the North and back again, that women were the leaders in the
+churches and were foremost in all Christian and philanthropic work;
+that they provided beautiful homes for orphan children, where they took
+care of them and nursed them when they were sick.  She told me about
+the hospitals where diseased and aged people were kindly cared for by
+them.  She said they were active in the societies for the prevention of
+cruelty to children and to animals.  They fed armies of tramps out of
+sheer pity; even the debauched drunkard was the object of their
+tenderest care and their earnest prayers.  They held out a friendly
+hand to the prisoners in the jails and sent them flowers and Bibles;
+they pitied and cheered the outcast with kind words.  They offered
+themselves as missionaries for foreign lands to convert the heathen and
+bring them to Christ.  They soothed the sick and made easy the last
+days of the dying.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the battlefield, when blood was flowing and cannon smoking, my
+grandmother had seen the Red Cross women like angels of mercy binding
+up the gaping wounds and gently closing the glazed eyes of the expiring
+soldier.  In woman's ear was poured his last message to his loved ones
+far away, and when death was near it was woman who spoke the words of
+consolation and her finger that pointed hopefully to the stars.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Did not all this prove her to be sweet and tender and loving and gentle
+and kind?  Yes&mdash;a thousand times yes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My grandmother once had her nest near a cemetery, and often related
+pathetic incidents which had come under her observation at that time.
+One in particular I now recalled.  It was of a woman who came every day
+to weep over the mound where her babe was buried.  She was worn to a
+shadow from her long watching through its illness, and when it was
+taken from her, her grief was deep.  The bright world was no longer
+bright since she was bereft of her darling, and her moans for the lost
+loved one were heartrending.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This incident was only yet another instance of the tenderness of
+woman's nature, and I could not reconcile it with what my mother had
+told me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no," I repeated as I cuddled my head under my wing, "never can I
+believe that woman, tender-hearted woman, who is all love and mercy,
+all gentleness and pity, never can I believe she is our enemy."  And
+resolving to ask my mother to more fully explain her unjust assertion I
+fell asleep.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But a source of fresh anxiety arose which for a time caused me to
+forget the matter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The lindens which fringed the wood were now in full leafage, adorned
+with their delicate ball-like tassels, and hosts of birds flitted among
+them daily.  Many of them were of the kind frequently known as indigo
+birds, smaller than the ordinary bluebird.  In color they were of the
+metallic cast of blue which has a sheen distinct from the rich shade
+seen on the jay's wings or the brilliance of the bluebird.  Flashing in
+and out among the hanging blossoms their beautiful blue coats made them
+an easy target for the boys who attended the neighborhood country
+school.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-016"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-016.jpg" ALT="The Indigo Bird" BORDER="2" WIDTH="589" HEIGHT="816">
+<H4>
+[Illustration: The Indigo Bird.]
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+To bring down a sweet songster with a shower of stones, panting and
+bleeding to the ground, they thought was the best sport in the world,
+and the woods rang and echoed with their whoops and cheers as each poor
+bird fell to the earth.  A mere glimpse of one of the blue beauties as
+he hid among the leaves seemed to fire these cruel children with a wish
+to kill it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One half-grown boy, who went by the name of Big Bill, was noticeable
+for his brutality.  He encouraged the others in cruelties which they
+might not have thought of, for such is the force of evil example and
+companionship.  A distinguishing mark was a large scar on his cheek,
+probably inflicted by some enraged animal while being tortured by him.
+I always felt sure Big Bill would come to some bad end.  My mother said
+that a cruel childhood was often a training school for the gallows, and
+the boy who killed defenseless birds and bugs deadened his
+sensibilities and destroyed his moral nature so that it was easy to
+commit greater crimes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So dreadful became the persecutions of the schoolboys that the indigo
+birds finally held a council and determined to leave that part of the
+country and settle far from the habitations of men, where they might
+live unmolested and free from persecutions.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER III
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE RULER WITH THE IRON HAND
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+But evil is wrought by want of thought<BR>
+As well as want of heart.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Hood.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+One morning as we flew across the open space which lay between the wood
+and the wheat fields, we noticed two gentlemen in the orchard who were
+carefully examining the trees, peering curiously into the cracks of the
+rough bark or unfolding the curled leaves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As we came nearer we discovered that one of them was the owner of the
+place, the father of Miss Dorothy and Miss Katie.  The other was a thin
+gentleman in spectacles, who held a magnifying glass through which he
+intently looked at a twig which he had broken off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After a few minutes' inspection he said: "Colonel, your orchard is
+somewhat affected.  This is a specimen of the <I>chionaspis furfuris</I>."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it anything like the scurfy-bark louse?" inquired the colonel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The same thing exactly.  It occurs more commonly in the apple, but it
+infects the pear and peach trees.  You will find it on the mountain
+ash, and sometimes on the currant bushes," he answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The colonel asked him if he would recommend spraying to get rid of the
+pests, and was advised to begin immediately, using tobacco water or
+whale-oil soap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By the way," said the colonel, "there is a beetle attacking my shade
+trees.  They are ruining that fine row of elms in front of the lawn."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is undoubtedly the <I>melolontha vulgaris</I>," said the professor.  I
+designate him in this way because he used such large words we did not
+understand.  My mother told us that she was positive he was president
+of a college.  "The _melolontha vulgaris_ is the most destructive of
+beetles, but the larvae are still more injurious.  They do incalculable
+damage to the farmer.  Fortunately enormous numbers of these grubs are
+eaten by the birds."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Unfortunately the birds are not so numerous as they used to be.  They
+are being destroyed so rapidly, more's the pity!  These grounds and
+woods yonder were formerly alive with birds of all kinds.  Flocks of
+the purple grakle used to follow the plow and eat up the worms at a
+great rate.  You are familiar with their habits?  You know they are
+most devoted parents.  I have often watched them feeding their young.
+The little ones have such astonishingly good appetites that it keeps
+the old folks busy to supply them with enough to eat.  They work like
+beavers as long as daylight lasts, going to and from the fields
+carrying on each return trip a fat grub or a toothsome grasshopper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am a great lover of birds," returned the professor enthusiastically,
+"and I find them very interesting subjects of study.  By the way, I was
+reading the other day a little incident connected with one of America's
+great men which impressed me deeply.  The story goes that he was one
+day walking in company with some noted statesmen, busily engaged in
+conversation.  But he was not too much occupied to notice that a young
+bird had fallen from its nest near the path where they were walking.
+He stopped short and crossing over to where the bird was lying,
+tenderly picked it up and put it back into its nest.  There was a
+gentleman of a noble nature!  No wonder that man was a leader and a
+liberator!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who was he?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The grand, the great Abraham Lincoln," responded the professor
+impressively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, he'd be the very one to do just such a kind deed as that," was
+the colonel's hearty response.  "No man ever lived who had a bigger,
+more merciful heart than 'Honest Abe.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For myself I did not know who Abraham Lincoln was.  I had never heard
+the name before, but I was quite sure from the proud tone of the
+professor's voice that he was a distinguished man, as I was equally
+sure from the story of his pity for the helpless bird, that he was a
+good man.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You mentioned the industry of the grakle a moment ago," resumed the
+professor.  "Do you know that the redwing is equally as useful, and
+besides he is a delightful singer?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+  "The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you remember that line, colonel?" and the professor softly whistled
+a strain in imitation of a bird's note.  "The services of our little
+brothers of the air are exceedingly valuable to the horticulturist.
+And think of the damage done to arboriculture by the woodborers alone
+were it not for the help given by the birds.  Did you ever notice those
+borers at work, colonel?  Some writer has well described them as
+animated gimlets.  They just stick their pointed heads into the bark
+and turn their bodies around and around and out pours a little stream
+of sawdust.  The birds would pick off such pests fast enough if people
+would only give them a chance and not scare them off with shotguns."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, the birds earn their way, there is no denying it, and he is a
+very stupid farmer who begrudges them the little corn and wheat they
+take from the fields.  The account is more than balanced by the good
+they do."  Then the conversation ceased, for the colonel and his friend
+moved off to inspect the quince bushes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pleased by the praises they had bestowed on us for our efforts in
+cleaning the fruit trees and cornfields of injurious insects, I went to
+work with new vigor to get out some bugs for my luncheon, and was thus
+pleasantly employed when a sharp twitter from my mother attracted my
+attention.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look, children!" she exclaimed.  "Here come our young ladies with some
+company from the city.  Be careful to notice what they have on their
+heads and then tell me what you think of our sweet, pretty ladies."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One of my brothers was swaying lightly on a little swing below me.  I
+flew down hastily and placed myself on the next bough, where I could
+also get a good view of the ladies as they strolled toward us.  They
+were in a very merry mood and each one seemed striving to say something
+more arousing than her companions.  Miss Dorothy led the way, her arm
+linked in that of one of the stranger guests.  Then followed the others
+with Miss Katie and Marian hand in hand in the rear.  They were all
+very handsomely dressed, and having just returned from a drive had not
+yet removed their hats.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they came under the tree where we were perched, which was a favorite
+spot with Miss Katie, they halted for some time and consequently I had
+an excellent opportunity to look, as my mother had bidden me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And what did I see?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I saw six ladies' hats trimmed with dead birds.  Fastened on sidewise,
+head downward, on one was a magnificent scarlet tanager, his body half
+concealed by folds of tulle, his fixed eye staring into vacancy.  On
+another was the head and breast of a beautiful yellow-hammer; it was
+surmounted by the tall sweeping plumes of the egret, which this bird
+produces only at breeding time.  Oh, how much joy and beauty the world
+had lost by that cruel deed!  A third hat had two song sparrows
+imprisoned in meshes of star-studded lace.  Their blithesome carol had
+been rudely silenced, their cheer to the world cut short, simply that
+they might be used for hat trimming.  Of the remaining ones some were
+as yet unknown to me, but my mother, who had an extensive acquaintance
+with foreign birds, said that in that strange murderous mixture of
+millinery, far-away Australia had furnished the filmy feathers of the
+lyre bird which swept upward from a knot of ribbons, and that the
+forests of Germany had contributed the pretty green linnet.  Dove's
+wings and the rosy breast of the grosbeak completed the barbarous
+display.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How my heart sickened as I gazed at these pleasant, refined,
+soft-voiced women flaunting the trophies of their cruelty in the
+beautiful sunlight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Had they no compassion for the feathered mother who had been robbed of
+her young for the sake of a hat?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, how can they do such dreadful, such wicked things!" I moaned.  My
+mother heard my lament and signaled for us to come up where she was
+perching.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You see now who are our worst enemies," said she.  "The cat preys on
+us to satisfy his bodily hunger, but women have no such excuse.  We are
+not slaughtered to sustain their lives but to minister to their vanity.
+For years the women of Christian lands have waged their unholy war
+against us.  We have been driven from our old haunts and forced to seek
+new places.  We have been shot down by thousands every season until now
+many species are destroyed from the face of the earth.  There is no
+security for us in any place.  The hunter with his gun penetrates into
+the deepest forests, he perils his life in scaling the most dangerous
+cliffs, he wades through bog and marsh and mud and tracks us to our
+feeding grounds to surprise us with the deadly shot, and kills the
+mother hovering over the nest of her helpless offspring with as little
+compunction as if she were a poisonous reptile instead of a melodious
+joy-giver.  And all this horrible slaughter is for women."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I grew feverish with excitement at this terrible arraignment of the
+"gentler sex."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But why are they so cruel?  Why do they do this wicked thing?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For the sake of Fashion," said my mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Fashion, what is that?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My mother was very patient with me, so when I asked questions she did
+not put me off by telling me she didn't know, or advise me to fly away
+and play, or tell me she was busy and couldn't be bothered just then,
+therefore she now took pains to make me understand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You ask me what is Fashion," she began.  "Well, Fashion is an exacting
+ruler, a great, tyrannical god who has many, many worshipers, and these
+he rules with an iron hand.  His followers cannot be induced to do
+anything contrary to his wishes.  He sits on a high throne from which
+he dictates to his slaves what they must do.  Often they do the most
+outrageous things, not because they like to, but because he demands it.
+He is constantly laying down new laws for their guidance, and some of
+these laws are so unreasonable and absurd that a part of his followers
+frequently threaten to rebel.  They do not hold out against him long,
+for he manages to make it quite unpleasant for those who disobey him or
+refuse to come under his yoke."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Has he any men slaves?" asked my brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, he has some slaves among men, but the larger number of those who
+wear his most galling fetters are women.  If he but crooks his little
+finger these bond-women rush pell-mell in the direction he points.
+They are thus keen to do his bidding, because each woman who is the
+first to carry out his rules in her own particular town or neighborhood
+acquires great distinction in the eyes of the other worshipers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"His slaves are nearly always rich women, aren't they?" asked my
+brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By no means.  Many of them are poor working women who have to labor
+hard for a living.  But they will rob themselves of necessities and
+needed rest to get the means to follow his demands.  Often it takes
+them a long time to do this, and perhaps just as they have accomplished
+the weary task he suddenly proclaims a new law, and all this toiling
+and drudging and stinting must begin over again.  In this way the
+unhappy creatures have never a breathing spell.  It is utterly
+impossible for them to conform to the new law when it is first
+proclaimed by the god, and so they are always struggling to keep up.
+Their chains are never lifted or lightened a particle."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If the chain is so heavy why don't they break it?" I asked impatiently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Because they are afraid," she replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Afraid of the god?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no, child, they are afraid of each other.  They are afraid the
+richer slaves, who are able to comply with the demands will laugh at
+them and ridicule them, and that is why they strain every nerve to
+follow the god's wishes.  A slave, whether she is rich or poor, grows
+more cringing year by year, until at last she loses all her
+individuality, and becomes a mere echo of the god."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What about the slaves who rebel at first and afterward yield?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, they denounce the god very severely when he lays down some new law
+they don't happen to like, but as all the other slaves are obediently
+complying with it they dislike to be set off by themselves as
+different, and so they reluctantly give in after a time.  Sometimes
+they try to compromise with the god by going half-way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I inquired what the other slaves thought of that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They mildly tolerate them," said she.  "Sometimes they look askance at
+them when they meet, and try to show their superiority as being
+obedient, full-blooded, genuine slaves, while the others are only
+lukewarm servants of the monarch!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I wondered how the slaves regarded the woman who was independent and
+wouldn't worship the god.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My mother twittered softly at my question, and I knew she was smiling
+to herself.  "Why," said she, "they call that kind of a woman a
+crank&mdash;whatever that is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was very evident that this god Fashion was a cruel tyrant, and it
+was clearly through his influence that we were killed, and I so told my
+mother.  She looked very sorrowful as she replied:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, the women do not hate us.  They do not dislike to hear our pretty
+songs; they have no revenge to gratify; but the god orders them to have
+us killed, and they do it.  He tells them that to wear our poor
+mutilated dead bodies will add to their appearance, and so we are
+sacrificed on the altar of their vanity and silly pride.  As members of
+humane societies women have denounced the docking of horses' tails as
+cruel, but from what I know of woman's indifference to the sufferings
+of the innocent birds, I venture to assert that were Fashion to say
+that she should trim her cloak with horse tails there would not be left
+an undocked horse in the country."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I knew my mother was very excited or she would never have been so
+vehement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just hear how those birds twitter," remarked one of the ladies,
+looking up into our tree.  "One would think they were holding an
+indignation meeting over something."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, the dear little things; I love to hear them chirp," commented
+Miss Katie, turning a sweet glance toward us, and then the party moved
+to go and we saw the six hats loaded with their mournful freight file
+off to the house.  We followed the retreating hats with sad eyes till
+they were lost to view.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My brother broke the silence by asking, "Are there any Christian women
+who wear birds, and are among the god's worshipers?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My mother's manner grew very grave and solemn.  "That is not for me to
+say," she replied.  "They know whether they are guiltless of our
+wholesale slaughter, and they know too, how the gentle, merciful Christ
+regarded us when he declared that 'not a sparrow is forgotten before
+God.'"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IV
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+DICKEY'S COUSINS
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Another of my airy creatures breathes such sweet music out of her<BR>
+little instrumental throat that it might make mankind to think that<BR>
+miracles are not ceased.  We might well be lifted up above the earth<BR>
+and say, Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven,<BR>
+when thou affordest bad men such music on earth?&mdash;<I>Izaak Walton.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The fine pasture adjoining was a popular resort for some handsome birds
+that often visited it as a playground.  They were said to be relatives
+of ours, but I do not think they were closer than seventh or eighth
+cousins, which is so distant that it doesn't count&mdash;especially if one
+doesn't want it to.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All I know is that their family name was the same as ours, <I>Icteridae</I>,
+and means something or other, I forget what.  It was a good honorable
+name, however, and our branch was as proud of our ancestry as any
+Daughter of the American Revolution could possibly be.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were some tall weeds growing along the margin of a little stream
+in the pasture which produced quantities of delicious seeds, and to
+these we often repaired when we wanted a choice breakfast, as well as
+to watch the playful pastimes of these queer bipeds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+What would you think of a bird taking a bareback ride on a cow?   They
+were extremely fond of settling themselves on the cattle which browsed
+in the field and presented a truly comical picture as they complacently
+gathered in little groups on the backs of those huge animals.  Moving
+slowly along munching the dewy grass, first on one side, then on the
+other, the cows did not seem particularly to mind their saucy bareback
+riders.  Occasionally they would toss their heads backward, when up all
+the birds would fly into the air only to descend again as soon as the
+cattle were quiet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As I said, they were very handsome.  At a short distance they looked to
+be clothed in black, but the breast and neck were really a very rich
+brown, with the rest of the body like jet and as lustrous as satin.
+They were not general favorites with the other birds on account of some
+dishonorable tricks which they did on the sly.  For instance, they
+never troubled themselves to make nests, but watched their chance to
+sneak in and lay their eggs, only one in a place, in the nests of other
+birds.  For some reason their eggs always hatch a little sooner than
+the eggs rightfully belonging there, consequently the foster-parents,
+not knowing of the deception, are quite delighted with the first little
+one that comes out of the shell, and immediately fly off to get food
+for it.  This is very unfortunate, for during their absence their own
+eggs get cold and will not hatch.  After a time the old birds grow
+disgusted and tumble the poor eggs all out of the nest and bestow their
+whole attention to the juvenile cowbird, entirely ignorant of the fact
+that they are the victims of a "put-up job."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once when we were dining in the pasture we found out the cause of the
+booming noise we had often heard sounding through the woods.  Two men,
+each carrying in his hand a long club, shaped large at one end,
+appeared in the meadow and began looking among the long grasses which
+sheltered the nests of some meadow larks.  A number of the larks were
+on the wing, others sat on the rail fence rolling out cadenzas in
+concert in a gush of melody from their downy throats.  The men moved
+cautiously nearer under cover of the weeds.  Raising their long clubs
+to their shoulders they gazed along their narrow points a moment.
+Without exactly knowing why, we took alarm, and larks, bobolinks, and
+cowbirds sped upward like the wind.  At the same instant something
+bright shimmered in the sunlight, and with it a horrid burst of noise
+and a puff of smoke.  We did not all get away, for some of the
+beautiful larks fell to the ground pierced by the sportsman's deadly
+hail.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again and again, all through that long, sad day we heard the ominous
+booming crash, and knew the savage work of killing was going on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among our acquaintances was a lame redbird who at one time had been
+trapped and made a prisoner, confined behind the bars of a wire cell
+for many weeks and months.  Luckily he made his escape one day when his
+grated door was accidentally opened, and he speedily made his way back
+to his dearly loved forest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During the period of his imprisonment in the city he had picked up a
+great deal of information regarding the bird trade, and some of the
+facts recited by him of the terrible cruelties perpetrated and the
+carnage which had been going on for years, almost caused our feathers
+to stand upright in horror as we listened.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER V
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+"DON'T, JOHNNY"
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Farewell happy fields, where Joy forever dwells.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Milton.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+A very pleasant, sociable fellow was this redbird, and often when on
+hot afternoons we were hiding in the treetops from the rays of the sun
+he told us stories and anecdotes about the people he had seen while he
+lived in the city.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He and his brother had been caught in a trap in the woods set by a
+farmer's boy.  One cold spring morning when the boy came to look at his
+trap he was overjoyed to find he had snared two redbirds, and forthwith
+carried them to the village nearby and sold them to the grocer for five
+cents apiece, which sum he said he was going to invest in a rubber ball.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he put the dime into his coat pocket he told the man that one of the
+birds was named Admiral Dewey and the other Napoleon Bonaparte.  The
+groceryman agreed that these names were good enough names for anybody,
+but he thought he'd change Bonaparte's name to Teddy Roosevelt, as
+being easier to pronounce, and the two birds were accordingly given
+these titles then and there.  Not having any cage at hand to put them
+in, the man thought that for a few days the new-comers could share the
+quarters of an old sparrow he had in the rear end of the store until an
+extra cage could be procured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But alas for Teddy Roosevelt!  The very first night he was
+ignominiously whipped by the spiteful occupant of the cage, who
+resented having these country visitors thrust into his house without
+his leave.  Poor Teddy died the next day.  Admiral Dewey stood the
+battle better than his unfortunate friend, but he too was pecked at in
+a way so threatening that the groceryman concluded it would be wise to
+get rid of him immediately.  Because the admiral had not defended
+himself better from his pet's attack, the grocer regarded him with some
+disgust.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Being as there was two of you and only one of the sparrow, 'pears as
+if you hadn't much grit," he said.  "I would better take your
+high-soundin' name away from you and call you something else besides
+Dewey, if you can't fight."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For all the man's censure, the redbird knew that if Teddy Roosevelt had
+killed the sparrow instead of being killed by it, the grocer would have
+been much more grieved at the loss, for he had heard him say the
+sparrow was like one of his family.  The man forgot that the result
+might have been different if the redbirds had been older.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having decided to dispose of the admiral, the grocer, who had an errand
+in the city the next day, carried the bird with him.  He knew of a
+probable customer for it in a gentleman named Morris, who had been
+advertising in the papers for a redbird.  He soon found the street and
+number where was located the gentleman's office, at which the
+advertisement was to be answered, and displayed the admiral.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your bird looks kind of ragged, as though he hadn't been treated
+well," said Mr. Morris, as he examined the scarlet plumage.  "My boy
+wants a redbird, and I promised him one if he would get the highest
+grade in arithmetic in his class this term and he did it, so of course
+I must keep my word.  What d'ye ask for this bird?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He'd be cheap at five dollars," answered the groceryman.  "A nice
+redbird is hard to get, and they're powerful nice singers, but bein' as
+it's for your boy that has earned it by studying his lessons so good&mdash;I
+always like a boy that is fond of his books&mdash;you can have it for two
+dollars and a quarter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he had paid but five cents for it this advance in price would be a
+fine business speculation.  After a little further talk, Mr. Morris
+counted out the money, and the man went back to his home doubtless
+wishing he had a hundred more redbirds to sell at the same handsome
+profit.  After he had gone, Mr. Morris went to a box hanging against
+the wall, and turning a handle began talking to the box as if it were a
+human being.  Though it was just a plain wooden box, the admiral said
+there was something mysterious about it, for Mr. Morris actually seemed
+to be carrying on a conversation with it, though the bird could not
+hear what the box answered, but he felt sure it talked back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Morris' residence was a fine stone house with wide porches and
+sunny bay windows, over which were trained graceful creeping vines.  A
+boy of about eleven years of age and a very pretty lady stood arm in
+arm on the broad steps leading up to the front entrance that evening
+when Mr. Morris and the admiral arrived.  They were Johnny Morris and
+his mother, who had already learned that Mr. Morris had bought the bird
+and would bring it when he came to dinner.  The admiral discovered the
+next day that Mrs. Morris owned a box like the one at the office, into
+which she talked, and that it was called a telephone.  He often
+mentioned this mysterious box as one of the most remarkable things he
+saw during his stay among men.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Johnny Morris capered and danced and jumped so hard in the exuberance
+of his joy at receiving the redbird that all the way to the sitting
+room his mother was coaxing him to be quiet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't act so foolishly," she begged; but he only capered and kicked up
+his heels still harder.  When the cage was placed on a stand in the bay
+window he pranced around it, whistled and chirped, threw the bottom of
+the cage floor full of seed and splashed the water about so recklessly
+in his attempts to be friendly as nearly to frighten the poor admiral
+to pieces.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, Johnny, don't," pleaded his mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Johnny, don't do that," commanded his father every few minutes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a constant "Don't, Johnny, do this" and "Don't, Johnny, do
+that," until, the admiral said, the conversation was so mixed up with
+"Don't-Johnny's" as made it almost unintelligible.  Of course these
+expostulations made not a bit of impression on Johnny Morris.  To be
+sure, he might stop for the moment, but the next second he was doing
+something else which brought a fresh round of "Don't-Johnny's" from
+each parent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was such a generous, affectionate, pretty boy, with his rosy cheeks
+and wavy yellow hair, it was a great pity that he should keep a whole
+household in a state of constant commotion by his habit of not promptly
+minding when he was spoken to.  His father and mother were very
+indulgent to him, and the admiral believed he had every kind of a toy
+known to the boy world.  He also had a machine to ride on, which they
+called a "wheel."  On this he went out occasionally, although Mrs.
+Morris declared she never felt at ease a minute while he was gone,
+because he never came back at the hour he promised he would.  Besides
+this, he had a dear little pony, named Jock, on whose back he often
+cantered about the big park.  Frequently from the bay window the
+admiral watched him as he mounted Jock and rode away, while his mother
+stood on the house step and called after him as long as he was in
+sight: "Don't ride in that reckless way, Johnny; you'll tumble off," or
+"Don't, Johnny; the pony will throw you," at which Johnny would laugh
+and make the pony go faster.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the boy's other possessions was a parrot, which the admiral
+asserted was the smartest bird in the world.  She was a highly educated
+parrot, and much time had been spent on her training, and she was
+usually very willing to show off to company all her various
+accomplishments.  Occasionally she assumed an air of offended dignity
+when asked to display her talents, and no amount of threats or coaxing
+could change her purpose.  At such times she impatiently flapped her
+wings and croaked "No, no" in her harshest tones.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her favorite retreat when her temper was ruffled was on the back of an
+armchair, where she would sit with her bill in the air and her head
+cocked disdainfully on one side, pretending not to hear or see any one.
+In her affable moods, however, no one could be more complaisant and
+entertaining than Bessie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her name was an uncommon one for a parrot.  Strangers usually accosted
+her as Polly, at which mistake she was greatly displeased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no&mdash;not Polly; call me Bessie," she would scream, so angrily that
+it always made people laugh, which angered her still more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Bessie could sing a verse of an old-time song, at least she thought she
+could.  The admiral said nothing could have induced him to sing for
+company if his voice had been as harsh and cracked as hers, but he said
+it was a fact that everybody seemed to enjoy her noise more than his
+music; that when she took up her position on top of the piano to sing,
+they crowded around and called her "nice Bessie," "nice lady," and
+praised her, and gave her bits of sugar, as if she were the finest
+singer in the world.  The admiral thought they showed very poor taste,
+for her music was simply horrid and couldn't compare with the warblings
+of the woods birds.  It is well, however, to make allowance for the
+admiral's opinion, for musicians are proverbially jealous of each other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The song the parrot sang was "Listen to the Mocking Bird," to which
+Mrs. Morris played a little gliding accompaniment on the piano.  Great
+hand-clappings always followed the performance.  These Bessie accepted
+with an air of studied indifference.  But if for the purpose of teasing
+her they did not applaud her performance, she shrilly screamed:
+"Bessie's a good bird, a good bird I tell you," raising her voice
+higher and higher at each repetition.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she would wait a moment for some one to assure her that she was
+indeed a very good bird, quite the smartest bird that ever breathed.
+But if these soothing assurances were not quickly forthcoming, she
+would retire to the back of her favorite chair and, elevating her bill
+to show her disdain, sulk in silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did she like you?" I asked the admiral one day when he was telling us
+about her funny tricks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, she was a little bit jealous of me; yet she was not unfriendly,
+except when Johnny or some other member of the family paid me
+attention.  She always wanted to be the center of attraction herself,
+which showed she was a vain creature.  No matter how silent she had
+been or how firmly she might have refused to talk only the minute
+before, if Johnny came to my cage and called, 'Hello, Admiral! you're a
+daisy,' Bessie immediately struck up such a chattering as would almost
+deafen one.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Johnny dear, open my cage.  I want to take a walk,' she would say in
+her most coaxing manner.  If she happened to be already out of her cage
+and walking about the room, she endeavored to get him to leave me by
+saying: 'Here, Johnny, boy, put me on your finger.  Kiss poor
+Bessie&mdash;p-o-o-r Bessie.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mrs. Morris used to laugh at these schemes of the parrot to attract
+notice, and said Bessie reminded her of some people she had met who
+always wanted to monopolize the conversation."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Monopolize?" said I.  "That's a large word.  I don't know the meaning
+of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I think it means getting the most of anything and crowding other
+people out," replied the admiral; "and it was true in Bessie's case,
+for she always wanted the most attention.  A gentleman friend of the
+Morrises had this habit too.  He had been a general in a war that took
+place in the South a good many years ago, and was often entertained at
+dinner at the Morrises'.  Though he was a well-informed, genial man, he
+was almost rude in making himself heard, so determined was he that
+people should listen to his jokes and stories, which were generally
+something about himself.  At a large tableful of guests, General
+Peterson's voice was always heard above that of every one else.  He
+seemed to compel the rest of the company to listen.  His big voice
+drowned the others out.  Though Mr. and Mrs. Morris liked him very
+much, when they were alone they often ridiculed this disagreeable habit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Bessie and General Peterson are just alike,' Mrs. Morris used to say
+jokingly, when the parrot pushed herself into notice by her loud
+jabbering.  'Neither of them can endure to have any one else receive
+attention when they are present.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Although Bessie had not a pony to ride on as Johnny had, she took a
+great many jaunts around the parlors on the cat's back.  This cat was a
+great pet in the house.  A very striking-looking cat he was too.  He
+was jet black with a flat face and long white whiskers.  Johnny always
+said he resembled an old colored man who used to be their coachman, and
+he wondered if they were any relation to each other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When Bessie was out of her cage the cat did not often visit the
+parlor, because he was afraid of her.  He always appeared to be much
+relieved when she did not notice him.  If she had decided to take a
+ride, however, he never was quick enough to get away from her.  With a
+shrill laugh of triumph she would fly upon his back, and holding on by
+digging her claws into his fur, around and around the room they would
+go, the poor cat feeling so completely disgraced that he dragged his
+body lower and lower at every step, until his legs could scarcely be
+seen at all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bessie enjoyed it greatly.  She seemed to take a wicked satisfaction
+in making poor Jett ridiculous, and laughed and chuckled and scolded
+till the cat looked as if he were ready to drop from very shame.
+Urging him on with, 'Get up, get up, you lazy thing,' she refused to be
+shaken off till his body was actually dragging on the floor, a sign of
+his complete humiliation.  As soon as he threw off his unwelcome
+burden, Jett always ran away to hide.  With his tail slinking, his ears
+drooping, and crawling rather than walking, he was the most
+abject-looking, miserable cat in existence.  Bessie meanwhile flirted
+herself saucily and chuckled with the conscious air of having done a
+very smart thing."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VI
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE PARROT AT A PARTY
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+A parrot there I saw, with gaudy pride<BR>
+Of painted plumes, that hopped from side to side.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"How did you happen to get away from the Morrises?" asked my brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The red-bird laughed heartily, as if the recollection were exceedingly
+amusing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well," said he, "it all came about through Johnny's having a tea
+party.  For months he had been coaxing and begging his mother to invite
+his schoolfellows to the house and entertain them with games and plays
+and music, ending with a fine supper.  Early in the spring when he
+began talking of it, it was too cold, his mother said.  Then after a
+while it was too rainy, or too warm, or they were house-cleaning, or
+something, and so she kept putting him off from one time to another,
+hoping by deferring it to make him forget it.  The Morrises always
+spent the month of August at their seaside cottage, and the night
+before they left home, Johnny tried to get Mrs. Morris to promise that
+he might have the party the very first thing on their return.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'I'll think about it, my dear,' she answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Whenever you say you'll think about it then I'm pretty sure not to
+get what I want,' sighed Johnny."
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-064"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-064.jpg" ALT="The Summer Tanager" BORDER="2" WIDTH="624" HEIGHT="830">
+<H4>
+[Illustration:  The Summer Tanager.]
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"His mother seemed to be much amused at this statement.  'Oh, no, my
+son, it doesn't always turn out that way; but you know it wouldn't do
+for me to promise to have it just as soon as we get back,' she
+objected.  'I am always very busy just at our return.  It might be very
+inconvenient for me to prepare for a children's evening at that time;
+but when I am ready I shall take pleasure in getting up a nice party
+for you sometime in the autumn.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This sounded well, but it was not definite enough to suit Johnny.
+However he said no more at that time.  While the family were gone
+Bessie and I had the back porch to ourselves, and no one being there
+except the housemaid to whom she could display her superiority over me,
+she grew to be quite agreeable.  For some time before the Morrises had
+bought her, which was years and years before, long before Johnny was
+born, she had lived in a taxidermist's shop.  The owner of the shop was
+also a bird dealer in a small way.  On account of her accomplishments
+he had held her at a price that few were willing or able to pay, and so
+she had been forced to stay with him a long time.  She much preferred
+being owned by a refined family to living in a dingy store, for she was
+a bird of luxurious tastes, she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I too had never ceased being glad that the grocer had sold me to the
+Morrises, for I was sure that life would not have been so comfortable
+for me in the back part of a country store, inhaling the odors from
+fish barrels and molasses kegs, and with the dreary outlook afforded by
+shelves full of canned vegetables and cracker boxes.  The only point in
+favor of a life at the grocery was that I would have been nearer to the
+woods; but if I could not be in the woods, of what avail was that?  The
+Morrises were people of elegance and refinement, and their home
+expressed their culture.  I had made a pleasant exchange, and I felt it
+was wise to be as contented as possible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"August slowly passed, and Johnny came back.  The big house that had
+been so quiet for four weeks was suddenly wakened as from a sleep.  His
+noisy, joyous voice rang through the halls, and from cellar to garret.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Bless the b'y! he's that plazed to git back, it does one's sowl good
+to hear him,' said the housemaid.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mrs. Morris was so busy for the first day or two that she saw little
+of Johnny.  He was sent on several errands, and took his own time in
+returning, but every one had too much to do to inquire what kept him so
+long.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Can't I shine up Bessie's and the admiral's cages?' he asked his
+mother after dinner the second day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mrs. Morris was delighted with her son's thoughtfulness.  'Why,
+Johnny,' she said, 'I'll be so glad to have you do it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So master Johnny wiped and dusted our cages till we felt very clean,
+although I own I did not enjoy having him work about me with his brush
+and dust cloth.  Just as he had finished and put us back in our places
+the doorbell sounded, and presently we heard children's voices in the
+hall asking the maid if Johnny Morris was at home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'It is some one to see you,' said Mrs. Morris.  But Johnny did not
+reply.  He was nowhere to be seen.  At the first sound he had quietly
+slipped out of the room and I could now see him hiding behind the
+curtains in the library.  Soon Sarah came ushering three or four little
+barefooted children into the parlor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'They've come to Johnny's party, ma'am,' she explained to Mrs. Morris,
+who looked up from her work as the children entered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'How do you do, my dears?' said Mrs. Morris sweetly, though I could
+see she was greatly surprised.  'I believe I don't know your names, so
+you will have to introduce yourselves.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The children looked bashful, and made no reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'You are not Johnny Morris' schoolmates, are you?' she questioned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'No, ma'am,' answered the tallest girl, as she gazed about the
+handsome room with wide-open eyes, I could see that she was not
+accustomed to such beautiful things.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where did you get acquainted with him, then?' went on Mrs. Morris
+kindly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'We hain't acquainted at all, ma'am; but he seed us on the street this
+morning, and said for us to come to his party to-day.  He thought as
+how maybe they'd be ice-cream to eat, and he told us where he lived,
+and so we are here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Well, we must try to make you have a pleasant time,' she replied.
+'Sarah, please call Johnny and tell him his guests have arrived.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But Sarah had been answering a second peal of the bell, and now
+appeared with a very queer smile on her face at the head of a line of
+three girls and a small boy, whom she introduced by saying:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'A few more children, ma'am, who have come to take tea with master
+Johnny.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Why, really,' exclaimed Mrs. Morris, in a sort of flutter, as she
+helped Sarah to seat the new arrivals.  'The house is hardly in order
+for company.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The children appeared quite embarrassed, and ranged themselves
+silently and sedately on the chairs to which they had been directed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Dear me, Sarah, what a predicament to be in!  Where do you suppose
+Johnny scraped up all these youngsters?  I don't know what I ought to
+do to him for playing me this trick.'  Mrs. Morris said this to the
+maid as they came to my side of the room.  'Think of all the work to be
+done, and which will have to be stopped for the day&mdash;the house all
+upside down&mdash;no chance for preparations for an extra supper for his
+company.  And that big girl bespoke ice-cream as soon as she entered.'
+And then Mrs. Morris and Sarah turned into the recess of the bay window
+and laughed softly.  Her vexation seemed to pass away in a few minutes,
+for she added, 'We must make the best of it, since they are here, and
+let everything else go.  But there's the bell; I expect it's another
+batch of Johnny's friends.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And so it proved, for these were old acquaintances, eight or ten of
+his schoolmates.  Little misses dressed in fine style, in dainty
+ruffled frocks and necklaces and bright hair-ribbons, tripped
+gracefully in and advanced to meet Mrs. Morris, quite like grown ladies
+in their manners.  Behind them came several boys, spick and span in
+fresh white linen waists and silk neckties and well-fitting shoes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Ah! here are Frances and Naomi and Justice and Karl and Mary Ethel
+and Philip and Jessica and all the rest,' said Mrs. Morris, giving them
+each a hand of welcome as they gathered about her in a pretty group.
+'Will you make yourselves quite at home and help me to entertain these
+other visitors till Johnny comes in?  I don't know what keeps him so
+long.  If you'll excuse me I'll go and look for him.  There are the
+pictures in the portfolio that you might like to show to these little
+girls.  And there's the admiral, our redbird, and Bessie, the parrot.
+Maybe they would like to look at them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The two girls whom she had designated as Jessica and Frances looked at
+the strange children a minute but made no movement to carry out Mrs.
+Morris' wishes.  Instead they drew a little apart and began to talk to
+each other.  Mary Ethel, a round-faced girl who giggled a great deal
+behind her fan, crossed over to where sat the large girl who had
+mentioned the ice-cream, and started a conversation by remarking that
+it was a warm day.  The girl made no audible answer, only nodded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Do you like to go to school?' inquired Mary Ethel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The girl again nodded.  There was a little pause.  Mary Ethel, who was
+bent on carrying out Mrs. Morris' suggestion to help her entertain
+them, began again on the weather.  I suppose she couldn't think of
+anything new to say, so she observed:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'It's a nice warm day for the first of September, don't you think?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The girl's head once more wagged up and down in assent, but not a word
+did she utter.  At this a subdued titter came from Frances and Jessica.
+Mary Ethel's face grew red and she frowned at them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just at this moment in ran Johnny.  He had put on his best suit.  His
+yellow hair was freshly brushed and his face was wreathed in smiles.
+He reminded one of a dancing sunbeam.  It was wonderful to see how
+quickly he set the social wheel moving in the parlor.  In three minutes
+he had them all acquainted and talking to each other.  At one side I
+noticed Naomi and Jessica who were trying to make the parrot talk for
+the big girl.  Mary Ethel was turning the crank of a small music box,
+around which were clustered a group of the stranger children.  On a
+sofa three or four others had the portfolio of pictures spread out.
+Others came to my cage coaxing me to whistle for them, while Johnny
+capered hither and thither and joked and had more funny things to say
+than anybody in the room.  When he let Bessie out of her cage and put
+her on the piano to sing the 'Mocking Bird,' the joy of the visitors
+knew no bounds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Have you a parrot, Jeannette?' he asked one of the little barefooted
+girls, whose dancing black eyes showed how much she enjoyed Bessie's
+performance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'No, but I have two lovely cats.'  She made the announcement as if
+very proud of their ownership.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'I have a cat too.   He dresses in black and wears long white
+whiskers, and looks just like a respectable old colored man.'  This
+description amused the children very much.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'What's your cat's name?' they shouted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Jett.  What do you call your cats, Jeannette?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'The big one is <I>Boule de Neige</I> and the little one is <I>Jaune
+Jaquette</I>.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'What queer names!'  exclaimed Mary Ethel.  'How did you happen to
+select such names for them?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Oh, miss, because the names do suit them so well.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'They don't sound like any cats' names that ever I heard.  I don't
+understand how they would suit.'  Mary Ethel looked perplexed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Why, miss, on account of the color of those cats, to be sure,' said
+Jeannette in surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Pooh!' explained Johnny, 'that's easy.  <I>Boule de neige</I> is the
+French for snowball, and <I>jaune</I> means yellow, so <I>jaune jaquette</I>
+means yellow jacket.  I learned that in our French reader.  I expect
+one of the cats is all white and the other is a yellow one.  Is that
+it, Jeannette?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Yes, sir,' said the French child, and she tipped him a polite little
+bow that was very pretty indeed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'<I>Boule de Neige</I>! what a funny name.  I haven't named our white
+kitten yet.  I believe I'll call it <I>Boule de Neige</I> for a change,'
+said Karl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then Jett was brought in and Bessie pounced upon him for a ride, she
+chuckling and singing and looking from side to side with proud
+satisfaction, knowing she was being observed by everybody.  The
+children almost screamed with delight at this performance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Now, Bessie,' said Johnny, as the poor cat at last shook her off and
+slank away.  'You did that beautifully, and you deserve something to
+eat.  I am going to let you have some bread and milk right here in the
+parlor, and the company can see how nicely you can feed yourself with a
+spoon.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'All right,' croaked the parrot.  Sarah brought in a saucer in which
+was a little bread moistened with milk, and two spoons with it.  A
+cloth was spread over one corner of the table and Bessie crawled up to
+the top of a chair which had been placed with its back close to the
+table.  This brought the bird almost in line with the saucer.  Johnny
+took his seat beside her and broke the bread into tiny pieces with his
+spoon, shoving the particles into the other spoon as fast as Bessie
+disposed of them.  She gravely clasped her spoon with one claw and
+brought it to her mouth quite dextrously and ate the contents with
+evident relish, though it was plain that she enjoyed being admired for
+being able to do it really more than she enjoyed the bread.  Once in a
+while her grasp was uncertain and the food was spilled on her breast
+feathers or fell to the floor.  At this she scolded herself roundly and
+seemed quite ashamed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'One of these days, when I get time, I am going to train her to use a
+napkin when she eats,' said Johnny.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'She'll be a perfectly accomplished lady then,' added Mary Ethel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By this time some of the stranger children had left the table and had
+come over to my cage to look at me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'The admiral's an awful purty feller,' said one.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Wouldn't his tail be sweet on a Sunday hat?' suggested another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Oh, I choose his wings for my hat,' exclaimed a third.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'I choose his head and breast for mine,' said the first one who had
+spoken.  'And Naomi chooses his whole body for her hat, I expect,' she
+added as Naomi joined them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'No,' said Naomi, 'we don't wear birds any more in our family.  My
+sister and I used to have our hats trimmed with them, but we've quit.
+I had a lovely one on my blue velvet hat last year.  It was a beautiful
+hat," and she smiled at the recollection.  'But we've quit now,' she
+added gravely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Why?' asked the other girls in a breath.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Oh, because my mother thinks it is wrong to wear them.  Little boy,
+little boy, be careful or you'll let the bird out,' she called hastily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the warning was too late.  While the girls had been talking the
+small boy who was with them had been entertaining himself by slightly
+opening my cage door and letting it spring back to its fastening.
+Suddenly he was seized with fright at discovering that it had stuck
+while half-way back, and refused to come together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, dear!' he called.  'He's out.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Mercy on us!  Oh, dear!' screamed the girls as I made a dash through
+the opening, and flew to the top of a picture frame.  'Johnny, Johnny,
+your redbird's out,' they called.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All was confusion in an instant.  Boys and girls ran hither and
+thither, tumbling over each other, and over the chairs and stools, and
+all talking and screaming at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Bring a broom or a flagpole, Johnny,' called Philip.  'I'll shoo him
+down for you while you stand underneath and catch him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Shoo, shoo!' said Jeannette, catching her dress skirt with both hands
+and waving it back and forth rapidly.  In a minute all the girls were
+waving their dress skirts at me and saying 'shoo.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Oh, my pretty Admiral Dewey, my dear old admiral,' wailed Johnny,
+almost in tears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I didn't wait for the broom or the flagpole to help me from the
+picture frame.  I balanced myself steadily and then I flew out of the
+open window and away into the world, without saying good-bye to
+anybody.  I suppose they all crowded to the window to look after me as
+I disappeared, for the last thing I heard was Mrs. Morris' voice
+saying, 'Don't, Johnny; you'll fall out if you lean over so far.  Papa
+will get you another bird.  Don't grieve so hard.  Don't, Johnny.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did you ever see Johnny afterward?" we asked the redbird.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, once I saw him cantering along slowly on Jock.  He could not go
+very fast because he was holding a great bunch of red and pink roses in
+one hand.  His cheeks were as pink as the flowers and his yellow hair
+curled up under the edge of his cap the same as it used to.  I knew him
+in a minute.  A great many carriages were on the street trimmed in
+flags and flowers.  Little flags were fastened to the horses' harness.
+Jock had one on each side of his head, which made him look very pretty.
+Children were running about carrying wreaths.  On a corner of the
+street where a band was playing some men were holding banners.  I heard
+some one say it was Decoration Day, and that everybody strewed flowers
+on the graves in the big cemetery that day.  I thought it was a very
+beautiful custom.  Through all the buzz and confusion I kept an eye on
+Johnny.  He didn't seem to be riding anywhere in particular, but was
+just looking around for the fun of the thing.  Presently he drew up to
+the sidewalk where a little ragged boy was leaning up against a tree.
+He had a wistful look, as if he would like to be taking part.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Hello!' said Johnny, as he reined Jock in.  'Aren't you going to help
+to decorate?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Naw&mdash;ain't got any posies, I tell you.'  The boy said this in a
+sullen tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Here, take these.  I brought you a big bunch so you could divide 'em
+with some of your friends.  There's enough for all of you boys to have
+a few flowers to take to the cemetery.'  Johnny extended the roses with
+a smile as he spoke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The boy grabbed them eagerly.  'My!  You're a jolly one, I'll say that
+for you,' he said heartily by way of thanks, then he ran off with a
+whoop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I saw from this action that Johnny was the same generous, kind-hearted
+boy he used to be, and I felt proud to have had the honor of his
+acquaintance."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VII
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A WINTER IN THE SOUTH
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I was wrong about the Phoebe bird;<BR>
+Two songs it has, and both of them I've heard;<BR>
+I did not know those strains of joy and sorrow<BR>
+Came from one throat.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+As the season advanced our May songs became less melodious until
+finally our music was merely a metallic but pleasant, "chink, chink,"
+and we knew we would soon be putting on our new fall attire, as toward
+the close of the summer our family exchange their pretty
+black-and-white suits, so much admired, for a becoming yellowish-brown
+one.  The different flocks were also now arranging for their regular
+winter trip to the sunny Southland, where their winters were spent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was very glad to know that we bobolinks were to travel only in the
+daytime, as that would afford us younger ones a better opportunity to
+see the country.  The return trip to the North is always made by night.
+A great many people have wondered why we do this, and those who are
+interested in our habits have tried to find out; but it is a secret the
+birds have never yet divulged, and probably never will.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The blue jays were going to remain behind, for the winters which we
+dreaded so much had no terrors for them.  Sometimes when we were
+preening our feathers under the radiant skies near the Southern gulf, I
+thought of our old neighbors the jays, and fancied them in their bleak
+Northern home flitting about in the tops of the leafless trees, swayed
+by the icy winds from the upper lakes, and with perhaps but little to
+eat.  I would not have exchanged places with them for the world.  But
+my older comrades assured me the jays were not in need of my sympathy
+or pity.  They liked the invigorating cold and chattered merrily in the
+desolate boughs and enjoyed many a nice meal from under the melting
+snow.  The crimson dogwood berries, standing out like rosettes of
+coral, at which they liked to peck, also furnished them an aesthetic
+and sumptuous feast.  Much more to be dreaded than the winter's cold
+was the cruel sportsman, said my comrades.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The day of our departure came.  The concourse of birds setting out on
+their annual journeys was immense, and oh, what joy it was to soar
+aloft on buoyant pinion high up in the blue sky, over housetops and
+tops of trees, skimming along above rushing waters or tranquil streams
+in quiet meadows.  Mere existence was a keen delight.  The sense of
+freedom, of lightness, of airiness, was gloriously exhilarating, a
+delicious sensation known only to the feathered tribes of all God's
+creation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Our trip took us across some densely wooded mountains, where we rested
+for a time.  A thick undergrowth of young saplings prevented any roads,
+and only occasional narrow footpaths showed that people sometimes
+passed that way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mountain was grand in its loneliness; but doubtless was a desolate
+spot to the settlers, whose cabins were scattered at long distances
+from each other in the depths of the wood.  I could imagine how cut off
+from the whole world the women and children in these cabins would feel,
+for it is natural for human beings to love society.  The perpetual
+stillness must have been hard to bear when months sometimes passed
+away, especially in the winter season, without their getting a glimpse
+of other human faces.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mountains were full of wildcats too, which made their situation
+worse, as these fierce animals were frequently known to attack men as
+savagely as wolves do.  One day while we were there two travelers
+camped under the tree where our family was roosting.  They had
+evidently had a hard time making their way through the tangled
+undergrowth, for as one of the men flung himself down on the ground and
+stretched himself out at full length, he exclaimed peevishly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I don't want any more such experiences.  I'm dead tired; my face
+is all scratched with the thorns and bushes; and I haven't seen a
+newspaper for a week.  If the railroad company needs any more work of
+this kind done, they must get somebody else."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Fiddle-dee-dee!  You mustn't be so easily discouraged," answered the
+other young man, who had already set to work scraping up dry chips and
+pieces of bark to make a fire, "Think of these poor mountaineers who
+stay here all their lives.  Your little tramp of a few days is nothing
+to what they do all the time and never think of complaining.  The half
+of them are too poor to own a mule.  They eat hog and hominy the year
+around, and are thankful to get it.  Their clothes are fearfully and
+wonderfully made, but for all that they don't give up and think life
+isn't worth living."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the two young fellows talked on in this strain I named them Growler
+and Cheery, because the one was so determined to look on the dark side,
+while the other took a cheerful view of everything.  Growler continued
+to lounge on the ground, looking with careless interest at Cheery, who
+was preparing dinner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The dinner was in a small tin box which he took from his coat pocket.
+Opening it he disclosed some eatables very compactly put in.  He took
+out several articles and set them on the ground in front of him.  In
+the box was a bottle stoutly corked containing a dark liquid, some of
+which he poured into a flat tin cup which formed a part of the lid of
+the box.  This he set over the fire, which by this time was snapping
+cheerily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come," he said.  "Here's a lunch fit for a king.  Get up and have your
+share.  Maybe when your stomach is warmed up with a few ham and mustard
+sandwiches, some cheese and coffee, you'll be in better spirits.  These
+crackers are good eating too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Fit for a king, eh?  Mighty poor kind of a king, I should say,"
+growled Growler sarcastically; but he rose and flicked the leaves and
+twigs from his clothing before he helped himself to the coffee which
+was now hot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One cup for two people is just one too few," laughed Cheery when it
+came his turn to take some.  "My! but it tastes good.  There's nothing
+like the open air to give one an appetite."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't like coffee without cream," objected Growler, chewing moodily
+at his cracker.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, we'll get to Girard by to-night, and then possibly we will get a
+good supper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While they were lunching I had observed another traveler slowly
+approaching through the underbrush.  Over one shoulder was slung a
+leather strap in which were a few books.  He carried a rifle, and from
+his coat pocket bulged a small package.  As he drew nearer the sound of
+his footsteps startled Growler who nervously upset his coffee over his
+shirt front.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What d'ye suppose he is?" he asked of Cheery as the stranger
+approached.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I judge he's a parson, from the cut of his clothes," observed Cheery.
+Then as the new-comer advanced he called: "Hello, friend!  Who'd 'a
+thought of meeting company this far back in these mountains?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is only about eight miles from the town where I live," answered
+the gentleman, who now seated himself near them with his back against a
+tree, "I know the paths through here fairly well, for I come this way
+several times through the summer.  But this will be my last trip for
+the season, and I'm giving a little more time to it on that account.
+I've taken it somewhat leisurely to-day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was a delicate-looking, middle-aged man, with a mild voice and a
+kind face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're a drummer for a publishing house, I take it?" said Growler,
+nodding toward the books in the strap.  "I've just been wondering where
+you'd find any buyers in these infernal woods."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The gentleman laughed.  "No," said he, "this is my regular route; but
+I'm not a commercial traveler in any sense.  I'm a pastor at a town
+near here, and I go out to these mountain families to hold services
+every few weeks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't mean you foot it through these bushes and among these
+wildcats to preach to the mountaineers!" exclaimed Growler in
+astonishment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly I do.  These poor people would never hear the sound of the
+gospel if some one did not take it to them.  They have souls to be
+saved, my friend.  I feel it is my duty to carry the word to them.  As
+for the wildcats," he continued, smiling, "I have my rifle.  Besides
+the government offers a small bounty for every wildcat."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, I see.  You combine business with pleasure and have your
+wildcat bounty to pay expenses as you go along&mdash;or else keep it for
+pin-money," and Growler laughed good-humoredly at his own fun.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're the parson from St. Thomas, I judge," said Cheery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The gentleman bowed, and said he was the pastor of that little church.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've heard of your mission work, and I understand you've done a great
+deal of good among the mountain whites."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How many churches have you in these mountains?" interrupted Growler.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have but the one church organization, for outside through the
+mountains there are no churches&mdash;no buildings, no organizations.
+People ten and fifteen miles apart can't very well have churches.  I
+visit the families.  I have three on this mountain side.  I am well
+repaid for all the sacrifice of comfort I make, in knowing how glad
+they are to have me come.   To many of them I am the connecting link
+with the rest of mankind.  Ah! the world knows nothing of the
+privations and sorrows and ignorance of many of these poor creatures!
+Through the winter I am obliged to stop my visitations, but I generally
+leave a few books and papers for those who can read, and pictures for
+the children."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, parson, I didn't know there was enough goodness in any man in
+the United States to make him willing to tramp right into the wildest
+part of the Allegheny.  Mountains to preach the gospel to half a dozen
+poor people!" exclaimed Growler, still more astonished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My friend," responded the gentleman earnestly, "the world is full of
+Christian men and women who are trying to help others."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just then my mother said to me, "When I hear the beautiful words that
+minister speaks and see what he is doing, then indeed do I believe that
+human beings have hearts."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As we resumed our journey I wondered if Growler would profit by the
+sunshiny example of Cheery and the devotion of the parson of St. Thomas.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Later in our travels we came upon some old acquaintances.   Our
+stopping-place was near an ancient house on a mountain side.  The
+outlook was the grandest I had ever seen, and though I have traveled
+much since then I have never found anything to exceed it in beauty.  A
+glistening river wound its way in a big loop at the foot of the
+mountain, and beyond it lay stretched out a busy city.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A good many years before a battle had been fought on these heights,
+which people still remembered and talked about.  I heard them speak of
+it as the "Battle above the clouds."  There was still a part of a
+cannon wagon in the yard which visitors came to see and examined with
+much interest.  They also often requested the landlady to let them look
+at the walls of an old stone dairy adjoining the house, because the
+soldiers had carved their names there.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To me it seemed strange that the guests would sit for hours on the long
+gallery of this hotel, and go over and over the incidents of the
+battle, telling where this regiment stood, or where that officer fell,
+as if war and the taking of life were the most pleasant rather than the
+most distressful subjects in the world.  In the distance was a mammoth
+field of graves, miles of graves, beautifully kept mounds under which
+lay the dead heroes of that sad time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The days up here were beautiful, but it was at night that this was a
+scene of surpassing loveliness.  Far below the lights of the city
+glowed like spangles in the darkness.  Above us was the star-encrusted
+sky.  It was like being suspended between a floor and a ceiling of
+glittering jewels.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On this plateau grew the biggest cherry trees I ever saw, and they bore
+the biggest and sweetest cherries, though I could not taste any at that
+time, as the season was past.  I heard the landlady complaining one day
+to some of her guests that the rascally birds had hardly left her a
+cherry to put up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The saucy little thieves! they must have eaten bushels of the finest
+fruit," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And didn't you get any?" inquired a childish voice.  There was
+something familiar in the voice and I flew to the porch railing to see
+who it was.  And who should it be but dear little Marion.  And there
+too was her aunty, Miss Dorothy, and the professor, and in the parlor I
+caught a glimpse of Miss Katie and the colonel.  They were having a
+pleasant vacation together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Marion looked inquiringly into the landlady's face.  No doubt she was
+thinking the mountain birds were very greedy to eat up all the cherries
+and not leave one for the poor woman to can.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Our birds always eat some of our cherries too," she said, "but they
+always leave us plenty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There were bushels left on our trees," observed the landlady's
+daughter.  "We had all we wanted, mother.  We couldn't possibly have
+used the rest if the birds had not eaten them.  We had a cellar full of
+canned cherries left over from the year before, you remember, and that
+is the way it is nearly every year."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes, I know," answered her mother impatiently; "but for all that
+I don't believe in letting the birds have everything."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never begrudge a bird what it eats," commented the professor.  "Of
+course you can discourage the birds, drive them off, break up their
+nests, starve them out, and have a crop of caterpillars instead of
+cherries.  But, beg pardon, madam, maybe you don't object to
+caterpillars," and he bowed low to the landlady.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The laugh was against her and I was glad of it, for I didn't consider
+it either kind or polite to call us "saucy little thieves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were amused one morning when, flying over a piece of pretty country,
+we saw a lady moving rapidly along on the red sandy path below.  She
+seemed to be neither exactly riding nor walking, as she was not on foot
+nor had she a horse.  On closer inspection it was seen that she was
+propelling a strange-looking vehicle.  Two of her carriage wheels were
+gone, and between the remaining two the lady was perched.  At sight of
+it I was immediately reminded of the queer thing that Johnny Morris
+rode which the admiral had described to us and called a "wheel."  I
+felt sure that this was the same kind of a machine.  The lady looked
+neither to the right nor to the left, but her glance was fixed intently
+on the road before her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Farther along another lady leaned against the fence awaiting her
+approach.  As she bowled along the friend asked enthusiastically: "Is
+it not splendid?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The rider called back to her: "It is grand!  It is almost as if I were
+flying.  I know now how a bird feels."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Think of comparing the sensation produced by moving that heavy iron
+machine, with the rider but three feet from the ground, to the
+exhilaration felt by a bird spurning the earth and soaring on delicate
+wing through the fields of heaven!  It was truly laughable!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Our amusement was cut short, however, when we noticed that the lady's
+hat was decorated with a dead dove.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can we never get away from this millinery exhibition of death?" I
+exclaimed in horror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," said my mother sorrowfully.  "The god, Fashion, I told you of has
+his slaves all over the land.  We will find them wherever we go, north,
+south, east, and west.  No town is too small, no neighborhood too
+remote, but there will be found women ready to carry out his cruel
+laws."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Had we not been haunted by this vision of death which we were
+constantly meeting wherever women were congregated, we might have been
+happy in the fair land of rose blossoms and magnolias where we now
+sojourned.  The air was soft and balmy, and the atmosphere filled us
+with a serene, restful languor quite new to those who had been
+accustomed to the brisker habits of a colder clime.  Besides the birds
+there were many human visitors from the North spending the winter
+months here.  Some sought this warmer climate for their health, others
+for pleasure, and these also soon fell into the easy-going,
+happy-go-lucky ways induced by the sluggish climate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the birds the waxwings most readily acquired this delightful
+Southern habit of taking life easy.  In fact the waxwings are inclined
+to be lazy, except when they are nesting; they are the most deliberate
+creatures one can find, but very foppish and neat in their dress.
+Never will you find a particle of dust on their silky plumage, and the
+pretty red dots on their wings and tails look always as bright as if
+kept in a bandbox.  They have, indeed, just reason to be proud of
+themselves, for they are very beautiful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hunters by scores were after them with bag and gun mercilessly killing
+them for the New York millinery houses.  The slaughter was terrible,
+and made more easy for the hunters by reason of the poor birds flocking
+together so closely in such large numbers when they alighted in circles
+as is their habit.  As they came down in dense droves to get their
+food, the red dots on their wing tips almost overlapping those of their
+fellows, dozens were slain by a single shot.  They were very fond of
+the berries of the cedar trees, and after the other foods were gone
+they hovered there in great numbers.  Here too, the hunters followed
+them and made awful havoc in their ranks.  One man made the cruel boast
+that the winter previous he had killed one thousand cedar-birds for hat
+trimmings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Many of our family had located for a time near the coast, but here too,
+on these sunny plains, the death messengers followed us and slew us by
+the thousands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We learned that one bird man handled thirty thousand bird skins that
+season.  Another firm shipped seventy thousand to the city, and still
+the market called for more and yet more.  The appetite of the god could
+not be appeased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I am sure this account of the loss of bird life must have seemed
+appalling to my mother, for I heard her moan sadly when it was talked
+about.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was during my stay in the Southern islands that I first saw the
+white egret, whose beautiful sweeping plumes, like the silken train of
+a court lady, have so long been the spoils of woman, that the bird is
+almost extinct.  As these magnificent feathers appear upon the bird
+only through the mating and nesting season, the cruelty of the act is
+still more dastardly.  The attachment of the parent birds for their
+young is very beautiful to witness, yet this devotion, which should be
+their safeguard, is seized upon for their destruction, for so great is
+the instinct of protecting love they refuse to leave their young when
+danger is near, and are absolutely indifferent to their own safety.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Never shall I forget one sad incident which occurred while I was there.
+Overhanging the water was an ancestral nest belonging to a family of
+egrets which had occupied it for some seasons.  Unlike the American
+human species, in whom local attachment is not largely developed, and
+who take a new house every moving day, the egret repairs and fixes over
+the old house year after year, putting in a new brace there, adding
+another stick here, to make it firm enough to bear the weight of the
+mother and the three young birds which always comprise the brood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The three pale-blue eggs in this nest had been duly hatched, and the
+fond mother was now brooding over her darlings with every demonstration
+of maternal affection.  She was a beautiful creature with her graceful
+movement, her train of plumes, and her long neck gracefully curved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The quick sharp boom, boom of the guns had been echoing through the
+swamp for some time, and the men were now coming nearer.  The efforts
+of the poor mother to shield her babies were piteous, but the hunters
+did not want them.  Their scant plumage is worthless for millinery
+purposes.  Possibly the mother might have escaped had she been willing
+to leave her dear ones; but she would not desert them, and was shot in
+the breast as the reward of her devotion.  The nestlings were left to
+starve.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Would you think the woman who wore that bunch of feathers on her bonnet
+could take much pleasure in it?
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VIII
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE PRISON
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Like a long-caged bird<BR>
+Thou beat'st thy bars with broken wing<BR>
+And flutterest, feebly echoing<BR>
+The far-off music thou hast heard,<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Arthur Eaton.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+This was my last day of liberty for many, many months.  The very next
+evening I was stunned by a stone thrown by a small boy who accompanied
+a hunter.  Picking me up he ran toward his father, who was coming back
+from the neighboring swamp with his loaded gamebag.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This bird isn't dead," said the boy, holding me up to view, "and I'm
+going to put it in a cage and train it to talk."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Crows are the kind that talk.  That's no crow nor no starling
+neither," answered the man.  "Better give it to me to kill.  I'll pay
+you a penny for it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Naw, you don't," and the boy drew back, at the same time closing his
+hand over me so tightly that I feared I would be crushed.  "I'm going
+to keep him, I tell ye.  He's mine to do what I please with, and I
+ain't agoing to sell him for a penny, neither."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So saying he ran along in front of his father till we reached the mule
+cart.  Into this clumsy vehicle they climbed and soon we were jogging
+over the sandy road to their home.  As we drove along the man computed,
+partly to himself, partly aloud, how much money the contents of his
+game-bag would bring him.  The result must have been satisfactory, for
+presently he observed:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Purty fair day's wages, but I believe I could make more killing terns
+and gulls than these birds.  Bill Jones and the hunters up on Cobb's
+Island last year got ten cents apiece for all the gulls they killed.
+Forty thousand were killed right there.  Oh, it's bound to be a mighty
+good business for us fellows as long as the wimmen are in the notion,
+that is, if the birds ain't all killed off."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Air they getting scarce?" questioned the boy.  The man ejected a
+mouthful of dark, offensive juice from between his grizzled whiskers
+before replying.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, purty tol'ble scarce.  So much demand for 'em is bound to clean
+the birds out.  There used to be heaps of orioles an' robins an' larks
+an' blackbirds an' waxwings through the country, but they're getting
+played out too, since the wimmen tuk to wearin' 'em on their bunnets."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, no woman sha'n't have my bird for her bunnet," and the boy gave
+me another friendly pinch that nearly broke my bones.  "I'm a going to
+put it in that old cage that's out in the shed and give it to Betty, if
+she wants it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Humph! she won't keer for it.  You'd better kill it.  Betty won't be
+bothered with it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She may give it away, or let it loose, or do what she pleases with it,
+then," was the boy's reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I learned from their further conversation that the hunter sold his game
+to another man who cured the skins for shipment to the city.  To this
+dealer the bag which held my dead companions was taken and I saw them
+no more.  Arriving at the hunter's home I was put under a bucket that I
+might not escape, while my captor prepared my prison for me.  It was an
+almost needless precaution for I had been so cramped between his
+fingers that I feared I could never again use my legs or wings.  Just
+before putting me in my rude prison house he brought a pair of shears
+and bade Betty clip my wings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'm afraid it will hurt it!" she exclaimed, pushing away the
+extended scissors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nonsense, you ninny!  What if it does hurt it?" and he roughly knocked
+my bill with his hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now that's real mean, Joe.  You're a scaring it to pieces.  Here,
+Dickey Downy, I'm going to give you a pretty name if you belong to me;
+let me hold you.  Why, its little heart is a thumping as if 'twould
+burst through its body."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Joe was reluctant to loosen his grasp, and between being pulled first
+one way and then the other by the two children, I was badly bruised.
+Finally I was permitted by my young captor to enter the cage, where I
+sank, trembling and exhausted, to the floor, and remained there all
+night, being too sore to ascend the perch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As may be imagined I was very sorrowful and unhappy.  The separation
+from my mother and my dear companions, coupled with the fear that I
+might never again wing my blithesome flight through the bright blue
+sky, but spend the balance of my life in this miserable cell, filled me
+with despair.  Frantic but useless were my efforts to escape.  In vain
+I beat my head against the hard steel bars; in vain I endeavored to
+crowd my body between them.  My prison was too secure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At length I found that fluttering back and forth buffeting my wings
+against the sides of my cell only injured me and availed nothing.  Then
+it was I wisely made the resolution to endure my imprisonment as
+cheerfully as possible.  I soon began to regain my strength and spirits
+and, save that I was deprived of my liberty, I had no special fault to
+find for some days with my treatment from Betty, who was now regarded
+as my owner and keeper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was always glad when Joe was absent from home, for he was vicious as
+well as rough.  One of his favorite tricks was to dash my cage hard
+against the wall, laughing boisterously as he did so to see how it
+frightened me.  The concussion was frequently so great that my claws
+could not hold to the perch, and I would be tossed helplessly from side
+to side with my feathers ruffled and broken.  There was but one thing
+Joe liked better than this cruel sport, and that was gingerbread; and
+my tortures were often stopped by Betty's producing a slice of this
+delicacy which she had saved from her own luncheon for this particular
+purpose.  When I discovered that Joe could be bought off with
+gingerbread it can be imagined that I was always glad on the days when
+the pungent odors of cinnamon, ginger, and molasses issued from the
+cook-stove.  It was a surety of peace, of a cessation of hostilities as
+long as the cake lasted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All went fairly well for a little while, but as the novelty of
+possession gradually wore off, my little jailer grew negligent and left
+me much of the time without water or food.  Frequently my throat was so
+parched from thirst that I could not utter a protesting chirp.  I knew
+no other way to attract attention to my wants than to flutter to the
+bars and thrust out my head; unfortunately this action was attributed
+to wildness and a desire to escape, and I was allowed to suffer on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That bird is the most annoying, restless thing I ever saw," complained
+Betty's mother one evening when I was thus trying to tell them my cup
+was empty.  "It spends all its time poking its head through the wires
+or thrashing around in the cage, instead of getting up on its perch and
+behaving itself quietly as a decent bird should."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you reckon it's sick?" suggested Betty, and she came to my cage and
+looked at me attentively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Reckon it's hungry, you mean," growled her father, who was in one
+corner of the kitchen cleaning his gun.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She never feeds it any more," commented the mother.  "What's the use
+of keeping it?  I'd wring its neck and be done with it.  Betty don't
+keer a straw for it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I do," cried the little girl.  "I'll get it something to eat this
+very minute."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These spasms of attention only lasted a day or two, however, when my
+young keeper would lapse into carelessness, and again I would be
+allowed to go with an empty crop and a dry throat.  My beautiful
+plumage grew rusty from this irregularity and continual neglect, and
+although I am not a vain bird, my dingy appearance was a source of
+daily grief and mortification to me.  When Betty was not too busy
+playing she sometimes hung my cage outside the door of the cottage, but
+often for days together through the pleasant summer I was left hanging
+in the kitchen, sometimes half-choked with smoke or dampened with
+steam.  No wonder I drooped and ceased my cheerful song.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The days when I was put out of doors were indeed gala days to me.  Many
+families of young chickens lived in the back yard, and the pipings of
+the little ones and the scoldings of the mothers when their children
+ran too far away from them, were always amusing to listen to and gave
+me something to think about which kept my mind off my own troubles.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I liked to watch the hens with their fuzzy broods tumbling about them,
+or with the older chicks when they scratched the ground and ceaselessly
+clucked for them to come to get their share of what was turned up in
+the soil; meanwhile they kept a sharp lookout with their bright eyes to
+see that no outsider shared in the feast.  And how angrily did they
+drive it away should a chick from another brood heedlessly rush in
+among them to get a taste.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One old hen in particular interested me very much.  I noticed her first
+because of her pretty bluish color and the dark markings around her
+neck, but I soon came to pity her, for she made herself quite unhappy
+and seemed to take no comfort in anything.  She was usually tied to a
+tree by the leg, and although her string was long it seemed always just
+a little too short to reach the thing she wanted.  To make matters
+worse she had a bad fashion of rushing wildly around the tree and
+getting her string wound up shorter and shorter until at last she could
+not stir a step, but would hang by one foot foolishly pulling as hard
+as she could.  It always seemed to me that her chickens were more
+disobedient than the rest, because they knew she could not get to them
+nor follow them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Joe sometimes slyly threw pebbles at this blue hen to scare her and
+make her jump and pull at the string, when he thought his mother was
+not looking.  As pay for his sport he often got his ears cuffed, for
+though his mother did not seem to notice how cruelly he teased me, she
+would not allow him to frighten her fowls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't you know that a hen that's all the time skeered won't lay?" was
+the lesson she tried to impress on him as she punished him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the thing I liked best of all was to see Betty's seven white ducks
+crowd up to the kitchen door every time any one appeared with a pan of
+scraps.  Such gabbling and quacking, such pushing and such stepping on
+each other and on the chickens, in their eagerness to get there first,
+was almost laughable.  In fact, the pink-toed pigeons that walked up
+and down the ridge of the barn roof, did make fun of them openly.  Had
+I not known the ducks were well fed and so fat they could scarcely
+waddle, I might have thought they were really hungry, but I soon
+discovered that they were simply greedy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Standing on tiptoe and stretching up their long necks they often seized
+the food before it had a chance to fall to the ground.  By this good
+management they usually got more than the chickens.  Joe accused Betty
+of being partial to the ducks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You allus give 'em the best of everything, and twice as much as you do
+the chickens," he complained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They get the most because they've got the most confidence in me," said
+Betty, putting on a very wise look.  "They come close up to me, while a
+chicken shies off and misses the goodies coz she's silly enough to be
+afraid.  Besides, the ducks are mine.  I raised 'em.  I paid twenty
+cents a setting for the eggs out of my own money, and when you raise a
+thing you generally like it the best.  Ducks are a heap smarter'n
+chickens, anyway," she asserted.  "I never can get one of the chickens
+to feed out of a spoon, and the ducks like it the best kind."  To
+convince him she held toward them a large baking spoon of soured milk.
+This milk was thickened into a paste or ball by being put on the stove
+and separated from the whey, or watery part, by the action of the heat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a favorite dish with the fowls, and they all smacked their lips
+when they saw it coming.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As fast as Betty could fill the spoon it was emptied by the ducks, who
+stuck their big yellow bills into it and devoured the contents, letting
+the chickens below scramble and push and pick each other for any stray
+bits that fell to the ground.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Didn't I tell you?" said Betty triumphantly.  "Them chickens had just
+as good a chance as the ducks, but they wouldn't take it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Huh!" answered Joe.  "Their necks ain't long enough, is what's the
+matter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were several trees in the yard, and often when the fowls were
+fed, birds flew down from their leafy recesses to pick up the crumbs
+left lying about.  How I used to wish they would come near enough to my
+cage that I might converse with them, but it always happened that just
+at the time when one of them would settle close to the house, either
+Joe's little dog, Colly, would run across the yard, or Betty or her
+mother would appear at the door and frighten my feathered friend away.
+Only once did I exchange a word with any of these birds, and that for
+but a few short minutes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The bird did not belong to our family, nor had I ever met any of his
+relatives before, but that made but little difference.  He was a bird,
+and that was enough.  We did not wait for any formal introduction; but
+as he balanced himself on the edge of my cage he hurriedly told me news
+of the woods, and how he wished I might get free and come to live
+there.  He told of the lovely dragon flies, with purple, burnished
+wings that floated in the forest, mingling their drowsy hum with the
+chirping of the birds.  He told of the great mossy carpet spread under
+the trees; how at set of day the owls came out, and the moles rustled
+in the fallen leaves, and the frogs raised their evening hymn to the
+sinking sun.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I could have listened for hours to the sweet familiar tale my feathered
+brother told of life in the happy woodland, but Betty's mother suddenly
+hurrying out to the pump to fill her bucket, cut short the story, and
+away my bird friend skimmed out of sight without so much as saying
+"good-bye."  Though I saw him several times after that, he never came
+so close again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, what heaps and heaps of fireflies!" exclaimed Betty, as she
+unhooked my cage to move me into the house that evening.  "It looks as
+if our door-yard was full of moving lanterns."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothin' but lightnen bugs!" said Joe contemptuously.  "Here, see me
+catch 'em," and in a few minutes he showed her a handful which he had
+killed by crushing between his hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hold on, I want to catch some too!" and hustling me into the kitchen,
+Betty ran along with him and was soon engaged in catching and killing
+the beautiful fireflies.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IX
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE HUNTERS
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Song birds, plumage birds, water fowl, and many innocent birds of prey,<BR>
+are hunted from the everglades to the Arctic Circles for the barbaric<BR>
+purpose of decorating women's hats.  The extent of this traffic is<BR>
+simply appalling.&mdash;<I>G. O. Shields.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+When Joe and his father came back from their gunning expeditions, the
+accounts they gave of the day's slaughter made me very homesick and
+miserable, and wore sadly on my spirits in my captivity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The heartless indifference with which the woman would ask her husband
+if it had been "a good day for killings," almost made me wail aloud.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Best kind of luck; I bagged nearly a hundred this trip," he replied
+exultingly, one night when she put the usual question.  "The birds were
+as thick as blackberries in the high weeds along the creek, and were
+havin' a mighty good time stuffing themselves with seeds.  Joe fired
+the old gun to start 'em and, great Jerushy! in a minute the sky was
+dark with 'em; I just blazed away and they dropped thick all around us,
+and it kept us tol'ble busy for a while a pickin' 'em up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pop, tell 'em about the old water bird down in the swamp," said Joe
+with a wicked laugh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, tell us; what was it, pop?" urged Betty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, nothin' partickler, I reckon; just an old bird that hadn't the
+grit to get away from me," and the man gave a low chuckle at the
+remembrance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My, oh! the way them old birds hung around and wouldn't scare worth a
+cent when we was right up close to 'em was funny, I tell ye," and Joe
+leaned back in his chair and slapped his knees in a fresh burst of
+merriment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There was eggs in the nest was the cause," said the man; "them birds
+are always as tame as kittens then.  You can go right up to 'em and
+they won't leave the nest.  Them birds has two broods in a season, and
+then's the chance to get a good whack at 'em."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Joe rubbed his hands together in delight as he turned to his sister,
+"You'd ought to have seen 'em, Betty.  There was pop in his rubber
+boots a creepin' along&mdash;a c-r-e-e-p-i-n' along as sly as a mouse toward
+'em, and there they stayed.  The male bird he fluttered and' squawked,
+and the female she stuck to the nest till pop he got right up and he
+didn't even have to shoot her.  He just clubbed her over the back and
+down she went ker-splash as dead as you please.  Them there eggs won't
+hardly hatch out this year, I don't reckon," and at the prospect Joe
+broke into a malicious guffaw.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think to club it was meaner'n to shoot the poor thing," said Betty
+indignantly.  "And, anyway, I wouldn't a-killed it on the nest.  It's
+mean to treat an 'fectionate bird so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pshaw, you'd do big things!" was Joe's scornful reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I wouldn't be so tremenj'us cruel," persisted Betty; "I don't
+believe in killing a pretty bird."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But what would the wimmen do without bunnet trimmen' if we didn't kill
+'em, hey?" and Joe finished his question with a taunting whistle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the shadows of each evening gathered around the cottage, the shadow
+over my life seemed to deepen and grow more gloomy.  Outside the door I
+could hear the hum of the bees as they flew homeward, the wind-harp
+played in the yellow pines its softest, sweetest music, and I scented
+the odor of honeysuckles and roses far away.  The rushing of the waters
+over the stones in the creek tinkled dreamily, but in the midst of all
+earth's loveliness I was desolate, because I was not free.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And thus the summer days dragged wearily along, and the autumn came.
+It is not surprising then that I was overjoyed when later on I learned
+that I was to be given as a present to a young relative of Betty's, who
+lived to the northward in a distant State.  My present existence had
+grown almost intolerable, and I felt that any change could scarcely
+make my condition worse, and there was a chance of its being better.
+The prospect put new life into me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Preening my feathers became a pleasant task once more.  I whetted my
+bill till it glistened, and my long-neglected toilet again became my
+daily care.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shall be mighty glad to get rid of the mopy creature," Betty's
+mother had, said when they talked of my departure.  "I wouldn't give
+the thing house-room for my part."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cousin Polly will like it, though," Betty answered her mother.  "Polly
+was always fond of pets, and she'll be powerful pleased to get it as a
+present from her Southern kinfolks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll have to go to the cost of a new cage, I reckon, and I don't feel
+like spending the money, neither," mused the mother.  "Polly might like
+a bresspin better.  I don't know as it will pay to send her the bird
+after all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How my heart sank at this announcement! so fearful was I that I might
+have to remain at the cottage; but Betty's answer gave me new hope.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, certain it will pay!" she exclaimed eagerly.  "You know how many
+nice things Cousin Dunbar's sent us off-and-on, and only last Christmas
+Polly sent me my string of beads.  As for giving her a bresspin for a
+keepsake, she can get a heap nicer one out of their own store than any
+we could send her, and I'm certain she'd like the bird best of all;
+it's such a good chance to send it by Uncle Dan when he is going to
+their town and can hand it right over to Polly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I reckon you're right.  Well, it will be only the cost of the cage,"
+said her mother, and so the matter was settled, much to my satisfaction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My new cage was very pretty, if anything can be said in praise of a
+prison, and was much lighter and pleasanter than the old, heavy,
+home-made structure in which I had been shut up so long.  Its rim was
+painted a cheerful green, and the wires were burnished like gold.
+Ornamental sconces held the glass cups for my food and there were
+decorated hoops to swing in.  Altogether it was a very handsome house,
+yet I could not forget it was a prison house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty busied herself in fixing it comfortably for me, and was full of
+kind attentions.  She begged me many times not to get frightened when
+the cover would be put on my cage.  The hood was necessary when I was
+traveling, but Uncle Dan would be sitting right near me all the time
+and would be very good to me.  She further assured me that I would find
+the motion of the cars delightful, and that all I would have to do was
+to sit on my perch and munch my seed and have a good time.  How jolly
+it would be to go whizzing past fences and over bridges and through
+tunnels and towns and never know it, she said.  She also charged me
+particularly not to be scared when I would hear an occasional horrible
+shriek and a rumbling like thunder, as if the day of judgment was at
+hand.  I must remember it was only the locomotive, and it was obliged
+to do those disagreeable things to make the cars go faster'n, faster'n,
+faster'n&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How much faster I did not have time to find out, for Uncle Dan just
+then called to get me.  A light cover with a hole in the top was
+slipped over my cage, and I started on my journey.  Of my trip, of
+course, I knew nothing.  Part of the way we rode in a wagon through the
+country to the station where we took the train, but as Uncle Dan did
+not remove my cover in the railway car the time spent on the journey
+was almost a blank to me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Right glad was I, after what seemed a long, long time of jarring and
+jolting, to find the cage once more swinging from his hand and to hear
+the click of his boot heels on the pavements as we went through the
+streets of the town where Polly lived.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER X
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A NEW HOME
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Should it happen that the last egret is shot and the last bird of<BR>
+paradise is snared to adorn a lady's dress, then&mdash;then I would not like<BR>
+to be a woman for all that earth could hold.&mdash;<I>Herbert O. Ward.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+When at last my covering was removed I found myself in a large, long
+room, which I afterward learned was a millinery store.  In fact the
+store was the front part of the family residence, the living rooms
+being behind and upstairs over it.  My cage was hung near the wide
+doorway at the end of the apartment and my new mistress at once ran to
+fill my cup with fresh water and bring me a supply of clean millet.
+After I had refreshed myself I began to look about me and study my
+strange surroundings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My new home was so unlike the little log house in the South from which
+I had come that it was many days before I could accustom myself to the
+clatter of voices which buzzed monotonously all day through the store.
+From ten o'clock in the morning, if the day were fine, till three in
+the afternoon, the din at times was almost deafening; for it was the
+busy season and customers were constantly coming and going, not all of
+them to buy, merely to look over the ribbons and tumble up the goods,
+as I heard the tired clerks say complainingly more than once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Numerous glass cases were placed near the walls, and running cross-wise
+were a counter and shelves much frequented by ladies who stood eagerly
+examining the array of bright gauzes, the glittering buckles, the
+flowers and plumes displayed there.  And what a chattering they kept
+up!  What a stir and a hubbub they made!  So many "Oh-h's" and
+"Ah-h's," so many "How lovely's," and other ecstatic exclamations, were
+mingled with their conversation as was quite bewildering.  In time,
+however, I became accustomed to this and discovered it was simply a way
+ladies have of expressing their approval of things in general.  Around
+the glass cases which held the trimmed hats the women buzzed like a
+swarm of flies, their volubility assuming a more emphatic character as
+they gazed within at the fashionable headgear placed on long steel
+wires.  Almost every hat held one, or a part of one, of my slaughtered
+race.  Frequently there were parts of two or three varieties on one
+hat&mdash;a tail of one kind, a wing of another, or a head of a different
+species.  The ends of the world had been searched to make this
+patchwork of blood.  The women raved over the cruel display; they
+gloated over our beauty; but they cared nothing for the pathetic story
+the hats told of rifled nests and motherless young.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My new owner was a soft-voiced, gentle child, from whom I soon found I
+had nothing to fear.  She was most careful to keep my cage in order and
+never neglected to feed me.  Unlike her little friend Betty, she never
+allowed her sports or pleasures to interfere with this duty.  Often her
+playmates came for a romp in the garden behind the store, but she did
+not join them till she had first attended to my wants.  I was fond of
+having her talk to me, for her voice was sweet and kind, and the little
+terms of endearment she often used were very pleasing and made me feel
+she was my true friend.  She once tried to pet me by stroking my
+feathers, but I did not like it.  Although I knew she did not mean to
+hurt me, the motion of her hand made me nervous.  Instead of
+persisting, she only said reproachfully, as she put me back on my perch:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dear Dickey Downy, why are you afraid of me?  Your own little Polly
+wouldn't hurt you for the world.  I wanted to softly stroke your pretty
+plumage just out of pure love and, you dear little coward, you won't
+let me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In her affection for me, Polly did not forget the wild birds outside,
+which flew about in the big evergreen trees near the garden gate.  She
+showed her thoughtfulness for the little creatures by strewing bread
+crumbs for them on the window sills on snowy days.  She often gathered
+up the tablecloth after the housemaid had removed the breakfast dishes
+and, running out under the trees, would shake it vigorously that her
+wild pets might get all the little pieces of food that fell.  Not a
+bird came down as long as she remained in the yard, but as soon as she
+had tripped back to the house and the door closed upon her brown curls,
+I could see a drove of hungry snowbirds swoop from the trees, and in a
+minute every crumb would be picked up.  I am sure they must have loved
+dear little Polly, for many a choice bit did they get through her
+kindness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While the majority of the customers at the store were well-dressed
+women, there were many who came to buy hats who looked poor and
+pinched.  A few looked slatternly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A sudden swing of their dress skirts would disclose a badly frayed
+petticoat or a tattered stocking showing above the shabby shoe.  Their
+gloveless hands were red and cold and coarse, and the milliner told the
+clerk that she dreaded to have them handle her filmy laces or
+glistening satins, because their rough fingers stuck to the delicate
+fabrics and injured them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These poor women worked hard, early and late.  Beyond the barest
+necessities they had little to spare, and yet not a woman among them
+would have bought an unfashionable or out-of-date hat could she have
+had it at one quarter the price.  Feathers were fashionable, and
+feathers she must have.  Might not one "as well be out of the world as
+out of the fashion"?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All this dreadful traffic in my murdered comrades, and their display in
+the glass cases as well as on the heads of the customers, naturally
+made me very sad, and I now looked with aversion at every woman who
+entered the store.  But that all were not heartless fiends who were
+robed in feminine garb I found out another day when a daintily dressed
+lady came in to purchase a winter hat.  The contents of the glass cases
+were looked over critically for some time before she selected one which
+she tried on before the long mirror.  The milliner, who deftly adjusted
+it for her, tipping it first forward a little, then setting it back a
+trifle, stood off now to view the effect, at the same time assuring her
+how beautiful it was, and how vastly becoming to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I like this hat very much," said the lady; "or at least I shall like
+it when the bird is taken off."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You think the oriole too gay?  Orange is quite the vogue," answered
+the milliner, who seemed reluctant to make any change, and yet was
+anxious to please her customer.  "Perhaps you'd prefer some wings; or
+stay, here is a sweet little gull that will go all right with the rest
+of the trimming.  We will take off the oriole if you wish."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you, but I have decided not to wear birds any more," said the
+customer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the effect would be quite spoiled without a wing, or an aigrette,
+or something there," exclaimed the milliner.  "You wouldn't like it.  I
+wouldn't think of taking off the bird, if I were you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I shall like it much better with the bird off," returned the lady
+quietly.  "I have sufficient sins to answer for without any longer
+adding the crime of bird slaughter to the list."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The milliner bestowed on her a pitying smile, but evidently was too
+politic to get into a discussion of an unpleasant subject.  Having
+given her final order for the hat, the lady crossed over to the other
+side of the room and shook hands with a friend whom she addressed as
+Mrs. Brown, who had just come in and was making a purchase at the lace
+counter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have been putting my new resolution into effect," she remarked after
+the first greetings; "I have just ordered my new hat, and it is not to
+have a bird or a wing or a tail on it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'm glad to hear of one convert to the gospel of mercy," said Mrs.
+Brown heartily.  "The apathy of our women on this subject is
+heart-sickening.  Men are denouncing us; the newspapers are full of our
+cruelty; the pulpit makes our heartlessness its theme; and yet we keep
+on with our barbarous work with an indifference that must make the
+angels weep."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her face glowed with righteous indignation.  It was easy to see that
+any cause to which she might commit herself was sure of an ardent and
+untiring champion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But they tell me that chicken feathers, and those of other domestic
+fowls are being largely used now instead of birds," said the other lady.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes; they tell us so because they want to prevent us from getting
+alarmed, since so much has been said against the destruction of the
+birds.  It is true that chicken feathers always have been used to some
+extent, the straight quills for instance.  I know it is frequently
+broadly asserted that the most of the birds used are made birds, but
+the manufactured creatures are poor deceptions; they are mixed with
+bird feathers, and are sold only to the less fastidious customers.  The
+demand for genuine birds is as great as ever."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But do you think as many are used now as formerly?" questioned her
+companion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, indeed!  Just think of the feather capes and muffs and
+collarettes made of birds.  The market for them is increasing all the
+time.  It takes from eighteen to twenty-five skins for each collar, and
+I don't know how many for the muffs.  Oh, I tell you, women are heaping
+up judgment on themselves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other lady looked grave.  "I understand," said she, "that in many
+places down on the New Jersey coast the boatmen have given up fishing,
+as they can make so much more money killing terns and gulls for women's
+use.  They earn fifty dollars a week at it, at ten cents apiece for the
+birds.  Isn't that a horrible record for women?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't doubt they earn that much, and perhaps more," answered Mrs.
+Brown; "for one season there were thirty thousand terns killed in one
+locality alone.  And at Cape Cod, and up along the shore near where I
+lived, they are slain by thousands every season and shipped to New
+York.  Oh, I can't tell you how distressing it used to be to hear the
+report of the guns day after day and know that every piercing sound was
+the sign that more innocent lives were being taken.  I used to cover up
+my ears and try not to hear them.  It made me shiver to know that those
+poor gulls were being shot down for nothing.  Their only crime
+consisted in being beautiful."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Both women turned at that moment attracted by the sight of a young lady
+who was standing on the pavement outside in an animated talk with
+another girl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's Miss Van Dyke, with her new feather collar on," observed Mrs.
+Brown, in a low voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young lady in question was a dashing, radiant creature, bright with
+smiles and a face like a picture.  On her shapely shoulders was a
+magnificent cape, lustrous as satin, of silvery white, into which pale
+dark lines softly blended at regular intervals.  Twenty-two innocent
+lives had been taken to make that little garment.  Twenty-two beautiful
+grebes slain that their glossy breasts might lend splendor to a lady's
+wardrobe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two friends looked at Miss Van Dyke in silence for a moment, then
+sighed as she passed along out of their view.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When I see such perversion of woman's nature I wonder that the very
+stones do not cry out against us," exclaimed Mrs. Brown.  "And mark my
+words, the slaughter will go on; the unholy traffic will not long be
+confined to grebe's breasts for muffs and cape trimmings.  Other birds
+will be used.  The gentle creatures are not all put on hats."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh!  I must not forget to tell you that the new preacher over at the
+Second Church has begun a course of lectures on the work of mercy that
+women might do.  He says that as mothers in the homes, and as teachers
+in the public schools and the Sabbath-schools, we have a grand
+opportunity."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So we have; but what avails our opportunity if our eyes are blinded so
+that we do not see it?" assented Mrs. Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Last night," resumed the lady, "he spoke particularly of the crime of
+wearing birds; and he accuses us of being more cruel than men."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He does?" questioned Mrs. Brown, in great surprise.  "Why, we all know
+that woman's part in this wickedness comes from her desire to look
+pretty; at least she thinks that wearing birds adds to her beauty.  Her
+wickedness does not come from actual love of butchery.  But men and
+boys have shot innocent creatures since the world began for the mere
+brutal pleasure of killing something.  It seems as though they were
+born with a blood-thirsty instinct, a wanting to destroy life, to hunt
+it and shoot it down.  They beg to go gunning almost before they are
+out of dresses and into trousers.  Every mother knows there is a savage
+streak in her boy's nature.  No," continued Mrs. Brown, with a decisive
+nod of her head, "I say let the man who is without sin among them be
+the first to cast stones now.  Perhaps this very preacher spent all his
+Saturdays robbing birds' nests and clubbing birds when he was a little
+boy, and kept it up until he was big enough to kill them with a gun.
+Of course there are some who do not; not all boys are cruel.  But this
+cruelty does not excuse ours.  Man's wickedness does not make us the
+less guilty.  We will be held responsible all the same."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other woman looked thoughtful.  "Well," she said at last, "I
+haven't quite lost all faith in womanly mercy.  Women don't mean to be
+cruel; the trouble is they don't think."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't think!" echoed Mrs. Brown scornfully.  "Don't think!  That is an
+excuse entirely too babyish for women to offer in this age of the
+world.  Do they want to be regarded as irresponsible children forever?
+Don't you know that childish thoughtlessness on a subject as important
+as the needless taking of life argues tremendously against us?  Here we
+are at the twentieth century, and with all our boasted advancement we
+are as cruel and savage as Fiji Islanders.  Oh, don't talk to me about
+women!" and she made an outward motion of her hand as if pushing away
+an imaginary drove of them that was coming too near.  "I haven't a
+particle of patience with them.  If they're not in the habit of
+thinking, let them begin it right off.  Let them begin it before the
+birds are all destroyed.  If they have the least spark of tenderness
+left in their hearts&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The rest of the sentence was lost in the louder tones of a pert little
+miss, who in company with her mother was rummaging over a box of
+trimmings on the counter nearest my cage.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XI
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE ILL-MANNERED CHILD
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+O wad some power the giftie gie us<BR>
+To see oursel's as ithers see us.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Burns.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+There lived of yore a saintly dame,<BR>
+Whose wont it was with sweet accord<BR>
+To do the bidding of her Lord<BR>
+In quaintly fashioned bonnet<BR>
+With simplest ribbons on it.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"I won't have ribbon loops, I tell you," exclaimed the child.  "I want
+an owl's head and I'm going to have it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, my dear, the ribbon is ever so much prettier," urged the mother
+soothingly.  "An owl's head is too old a trimming for your hat, dear.
+It wouldn't do at all.  Here, select some of this nice ribbon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Didn't I say I wouldn't have it?" answered "dear" pettishly, as she
+reached into another box containing an assortment of wings, quails,
+tails, and parts of various birds jumbled up together.  Picking out a
+pair of blackbird's wings she placed them jauntily against the rim of
+an untrimmed hat which her mother held.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There, that looks nice," was her comment.  "If I can't have an owl's
+head I'm going to have these wings."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her mother mildly assured her that the ribbon was more suitable only to
+be met with the reply: "You can wear it yourself then, for I sha'n't
+wear it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This shocking disrespect caused two old ladies who were pricing hat
+pins to turn quickly and view the offender.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Goodness gracious!" ejaculated one of them, drawing a deep breath.
+"If that youngster belonged to me for about twenty minutes, wouldn't I
+give her something wholesome that she'd remember?  I'd take the
+tantrums out of her in short order."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She deserves it, sure," said her companion.  "But the mother is more
+to blame than the child for letting it grow up with such abominable
+manners.  I dare say the woman at first thought it was cute and smart
+in the little thing, and now she can't help herself.  La, sakes! just
+listen to that."  She re-adjusted her spectacles and gazed with added
+interest at the pair in altercation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With the hat poised on her finger the milliner was bending smilingly
+toward the little girl who was giving her order in a very peremptory
+tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I want those wings put on my hat.  I won't wear it if you trim it only
+in ribbon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mother seemed a little embarrassed as she told the milliner that
+she supposed the hat would have to be trimmed in the way Elsie wanted
+it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Humph!  I knew the child would get what she wanted," observed the old
+lady who had first spoken.  "I felt all the time that the mother would
+have to give in.  What on earth did she let her take those big black
+wings for?  Two of those little yellow sugar birds would have been
+better for a child's hat.  The idea of letting a youngster rule you
+that way!  My!" and then she took another deep breath.  "She needs a
+trouncing, if ever a child did," and with that she and her friend
+resumed their shopping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The cloud had vanished from Elsie's face, and all was serene again.
+Her mother seemed somewhat ashamed of her little girl's bad manners, as
+was shown by her apologetic air when she observed to the trimmer that
+Elsie was as queer a child as ever lived.  When she set her mind on a
+thing, it was so hard for her to give it up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They waited for the new hat to be trimmed, and on its completion Elsie
+seized it and put it on her head, much against her mother's wishes, who
+preferred not to have it displayed until the next day at Sunday-school;
+but the insistence of the child was so vehement that again the mother
+thought it wise to yield, and Elsie tripped off in triumph to the other
+end of the store with the black wings showing out stiffly on each side
+of her head.  The mother remarked, with forced playfulness, as she
+watched her, "Elsie's a g-r-e-a-t girl, I tell you.  You can't fool
+her."
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-144"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-144.jpg" ALT="The Baltimore Oriole" BORDER="2" WIDTH="630" HEIGHT="857">
+<H4>
+[Illustration: The Baltimore Oriole.]
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+As the trimmer returned the boxes to the shelves, I overheard her
+mutter, "Oh, yes, Elsie is a g-r-e-a-t girl, a perfect little jewel, so
+well-behaved.  Her polite manners show her careful home training; quite
+a reflection on her dear mamma."  But from the peculiar laugh she gave
+I didn't believe she really meant it as praise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the nights grew longer and the store was closed for the evening,
+the milliner and her husband usually spent an hour or two in the back
+room looking over the newspaper which came every day from the city.
+The man always turned at once to the wheat reports, and the price of
+wool, which he read aloud to his wife, though I could see she did not
+care very much to hear about them; but she hunted first for the fashion
+notes and the bargains in millinery before she read the other news.
+One night while thus engaged she suddenly exclaimed:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here's something that is bound to hurt trade."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By trade she meant the millinery business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is it?" her husband inquired, looking over the top of the page he
+held.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, here's a lot of women who have been meeting in a convention in
+Chicago and getting excited and losing their heads, and passing some
+ridiculous resolutions."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What kind of resolutions?" he inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, they've been denouncing the fashion of wearing birds.  They belong
+to a society called&mdash;called&mdash;something or other, I forget what.  Let me
+see," and she ran her eye down the column.  "Oh, yes, here it is.  They
+are members of the O'Dobbin society, and they got so wrought up on the
+subject they took the feathers out of their hats right there in the
+meeting and vowed never to wear bird trimming again.  Well, if such
+outlandish notions spread, you'll soon see how it will injure the
+millinery trade."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pshaw! you needn't worry.  The protests of a handful of fanatical
+women can't do your business any harm," he answered carelessly, and
+turned to his paper again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She shook her head.  "I'm not so sure of that.  I think there are some
+women in this very town just cranky enough to endorse such foolishness.
+There's Mrs. Judge Jenkins for one.  I've never yet been able to sell
+her a real stylish hat.  She won't wear birds, because she thinks it's
+wicked.  I hope to goodness she won't consider it her duty to start an
+O'Dobbin society here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From the depths of my heart I blessed those kind women who had shown
+their disapproval of the nefarious traffic in bird life, and had
+pledged themselves to our protection.  True, they were but a handful
+compared with the millions whom the god Fashion still held in bondage,
+only a handful who were fighting the good fight; but would not the
+influence of their noble example and their pledge of mercy be spread
+abroad till all the women in Christian lands would join in the crusade
+against the wrong?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In my joy at the thought I chirped so loudly that the lady looked up
+from her reading.  She seemed suddenly to recall a thought as she
+glanced at my cage, for she said, "I must not forget to ask Katharine
+if she can take the bird home with her next week and keep it while
+Polly is gone to the country.  I'll be sure to forget to feed it.
+Anyway, I haven't time to bother with it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The day before Polly left for the country I heard her inquiring for the
+"Daily," which I remembered was the name they called the newspaper
+containing the account of the noble city ladies who had pledged
+themselves not to wear us any more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Tuesday's paper?" her mother asked; she was busy at the time fastening
+a poor, little, mute swallow on a rich hat.  "Perhaps it was thrown
+behind the counter.  Did you want it for any special purpose?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly replied that she wanted to read something in it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, it is probably torn up by this time," said her mother.  "If it
+isn't on the table in the back room, or on the shelf by the window, or
+behind the counter, I'm sure I don't know where it is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young clerk who was arranging the goods on the counter had heard
+Polly's inquiry, and she now asked if it was the newspaper that told
+about the women who thought it wrong to wear birds.  It seemed to me
+that Polly hesitated a little as she replied that that was the very
+paper she wanted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Goodness, child, is that the piece you want to read?"  Her mother's
+voice sounded rather sharp, as if she were vexed.  "I hope that subject
+hasn't turned your head too," but she said no more, for just then a
+customer coming in, she laid down her work and went forward to greet
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly looked troubled, but she confided to Miss Katharine that she
+wanted very much to read the account.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Fortunately I cut the piece out to give to my sister.  I knew she'd be
+interested in it, but I have always forgotten to give it to her," said
+the clerk.  She seemed to be very much in earnest as she continued, "I
+do wish something could be done to save the birds.  If women must have
+feathers, why can't they content themselves with wearing ostrich tips
+and plumes?  There is nothing cruel or wicked in the way they are
+procured."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She opened the little satchel hanging at her belt, and from it took a
+folded slip of paper which she handed to Polly, telling her she might
+have it to read, and when she had finished it to please bring it back
+to her.  Polly thanked her, and ran away to a quiet corner of the back
+room, where I saw her slowly reading the clipping as she rocked herself
+in her pretty birch chair.  When she had read it through, she sat for
+some time looking very thoughtful.  At last she rose and carried the
+paper back to Miss Katharine, halting a moment as she passed my cage,
+to whisper softly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dickey Downy, you dear little fellow, I'm going upstairs right this
+very minute to take the feathers off my best Sunday hat and I'm never,
+never going to wear birds any more."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XII
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+TWO SLAVES OF FASHION
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+I do not like the fashion of your garments.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Shakespeare.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+I'm sure thou hast a cruel nature and a bloody.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Shakespeare.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Two young ladies, fashionably dressed, met each other that afternoon
+just in front of our side window, which had been raised to let in the
+air.  From the warmth of their greeting I saw that they were on terms
+of friendly intimacy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One of the girls stood a little out of the range of my vision,
+therefore I could not hear her voice when she talked, if, indeed, she
+had a chance to say anything, but the vivacious monologue carried on by
+her friend was amply sufficient to show the theme which interested them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How glibly that pretty creature chattered!  How fast the words flew!
+How she arched her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders and winked her
+eyes and wrinkled her forehead and pursed her rosy lips and tilted her
+nose and gesticulated with her slender hand and tapped the pavement
+with her umbrella point, passing from each phase of expression to the
+next with a rapidity truly wonderful.  Occasionally she went through
+with these strange grimaces all at once.  She was indeed a whirlwind of
+language, an avalanche of emotion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her voice was high pitched and shrill, so that every one on the street
+must have heard her as she exclaimed:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Nell, how perfectly lovely your new hat is!  Turn around so that I
+can see the other side.  Oh-h, ah-h, that darling little bird with its
+glossy plumage among the velvet is too sweet for anything!  If anything
+it is prettier than Kate Smith's hat with the thrush's head and wings,
+although I'll admit hers is awfully stylish.  You ought to see my new
+hat.  Ah, I tell you it's a beauty; soft crown of silvery stuff, and on
+one side a tall aigrette and a dear little cedar-bird, and toward the
+back is the cutest, cunningest humming-bird with its tiny green body
+and long bill.  It looks as if it were ready to fly or to sing.  I
+selected the trimming for sister May's new hat too.  It is brown velvet
+and has an oriole on it; you know they are so showy and bright it makes
+you almost think you are in the woods.  At Madame Oiseau Mort's, where
+I get my millinery, there was another hat I had a notion to take.  It
+was built up with robins' wings and part of a tern was on it too, I
+believe&mdash;just lovely! but afterward I was glad I didn't buy it, for
+that decoration is more common.  I counted nine hats in church last
+Sunday trimmed with gulls.  Of course they were pretty, for a handsome
+bird makes any hat pretty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By the way, Nell, I must tell you something perfectly ridiculous!  Do
+you know papa pretends it's wicked for women to wear birds on their
+hats or trim their gowns with feather trimming?  Did you ever?  I told
+him we'd be a mighty sorry-looking set going around like a lot of
+female Dunkards or Salvation Army women, without a bit of style, and he
+said those women hadn't the sin on their souls of wearing birds that
+had been killed on purpose to minister to their vanity; that he'd
+rather be a peaceful-faced Dunkard woman or Salvationist with her plain
+bonnet and her gentle heart than a gay society butterfly with her empty
+head loaded down with dead birds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Isn't it perfectly horrid for him to talk like that?  He is such an
+old fogy in his ideas he actually makes me tired.  Then he went on to
+say that never again could he believe that women are the tender-hearted
+creatures they have always been supposed to be, when they show
+themselves so eager to be decked with the innocent songsters whose
+lives are sacrificed by the million on the altar of fashion; the men
+have always been taught that woman's nature was morally superior to
+theirs, but we'd have to give up this criminal fad which we have
+persisted in at such a fearful price of bird life before we could be
+regarded as other than monstrously cruel and bloody.  However, he
+prophesied that the fashion can't continue much longer anyway, because
+there soon won't be any birds left, and then, he says, we'll have a
+world without its sweetest music.  It will be hushed by the folly of
+woman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Nell, don't you dislike to have anybody lecture you like that?  It
+makes one feel so uncomfortable.  I don't suppose it's so very wrong to
+wear bird trimming or our minister's wife wouldn't do it.  You know her
+black velvet hat with that big bird on it with the red points on the
+wings, is one of the most striking hats that come to church.  And her
+feather muff is so elegant, awfully expensive too.  And what would her
+hat look like without that bird on it, I'd like to know?  So if it
+isn't wicked for her it isn't wicked for us, Nell, and I'm not going to
+give up looking nice just to please papa.  He'd like to have me dress
+as antiquated as old Mrs. Noah when she came out of the ark, but I'm
+not going to encourage him in his old-fashioned notions.  And here,
+Nell, just listen to this!  Don't you think, he says the Episcopal
+Prayer Book ought to be revised for the women worshipers and omit that
+part of the litany where it says, 'From pride, vain-glory, and
+hypocrisy, good Lord, deliver us.'  What fol-de-rol!"  And being out of
+breath she stopped talking and they walked away down the street
+together.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap13"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIII
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+DICKEY'S VISIT
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Kind hearts are more than coronets.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Tennyson.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Plainly furnished and small was the house to which I was taken by Miss
+Katharine to stay during Polly's absence at her grandmother's in the
+country.  But though it was destitute of fine furnishings, it was the
+abode of peace and love, and its lowly roof sheltered noble and kindly
+hearts.  The two sisters lived there alone, supported mainly by
+Katharine's earnings in the millinery store, though occasionally the
+sister, who was lame, added something to their little income by making
+paper flowers and other articles of bright tissues.  It was her
+business to keep the house while Miss Katharine was at the shop, and
+very long and lonely the hours must have seemed to her while her sister
+was away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The first day I was there a boy whom she addressed as John Charles came
+to the house.  Apparently he had been carefully trained, for he raised
+his cap when the lame girl opened the door to his knock.  His manners
+were fine, for he remained standing after he entered until she had
+first seated herself, as if to say, "A gentleman will not sit while a
+lady stands."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had come to inquire if she wished to buy some cooking apples.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are very nice," said John Charles briskly, quite as if he were an
+old salesman.  "No mashed or decayed ones among them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have been wanting some apples," said Eliza.  "If I knew what yours
+were like I might buy some."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have a few here to show," and John Charles drew from a small paper
+sack one or two bright rosy apples.  "There, try one," he said.  "You
+will find them nice and juicy and sour enough to cook quickly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Eliza bit into one and expressed her approval of the fruit.  "They will
+make delicious apple-sauce, I'm sure," she said.  After inquiring the
+price she told the young merchant he might carry in a peck.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a business-like flourish John Charles took a small note-book and
+pencil from his pocket and wrote something at the top of the leaf.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm not delivering now," he said as he returned the note-book to his
+pocket.  "I'm only taking orders; but I'll have your apples here in an
+hour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Eliza bit her lip to keep back a smile.  A boy in knee pants
+transacting business like a grown man, appeared quite amusing to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I see," she said.  "You take orders for your goods.  You don't
+sell from door to door."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, indeed!" answered John Charles with a lofty air.  "That's too much
+like peddling.  I won't peddle.  I prefer to get regular customers and
+take orders and fill them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While he had been talking he had been glancing toward me where I hung
+in the window, and he now politely asked if he might come to look at
+me.  Eliza gave a surprised consent, but watched the boy closely as he
+stood near and chirped to me calling me, "Po-o-o-r Dickey Downy," as
+soon as he found out my name.  I saw from the way Eliza kept her eyes
+on his movements that she was expecting he would do something to hurt
+me, but in this she was pleasantly disappointed, for he never once
+touched my cage and cooed as softly when he spoke to me as Polly
+herself might have done.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was quite afraid of him at first, for ever since my experience with
+the wicked schoolboys who clubbed us in the linden trees, and my later
+experience with Joe, I disliked boys very much.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-160"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-160.jpg" ALT="The Baltimore Oriole" BORDER="2" WIDTH="630" HEIGHT="809">
+<H4>
+[Illustration: The Bobolink.]
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+When John Charles had bidden Eliza "good-morning" and tipped his hat
+again and the door closed after him, she said to me: "Why, Dickey, that
+was a new kind of a boy!  He never once tried to hurt you or to scare
+you.  It shows that all boys are not rough, and I shall always like
+John Charles, for he is a little gentleman."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To this sentiment I fully agreed, and I thought, "Alas! why are not all
+boys as gentle as John Charles?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a few hours I felt as much at home with Eliza as if I had always
+lived there, and I was much pleased when I heard her tell Katharine at
+the supper table the next evening how much she had enjoyed having me
+with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A bird is ever so much better company than a clock," she said; "though
+when I'm here by myself I always like to hear the clock tick.  It seems
+as if I were not so entirely alone.  But a bird is better.  I talked to
+Dickey to-day and he twittered back.  He has such a cute way of perking
+his little head to one side just as knowing as you please, and he acts
+exactly as if he were considering whether he should answer 'yes' or
+no' to what I say, and then it is such fun to watch him smooth down his
+feathers.  He washes and irons them so nicely and works away as
+industriously as if he were afraid he'd lose his 'job.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Katharine rose from the table and stuck a lump of sugar for me to
+taste between the wires of my cage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am surrounded by poor dead birds in the store all day," she
+observed, "and spend so much of my time sewing their wings and heads
+and tails on hats and sort boxfuls of them for customers to look at,
+that even a living bird saddens me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it must be very depressing.  What a shame to kill them; they are
+so cute and pretty and such happy little creatures!  See how cunning he
+looks nibbling at that sugar," and the sister joined Miss Katharine in
+watching me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But do you know, Kathy, I don't believe that women would continue
+wearing bird trimmings if they stopped a minute to think about it.  It
+doesn't seem wrong to them because they never considered the question.
+They simply haven't thought about it at all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Somebody set the fashion and they all followed like a flock of sheep,"
+answered the other with a sneering laugh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, that's just the way.  They go along without thinking.  They only
+know it is the style, and they don't stop to inquire whether it can be
+indulged in innocently or hurtfully.  Now I believe that if their
+attention was particularly called to it, the most of them would quit
+it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Katharine brightened into a smile and half unclasped her little
+satchel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If a bird could talk," pursued the lame girl, "what a revelation it
+could make.  What lovely things it could tell us of that upper kingdom
+of the air where it floats and the distant land it sees!  What sweet
+secrets of nature it knows that man with all his wisdom can never find
+out.  And then its gift of song!  Why, if thousands and thousands of
+dollars were spent in training the finest voice in the world it could
+never equal the notes of a bird.  A woman who could perfectly imitate a
+lark's carol would make her fortune in a month.  The world would go
+wild over her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But as she can't do that she has the lark killed to stick on her hat,
+and then she goes wild over it," interrupted Miss Kathy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her sister smiled at this outburst and continued: "While I was working
+at that morning-glory wreath to-day I couldn't help but watch this bird
+of Polly's with its innocent little antics, and it made me see more
+than ever how wrong it is to cage and kill them.  I just felt as though
+I ought to do something to help save the birds and, Kathy, I wonder if
+we were to invite some of our friends here some evening and call their
+attention to the subject, and explain the wrong to them, if we couldn't
+do some good that way?  Maybe they'd decide not to wear birds on their
+hats."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We might try, sister, I would be perfectly willing to try; but I'm
+afraid it wouldn't do much good, for we have but little influence.  As
+long as fashionable and wealthy ladies will do it, the poorer classes
+will not give it up very readily."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But they have hearts which can be appealed to.  They have feelings
+which can be roused," answered the lame girl eagerly.  "Being alone so
+much I have more time to think over these things than the shop girls
+who are hurried and busy all day, and perhaps nobody has ever tried to
+show them how wrong it is; but I really believe some of them could be
+influenced, if once they would seriously think of the wrong they are
+doing.  That is the reason, Kathy, I suggested to get a lot of them
+together to talk about saving the birds."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The gentle cripple had never even heard of the great Audubon.  She did
+not know that societies existed in many States called by the name of
+the distinguished naturalist, engaged in the same merciful work.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Katharine drew from the satchel the paper clipping and handed it
+to her sister, saying: "This is a coincidence surely; I cut this out of
+the daily paper at the store some time ago, intending to give it to
+you, but I always forgot it.  It is an account of the proceedings of a
+convention in one of the big cities.  You will see by reading it that
+somebody else has been thinking your identical thoughts."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How lovely that is!" exclaimed Eliza when she had carefully read the
+notice.  "How I should have enjoyed being at that meeting.  We will
+help those people all we can, Kathy, by stirring up our acquaintances
+here.  You invite the girls for tomorrow night and I'll have the house
+ready for them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That I had been an inspiration to this gentle girl in her work of mercy
+was a great joy to me, and all the next day I was constantly bursting
+into a round of cheerful twitters and I swung myself in my hoop as fast
+as I could make it go.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The best room was swept and dusted with the greatest care, and a few
+extra chairs moved in from other parts of the house.  My cage was
+transferred from its usual hook to the parlor, and about eight o'clock
+the guests thronged in and soon every seat was filled.  They were
+principally girls who were clerks in stores, or worked in shops and
+offices, and many of them were very smartly dressed.  A few, like Miss
+Katharine and her sister, were more plainly attired; but all were
+lively and full of girlish fun and seemed to enjoy being together.  My
+cage hung in view of every one, and I was proud to be selected as an
+object-lesson by the lame hostess in her introductory appeal to her
+guests to help save the birds.  She so presented the facts that before
+the evening was over she had roused an enthusiasm in some of them
+almost equal to her own, and several pledges were given not to wear
+birds again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is something new in the way of womanly cruelty which isn't so
+well known as the destruction of the birds," remarked one of the
+company.  "The humane society ought to get after the women who wear
+baby lamb trimming."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The way sealskins are procured is also very cruel," said another girl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have never read much about it," answered Eliza, "but it surely
+cannot be so wicked as killing song birds, because the sealskin is an
+article of clothing which serves to keep the body warm, while a dead
+bird sewed on your hat is merely for show and doesn't keep you warm or
+cool or anything else."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is not the use that is made of the sealskin that is wrong, but the
+cruelty of the hunters in getting it," replied the young lady who had
+first spoken.  "They say when the parent seal is captured the young one
+cries for it exactly as a human baby cries after its mother.  It is
+most pitiful to hear it wail.  The branding of the poor creatures is a
+most brutal thing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why are they branded?" asked Kathy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you know, for some years there has been a great strife between
+the United States and Canada, principally over the seal fisheries.
+Each was afraid the other would get more than its share.  To put a stop
+to the seals being entirely killed off, as was likely to be the case
+since so many poachers were in the business, one of our government
+agents suggested that the seals should be branded.  They drive them
+into pens and burn them with red-hot irons."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It isn't likely that any of us will be called upon to deny ourselves
+the wearing of baby lamb, as it is quite expensive, but we can condemn
+it by word if not by example," observed Kathy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The good-nights were said and the company dispersed, not so jolly and
+noisy as they came, but with thoughtfulness arising from awakened
+consciences.  The humble lame girl had sowed the good seed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly was to come back from her grandmother's the next week and, though
+I looked forward with pleasure to being with her again, I felt sorry to
+leave this peaceful home.  The worthy lives and beautiful aims of these
+obscure girls of whom the world knew nothing was a sweet remembrance to
+carry with me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank Polly for me for Dickey Downy's visit and tell her whenever she
+wants to go away anywhere I'll be glad to take care of him for her,"
+Eliza said when the time came for me to go.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She gave the cage into Miss Kathy's hand.  I chirped a farewell to her
+and she whistled back to me and we parted to see each other no more.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap14"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIV
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE COUNTRY SCHOOL
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>Bible.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Polly's welcome to me was most cordial.  She was bright as a cricket
+and full of chat about her visit.  With her usual care she examined my
+cage closely to see that everything was in order and petted and praised
+me for a little while to my full content, then ran to Miss Kathy to
+tell her of the new story book which had been presented to her while
+away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I am going to read you the stories some day," she added.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her young playmates flocked in to see her and as I listened to their
+glad voices my heart yearned more than ever for my comrades of the
+woods, for a thought of spring was in the air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the days went by there were indeed signs all around that spring was
+on the way.  The wind no longer bellowed hoarsely in the treetops, but
+had a mellow, musical sound and the raindrops that struck the window
+pane trickled softly as if glad to come out of the clouds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just after school one bright afternoon Polly came to the door on the
+side porch and called in to Miss Katharine:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll be playing out in the yard awhile.  Louise and Nancy have come to
+stay till half-past five o'clock, so if mother needs me you'll know
+where to find me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right" said Miss Kathy.  "Go on and have a jolly time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And a jolly time they had, judging from the merry shouts that came in
+through the open door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've got your tag!  I've got your tag!" I could hear Polly say, and
+then there was a great scampering of feet and roars of laughter as they
+chased each other up and down the walks.  This was kept up for some
+minutes, then a voice began:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Intery-mintery, cutery-corn,<BR>
+Apple-seed and briar-thorn,<BR>
+Wire, briar, limber-lock,<BR>
+Three geese in one flock;<BR>
+One flew east and one flew west<BR>
+And one flew over the cuckoo's nest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Louise, you're out!  It's your turn first."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder if we are the geese?" said Nancy.  Then they all giggled as
+if what she had said was very funny.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Louise, Louise, look, look!  You're going to have good luck,"
+presently shouted two voices.  "A ladybird has lighted on your
+shoulder."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, goody!" said Louise.  "I wonder what my good luck is going to be?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shake it off, Louise, let it light on me," said Nancy.  "I want good
+luck to come to me too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is just the color of my new crimson dress," declared Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Only your red dress hasn't spots on it," corrected Louise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, but the red is about the same shade as my dress.  Oh, girls,
+wouldn't a row of ladybirds for buttons be pretty on my waist?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this quaint conceit the three girls all giggled again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do think they are the cutest little bugs.  I never get tired of
+looking at them," observed Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bugs?  You wouldn't call them bugs, would you?" inquired Louise.  "I
+think they are little beetles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Beetles?  No, no," said Polly and Nancy both in one breath,  "A beetle
+is a big black thing that flies around only at dusk."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you suppose your father would know?" asked Louise of Polly.  "Let's
+take it in the house and ask him, and so settle whether it is bug or
+beetle."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And they came running into the sitting room behind the store to show
+the lady-bird to Polly's father, who was there looking over his paper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it a bug or a beetle?" they asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He laid down the paper and looked at the pretty little insect a moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is a ladybird."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, of course, we know that, papa; but Nancy and I say it is a bug,
+and Louise says it's a beetle," explained Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Louise is right," was his reply.  "It is classed as a beetle.  It is
+one of the best friends the farmer has, and the fruit grower too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How is it useful to him?" asked Nancy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, it eats the lice that spoil certain plants and leaves and grain.
+I notice that the Australian government is&mdash;Do you girls know where
+Australia is?" he asked, interrupting himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course we do," they all shouted with much laughing, as if it were a
+great joke to ask them such a question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I was going to tell you that the Australian government is taking
+steps to encourage the ladybird on purpose to help the fruit farmers of
+that country.  Perhaps they have heard that it brings good luck," he
+added with a smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's show it to Dickey Downy and then put it out of the door and let
+it go home," said Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dickey Downy wouldn't know a lady-bird from a grasshopper," answered
+Nancy teasingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly retorted, "Don't be too sure!  Dickey is a very intelligent bird,
+a very extraordinary bird."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She contented herself with paying me compliments, for instead of
+bringing the crimson beetle into the store she opened the window and
+let him fly away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I'm glad I have learned something new about ladybirds," remarked
+Louise, as she tied her hat strings ready to go home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I too," chimed in Nancy.  "I am glad the Australians prize the
+pretty little creatures.  It's nice to be useful and handsome too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then both girls said good-bye and ran home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few days later Polly announced to Miss Kathy that she was ready to
+read the long promised tale.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mother says you will be in the back room sewing this afternoon, so I
+will bring my little rocker and sit here and read to you.  My book is
+full of beautiful stories about children and birds and bees."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I too anticipated a pleasant afternoon, for my cage still hung within
+the doorway where I could hear and see all that took place in both
+apartments.  Soon after dinner Miss Kathy appeared in the back room
+with her thimble and scissors and seated herself at the work-table.
+Polly drew up her chair beside her.  The book she held was a pretty
+little affair bound in red with a silver inscription on the covers, and
+after being duly admired by both, Polly opened it and selected the
+following story, which she read aloud:
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE MOUNT AIRY SCHOOL.
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The breath of blossoms was in the air and spicy scents from the woods
+that lined the lane on each side came floating to the delighted senses
+of a little girl who drove slowly along the road leading to Mount Airy
+School.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Young horses frisked in the pastures or came whinnying to the fence as
+she passed.  Lazy cows cropped the grass at the sides of the road,
+pushing their heads into the zigzag corners of the rail fence in
+pursuit of the tender clover that had crept through from the thrifty
+meadows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The school was a little brick structure standing back a short distance
+from the road, with a playground on each side as enchantingly beautiful
+as it was novel to Alice Glenn, the little girl who had come from town
+by invitation of the teacher to visit the school.  Accustomed to the
+severer discipline of the graded school of which she was a member, the
+unconventional ways of these children amused the young visitor greatly.
+But who could study on a morning like this, with the delicious warbling
+of the birds sounding in one's ears?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Who could be expected to take an interest in nouns and adverbs while
+his heart was out in the woods with the bugs and bees or with the sheep
+over in yonder field, whose ba-a, ba-a, was borne in distinctly through
+the open door?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm sure I would never have my lessons if I went to school here in the
+summer time," thought Alice as she glanced over the room.  "The country
+is too lovely to be spoiled by school books.  Why, that boy has a
+wounded bird in his desk!  I wonder if Miss Harper knows?"  And a
+moment after, Alice met the bold, defiant look of the boy himself,
+which seemed to say, "Well, what are you going to do about it?  That
+bird belongs to me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The history class being called at this moment the big boy got up,
+shoved the little creature to the farthest corner of his desk and
+giving Alice a parting scowl, went forward to recite his lesson.
+Notwithstanding her desire to befriend the feathered captive she soon
+became interested in the class and could scarcely refrain from laughing
+outright at the answer to the teacher's question, "What happened at
+Bunker Hill?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Old Bunker died."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was bawled out by a freckled-faced boy, who reminded her of a
+rabbit, owing to a fashion he had of twitching his nose and keeping it
+in motion in some mysterious way.  Even the teacher wanted to laugh,
+but assuming her sternest manner she speedily restored order.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was during the arithmetic lesson that Alice's heart went out in pity
+for the youthful instructor.  The majority of the pupils were bright;
+but an unruly fraction, one child, refused to comprehend.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If a family consume a barrel of flour in nine weeks, what part of a
+barrel will they use in one week, Matilda?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Matilda rolled her blue eyes up to the ceiling as if to find the answer
+there, then studied a board in the floor for several minutes, then
+slowly shook her head and sat down.  A dozen hands were raised, and the
+teacher nodded permission to a small boy who analyzed it successfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, Matilda, you try it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Matilda shook her head and fidgeted with her apron string.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Try it, and we will help you," persisted the teacher.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus urged, Matilda cleared her throat, folded her arms and began: "If
+nine persons use a barrel of flour in nine weeks, in one week they
+would use nine times nine, which is eighty-one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What! eighty-one barrels?  But, Matilda, it makes no difference about
+the number of persons.  It may be one hundred or it may be twenty.
+Suppose it were a bushel of potatoes they consumed in nine weeks.  How
+many would they use in one week?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl again shook her head and resumed her upward gaze.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Would they not use one-ninth of a bushel?  Or, we'll take a peach for
+instance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Matilda's face brightened perceptibly and almost lost its look of
+dejection.  The teacher noted the change and smiled encouragingly as
+she said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll suppose a peach will last you nine days.  What part of it will
+you eat in one day?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The expectant look faded out of the poor girl's face.  One peach to
+last nine days!  No wonder the question seemed impossible of solution.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, then," said Miss Harper quite in despair and almost perspiring
+in her effort to make it plain to the child, "we'll let the peach go.
+Suppose instead, it were a watermelon.  If you ate a carload of
+watermelons in nine days, what part of a carload would you eat in one
+day?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the mention of her favorite fruit, Matilda's eyes glistened, her
+features relaxed into a broader smile, and almost before the teacher
+had finished she had her answer ready and gave a correct analysis.
+Watermelons had won.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last the little clock that ticked away the hours on the teacher's
+table pointed to the time for the noon intermission, and with a whoop
+and halloo almost deafening, the pupils rushed out with dinner pails
+and baskets to eat their luncheon in the shady woods.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Harper led Alice away to her boarding-place across the fields.
+Scarcely taking time to taste the different kinds of jams, jellies,
+grape-butter, and other sauces set out by the hostess in special honor
+of the young visitor, Alice hastily dispatched her dinner and was soon
+back at the playground, where she found a bevy of girls seated on a big
+grapevine which one of the larger girls was swinging backward and
+forward amid shouts of glee.  Nearby two gingham sunbonnets bobbed up
+and down as their owners bent their heads to watch a speckled lady-bug
+crawl up a twig.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home,<BR>
+Your house is on fire, your children will roam,"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+repeated Esther in a low monotone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"See, it's going now.  I wonder whether it really understands us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course it does," replied her companion positively.
+"Daddy-long-legs are real smart too.  I caught one last night and I
+said over three times, 'Tell me which way our cow goes or I will kill
+you,' and it pointed in the direction of our pasture lot every time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You wouldn't really have killed the poor thing, though," exclaimed
+Alice, who had drawn near to look at the crimson lady-bug.  "A
+daddy-long-legs is such a harmless creature.  It has a right to live as
+well as we have."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Caleb, did you catch it?" interrupted Matilda.  "Bring it here!"
+and she beckoned to a small boy who was busy near a large beech tree
+some distance away.  "He's been after a tree-frog," she explained.
+"There's one up in that tree that sings the cutest every evening and
+morning.  I hear him when I am gathering bluebells."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's pretty near dead," said the boy bringing his trophy.  "I guess I
+squeezed it too hard.  We might as well kill it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no! that would be cruel; the poor little thing will soon be all
+right if you put it back on its tree.  We'll go with you and help you
+put it up," replied Alice.  "Come on, girls."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It ain't hardly worth the trouble," and the boy looked at the frog
+disdainfully.  "It's uglier than a toad, if anything.  But I never kill
+toads; I know better'n to do that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am glad to hear it," said the visitor from town as they turned
+toward the elm tree.  "Toads enjoy life and it's wicked to molest 'em."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I don't know about their enjoyin' life.  The reason I let 'em
+alone is, coz if you kill a toad, your cow'll give bad milk."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice did not dispute this wise statement.  She could not help wishing
+that the same law of retaliation protected all birds, beasts, and
+insects.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After seeing the frog deposited in safety in a hole in one of the big
+boughs, she with Matilda and Esther scampered back to the swing
+expecting to find the others there.  To their surprise the big
+grapevine was unoccupied, and the shouts and screams issuing from the
+schoolhouse led them too, to hurry on to see what was the matter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Maybe Jim Stubbs has got a mus'rat, or somethin' in there a-scarin'
+the children," suggested Esther, as they entered the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A crowd had gathered in front of the teacher's desk on which was placed
+the large dictionary, and seated on the book was the boy who winked
+with his nose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Stand back!" he called, "I'm going to let it out, and then you'll see
+fun."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With that he jumped down, removed the dictionary, raised the lid of the
+desk, and out popped a red squirrel.  Round and round over the floor
+flew the frightened animal, dodging here and there and wildly darting
+into corners to evade the books and other missiles that were thrown at
+it.  Not only the boys took a part in the cruel sport, but some of the
+girls helped with sticks, sunbonnets, and whatever they could lay their
+hands on.  Two or three times the little creature was struck.  At last,
+helpless, it stood panting while one of its tormentors dealt it a blow
+that killed it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A cry of protest broke from Alice's lips, but her voice was lost in the
+roar of applause that followed the big boy's action, as he tossed the
+lifeless squirrel across the room into the face of another boy, who in
+turn pitched the animal at his neighbor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The poor little creature!  How could they abuse it and take its life?"
+cried Alice, turning to those nearest her.  The other girls shrank back
+abashed at her reproachful tones, which were noticed by Jim Stubbs, and
+that hero felt called upon to make a speech.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah! boys, that girl is getting ready to cry over a dead squirrel.
+What d'ye think of that?"  And a heartless chorus echoed his laughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, I'm too indignant to cry," replied Alice with spirit.  "I never
+knew boys could be so awfully wicked, yes, and girls too.  I should
+think you would love these dear little creatures, and pet and protect
+them.  They are what make country life pleasant.  I wouldn't give a fig
+for your pretty woods if there were no living things to be seen there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was an aspect of the situation the boys had never before
+considered.  They did not realize that to a lover of nature the
+humblest form of animal life is interesting.  Did other people really
+prize squirrels and frogs and lightning bugs and such things?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just at this moment the teacher entered, and the crestfallen pupils
+busied themselves in gathering up the scattered books and other
+articles used in storming the squirrel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My young visitor is quite shocked by such an exhibition of cruelty,"
+said Miss Harper, when she had learned how matters stood.  "Think what
+the woods would be without the song of birds and the chirp and hum of
+insects.  Your playground teems with happy beings that love the warmth
+and sunlight as well as you do.  Would not the forests be robbed of
+half their beauty and interest if the squirrels and chipmunks and birds
+and butterflies were killed off?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wimmen folks are nice ones to talk about cruelty to birds," sneered
+the big boy to his neighbor, "when they stick wings and tails and whole
+birds on their hats and bonnets whenever they can raise a cent to buy
+'em with.  Oh, yes, wimmen are awful consistent!  They are, for a fact."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Had his words reached Miss Harper's ears she might have replied that
+sensible and humane "wimmen folks" regarded the fearful slaughter of
+birds as little less than a crime; but unfortunately she did not hear
+this and resumed:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yet you hunt out these harmless and beautiful creatures and wantonly
+destroy them.  Nearly every boy gives way to this savage, brutal
+impulse to kill something.  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."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+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.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap15"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XV
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+POLLY'S FAREWELL
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Happy little maiden,<BR>
+Give, oh, give to me<BR>
+The highness of your courage,<BR>
+The sweetness of your grace,<BR>
+To speak a large word in a little place.<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;<I>E. S. Phelps-Ward.</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Closing the volume, Polly laid it in her lap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That was a good story," observed Miss Kathy, as the child paused.  The
+little girl did not immediately reply, but leaned forward and looked
+wistfully in her companion's face for a moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you think it is so very wicked to keep&mdash;that is, to&mdash;to deprive a
+bird of its liberty?" she asked timidly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I don't know that it could be called wicked.  A canary bird, born
+in a cage, that never knew any other home, would be apt to die if it
+were turned loose to shift for itself and get its own living.  It
+possibly could not stand the exposure to the weather," replied Miss
+Katharine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But supposing it wasn't a canary," said Polly hesitatingly; "supposing
+it might be a redbird, or a wren, or&mdash;or&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Or a bobolink?" Miss Kathy smiled as she supplied the word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well&mdash;yes, a bobolink, for instance."  And Polly glanced toward me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Any captured bird certainly feels very bad to be shut up in a cage all
+its life, though I have seen robins in captivity that grew to be as
+tame as canaries.  My aunt had one that lived twelve years in a cage.
+It would peck her cheek, and pretend to kiss her, and do all sorts of
+sweet little tricks.  His cage door stood open, and he went in and out
+as it suited him, but he never thought of flying away.  However, it is
+only natural to suppose that hopping about in a narrow space would be
+dreadful to a bird accustomed to spreading its wings and soaring up
+through the sky whenever and wherever it pleased."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Kathy looked at the clock.  She saw it was time for her to go back
+into the store, then gathered up her work and went into the front room.
+When Polly was left to herself I could see she was thinking very hard.
+The rocking-chair kept moving faster, and her forehead was drawn into a
+little pucker between her eyes.  She sighed too, occasionally, as if
+she were sad.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I noticed that Miss Katharine from her post behind the counter looked
+in at the child from time to time, and I heard her say half-aloud: "If
+the fashionable women of the land had hearts as merciful and
+consciences as tender as that dear little Polly's, the slaughter of the
+birds would soon come to an end."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The birch chair finally ceased to rock.  The deep-drawn wrinkle passed
+away from Polly's forehead.  She laid down her book and came to my
+cage, then she stood for a moment looking at me tenderly.  Then she
+took the cage down from its hook and carried it to the door leading to
+the garden.  The air was pleasant, and a sunbeam slanted across the
+porch making a yellow gleam on the lattice.  How beautiful it looked to
+my weary eyes!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dearest Dickey Downy, good-bye," she said to me, and her voice had a
+little tremor in it.  "You had a right to be happy and live out of
+doors among the trees, and I kept you a prisoner.  Please forgive me
+for it, and forgive me for wearing birds' wings on my Sunday hat.  I
+shall never do such cruel things again.  It's coming spring now,
+Dickey, so be happy and fly away to the beautiful clouds."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She set the little wire door wide open.  A warm zephyr swept by, laden
+with the scent of wild flowers and all sweet growing things.  My heart
+fluttered with joy.  I heard the far cry of the hills as I floated out
+and upward, higher and higher, on joyous wing.  I was free, free!
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Dickey Downy, by Virginia Sharpe Patterson
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dickey Downy, by Virginia Sharpe Patterson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dickey Downy
+       The Autobiography of a Bird
+
+Author: Virginia Sharpe Patterson
+
+Release Date: July 10, 2005 [EBook #16255]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DICKEY DOWNY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Dickey Downy
+
+
+The Autobiography of a Bird
+
+
+
+by
+
+VIRGINIA SHARPE PATTERSON
+
+
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"The Girl of the Period," "All on Account of a Bonnet," "The Wonderland
+Children," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+With Introduction by
+
+HON. JOHN F. LACEY, M.C.
+
+
+
+
+Drawings by
+
+ELIZABETH M. HALLOWELL
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+
+A. J. Rowland--1420 Chestnut Street
+
+1899
+
+
+
+
+Copyright 1899 by the
+
+AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
+
+
+From the Society's own Press
+
+
+
+
+To
+
+my dear children
+
+Laura, Virgie, and Robert George
+
+this little Volume is
+
+Affectionately Inscribed
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+This beautiful volume has been written for a good purpose.  I had the
+pleasure of reading the proof-sheets of the book while in the
+Yellowstone National Park, where no gun may be lawfully fired at any of
+God's creatures.  All animals there are becoming tame, and the great
+bears come out of the woods to feed on the garbage of the hotels and
+camps, fearless of the tourists, who look on with pleasure and wonder
+at such a scene.
+
+"The child is father of the man," and this volume is addressed to the
+heart and imagination of every child reader.  If children are taught to
+love and protect the birds they will remember the lesson when they grow
+old.  When children learn to prefer to take a "snap-shot" at a bird
+with a camera, rather than with a gun, they will protect these
+feathered friends for their beauty, even if they do not regard them for
+their usefulness.
+
+Nature has supplied a system of balances if left to itself.  Some forms
+of insect life are so prolific that but for the voracity and industry
+of the birds the world would become almost uninhabitable.
+
+Bird life appeals to the eye for its beauty, to the ear for its music,
+and to the interest of man for its utility.  Shooting-clubs have
+foreseen the extermination that awaits many of the finest of the game
+birds, and are taking much pains to enforce the laws enacted for game
+protection.  A selfish interest thus is called into activity, and one
+class of birds is receiving protection through the aid of its own
+enemies.
+
+But the birds of beautiful plumage are now threatened with extinction
+by the desire of womankind for personal decoration.  Against this
+destruction Audubon societies are organizing a crusade, and Mrs.
+Patterson's principal purpose in this book is to direct attention to
+the wholesale slaughter of the birds of plumage and song.
+
+The Princess of Wales was requested to write in an album her various
+peculiarities.  Among the inquiries was: "What is your greatest
+weakness?"  She answered: "Millinery."
+
+When Napoleon was banished to Elba it is stated that the fallen monarch
+was followed by Josephine's old millinery bills.  How many of these
+bills were for the plumage of slaughtered birds the historian does not
+say.  But the passion for the beautiful is very strong in the tender
+hearts of women, and an earnest appeal to the natural gentleness of the
+sex must be made to enlist them in the defense of the birds.
+
+Mrs. Patterson enters upon this task with enthusiasm, and many a bird
+will live to flutter through the trees or glisten in the sunshine and
+gladden the earth with its beauty that but for this little book would
+have perched for a brief season upon the headgear of some lovely woman.
+
+Let the good work go on until the mummy of a dead bird will be
+recognized by all persons as an unfitting decoration for the head of
+womankind.
+
+JOHN F. LACEY.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I.  THE ORCHARD
+   II.  DICKEY DOWNY'S MEDITATIONS
+  III.  THE RULER WITH THE IRON HAND
+   IV.  DICKEY'S COUSINS
+    V.  "DON'T, JOHNNY"
+   VI.  THE PARROT AT A PARTY
+  VII.  A WINTER IN THE SOUTH
+ VIII.  THE PRISON
+   IX.  THE HUNTERS
+    X.  A NEW HOME
+   XI.  THE ILL-MANNERED CHILD
+  XII.  TWO SLAVES OF FASHION
+ XIII.  DICKEY'S VISIT
+  XIV.  THE COUNTRY SCHOOL
+   XV.  POLLY'S FAREWELL
+
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+
+The Indigo Bird
+
+The Summer Tanager
+
+The Baltimore Oriole
+
+The Bobolink
+
+
+
+
+  Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan Sonnet
+  And many humming birds were fastened on it.
+  Caught in a net of delicate creamy crepe
+  The dainty captives lay there dead together;
+  No dart of slender bill, no fragile shape
+  Fluttering, no stir of radiant feather;
+  Alicia looked so calm, I wondered whether
+  She cared if birds were killed to trim her bonnet.
+  Her hand fell lightly on my hand;
+  And I fancied that a stain of death
+  Like that which doomed the Lady of Macbeth
+  Was on her hand.
+
+      --Elizabeth Cavazza
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE ORCHARD
+
+  Bobolink, that in the meadow
+  Or beneath the orchard's shadow
+  Keepest up a constant rattle,
+  Joyous as my children's prattle,
+  Welcome to the North again.
+          --_Thos. Hill._
+
+
+My native home was in a pleasant meadow not far from a deep wood, at
+some distance from the highway.  From this it was separated by plowed
+fields and a winding country lane, carpeted with grass and fringed with
+daisies.
+
+While it was yet dawn, long before the glint of the sun found its way
+through the foliage, the air was musical with the twittering of our
+feathered colony.
+
+It is true our noisy neighbors, the blue-jays, sometimes disturbed my
+mother by their hoarse chattering when she was weary of wing and wanted
+a quiet hour to meditate, but they disturbed us younger ones very
+little.  My mother did not think they were ever still a minute.
+Constantly hopping back and forth, first on one bough, then on another,
+flirting down between times to pick up a cricket or a bug, they were
+indeed, a most fidgetty set.  Their restlessness extended even to their
+handsome top-knots, which they jerked up and down like a questioning
+eyebrow.  They were beautiful to look at had they only possessed a
+little of the dignity and composure of our family.  But as I said, we
+little ones did not trouble ourselves about them.
+
+The air was so pleasant, our nest so cozy, and our parents provided us
+such a plentiful diet of nice worms and bugs, that like other
+thoughtless babies who have nothing to do but eat, sleep, and grow, we
+had no interest in things outside and did not dream there was such a
+thing as vexation or sorrow or crime in this beautiful world.  When our
+parents were off gathering our food, we seldom felt lonely, for we
+nestled snugly and kept each other company by telling what we would do
+when we should be strong enough to fly.
+
+At this stage of our existence we were as ungainly a lot of children as
+could well be imagined.  To look at our long, scrawny necks and big
+heads so disproportioned to the size of our bodies, which were scantily
+covered with a fuzzy down that scarcely concealed our nakedness, who
+would have thought that in time we would develop into such handsome
+birds as the bobolink family is universally considered to be?
+
+Our mother, who was both very proud and very fond of us, was untiring
+in her watchful care.  No human mother bending over the nursery bed
+soothing her little one to rest, showed more devotion than did she, as
+she hovered near the tiny cradle of coarse grass and leaves woven by
+her own cunning skill--alert and sleepless when danger was near and
+enfolding us with her warm, soft wings.  Thus tenderly cared for we
+passed the early sunny days of life.
+
+After we could fly we often visited a fragrant orchard that sent its
+odors across the grain fields.  From its green shade we made short
+excursions to the rich, black soil in search of some choice tid-bit of
+a worm turned up by the plow expressly for our dessert.  We were indeed
+glad to be of use to the farmer by devouring these pests so destructive
+to his crops, but did not limit our labors to these places; we also
+made it our business to pick off the bugs and slugs that infested the
+fruit trees, and often extended our efforts to the tender young grape
+leaves in the arbor and the rose bushes and shrubs in the flower garden.
+
+On a warm morning after a rain was our favorite time for work, and it
+was pleasant to hear the tap-tap-tapping of our neighbor the
+woodpecker, as he located with his busy little bill the bugs in the
+tree limb.  It was like the hammer of an industrious blacksmith
+breaking on the still air.  His jaunty red cap and broad white shoulder
+cape made of him a very pretty object as he worked away blithely and
+cheerily at his useful task.  While the rest of us did not make so much
+noise at our work, we were equally diligent in picking off the larvae
+and borers that ruined the trees, and on a full crop we enjoyed the
+consciousness of having aided mankind.
+
+On several occasions I had seen our enemy, the cat, slinking stealthily
+on his padded feet from the direction of the great brick house which
+stood on the edge of the orchard.  Crouched in a furrow he would gaze
+upward at us so steadily and for so long a time without so much as a
+wink or a blink of his green eyes, that it seemed he must injure its
+muscles.  Aside from the many frights he gave us it is sad to relate
+that he succeeded before many days in getting away with one of our
+number.  One morning he crept softly up to a young robin which had
+flown down in the grass, but had not sufficient power to rise quickly,
+and before the unsuspecting little creature realized its danger, the
+cat arched his back, gave a spring, and seized it.  A moment later he
+softly trotted out of the orchard with the poor bird in his mouth and
+doubtless made a dainty dinner in the barn off our unfortunate comrade.
+This incident cast a deep gloom over us, and our songs for many days
+held a mournful note.
+
+But while cats were unwelcome visitors from the great brick house, we
+sometimes had others whom we were always glad to see.  The two young
+ladies of the family, together with their mother and little niece,
+occasionally came out for a saunter under the trees, and it was very
+delightful to listen to their merry chat.  So affectionate toward each
+other, so gentle and withal so bright and lively, they seemed to bring
+a streak of sunshine with them whenever they came.  Miss Dorothy, who
+was tall and stately, seldom sat on the grassy tufts which rose like
+little footstools at the base of each tree, but rambled about while
+talking.  This was perhaps because she disliked to rumple her
+beautifully starched skirts.  But Miss Katie--impetuous, dimple-cheeked
+Katie, would fling herself down anywhere regardless of edged ruffles or
+floating sash ribbons.
+
+"For it is clean dirt," she laughingly said, when Miss Dorothy
+playfully scolded her for it.  "This kind of dirt is healthful, and it
+isn't going to hurt me if a few dusty twigs or a bit of dried grass or
+weeds should cling to my gown.  You must remember, Sister Dorothy,
+there are different kinds of dirt.  I haven't any respect for grease
+spots or for clothes soiled from wearing them too long.  I don't like
+that kind of dirt, but to get close to dear old mother earth, and have
+a scent of her fresh soil once in a while is what I enjoy.  It is
+delightful.  I like nature too well to stand on ceremony with her."
+
+"You like butterflies too, don't you, aunty?" asked little Marian.
+
+"To be sure I do, dear.  I love all the pretty things that fly."
+
+"And the birdies too?" asked the child.
+
+"Yes, indeed; I love the birds the best of all."
+
+"And the old cat was awful naughty when he caught the baby robin the
+other day and ate it up.  Wasn't he, aunty?"
+
+"Yes.  Tom is a cruel, bad, bad cat," responded Miss Katie, as she
+squeezed Marian's little pink hand between her own palms.  "That
+naughty puss gets plenty to eat in the house and there are lots of nice
+fat mice in the barn, and yet he slips slyly out to the orchard and
+takes the life of a poor, innocent little bird."
+
+"And it made the mamma-bird cry because her little one was dead," added
+Miss Dorothy, who had drawn near.
+
+Little Marian heaved a deep sigh and her rosy lips trembled
+suspiciously.  "Poor mamma-bird!  It can never have its baby bird any
+more," she said, with a sob of sympathy.  "Don't you feel sorry for it,
+Aunt Dorothy?"
+
+"Yes, dear.  I feel very sorry for it."
+
+"And I expect the poor mamma-bird cries and cries and weeps and grieves
+when she comes home to supper and finds out her little children are
+gone forever and ever."  And with her bright eyes dimmed with tears of
+pity, Marian, clasping a hand of each of the young ladies, walked
+slowly to the house still bewailing the fate of the robin.
+
+My heart warmed toward these sweet young girls for their tender
+sympathy.  I almost wished I were a carrier pigeon, that I might devote
+myself hereafter to their service by bearing loving messages from them
+to their friends.
+
+But, alas!  I was to have a rude awakening from this pleasant thought.
+As we flew that evening to our roosting-place, I observed to my mother
+that if there were no cats in the world what a delightful time we birds
+might have.
+
+"You have a greater enemy than the cat," she responded sadly.  "It is
+true the cat is cruel and tries to kill us, but it knows no better."
+
+"If not the cat, what enemy is it?" I asked in surprise.  "I thought
+the cat was the most bloodthirsty foe the birds had."
+
+My mother dipped her wings more slowly and poised her body gracefully a
+moment.  Then she said impressively, "Our greatest enemy is man.  No,"
+suddenly correcting herself, "not man, but women, women and children."
+
+"Women and dear little children our enemies?" said I, in astonishment.
+"The pretty ladies who speak so sweet and kind!  The pretty ladies who
+gather roses in the garden!  Would they deprive us of life?"
+
+My mother nodded.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "the pretty ladies, the wicked ladies."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+DICKEY DOWNY'S MEDITATION
+
+  It hath the excuse of youth.
+          --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+That night I pondered long upon what my mother had told me.  Ever since
+I left my shell I had been taught to respect my elders, and that it was
+a mark of ill manners and bad breeding for children to question the
+superior knowledge of those much older than themselves.
+Notwithstanding this, in my secret heart I could not help thinking that
+my mother was mistaken in her estimate of women when she called them
+wicked.  She had surely misjudged them.  However, I took good care not
+to mention these doubts to her.
+
+I had heard from my grandmother, who had traveled a great deal from the
+tropics to the North and back again, that women were the leaders in the
+churches and were foremost in all Christian and philanthropic work;
+that they provided beautiful homes for orphan children, where they took
+care of them and nursed them when they were sick.  She told me about
+the hospitals where diseased and aged people were kindly cared for by
+them.  She said they were active in the societies for the prevention of
+cruelty to children and to animals.  They fed armies of tramps out of
+sheer pity; even the debauched drunkard was the object of their
+tenderest care and their earnest prayers.  They held out a friendly
+hand to the prisoners in the jails and sent them flowers and Bibles;
+they pitied and cheered the outcast with kind words.  They offered
+themselves as missionaries for foreign lands to convert the heathen and
+bring them to Christ.  They soothed the sick and made easy the last
+days of the dying.
+
+On the battlefield, when blood was flowing and cannon smoking, my
+grandmother had seen the Red Cross women like angels of mercy binding
+up the gaping wounds and gently closing the glazed eyes of the expiring
+soldier.  In woman's ear was poured his last message to his loved ones
+far away, and when death was near it was woman who spoke the words of
+consolation and her finger that pointed hopefully to the stars.
+
+Did not all this prove her to be sweet and tender and loving and gentle
+and kind?  Yes--a thousand times yes.
+
+My grandmother once had her nest near a cemetery, and often related
+pathetic incidents which had come under her observation at that time.
+One in particular I now recalled.  It was of a woman who came every day
+to weep over the mound where her babe was buried.  She was worn to a
+shadow from her long watching through its illness, and when it was
+taken from her, her grief was deep.  The bright world was no longer
+bright since she was bereft of her darling, and her moans for the lost
+loved one were heartrending.
+
+This incident was only yet another instance of the tenderness of
+woman's nature, and I could not reconcile it with what my mother had
+told me.
+
+"No, no," I repeated as I cuddled my head under my wing, "never can I
+believe that woman, tender-hearted woman, who is all love and mercy,
+all gentleness and pity, never can I believe she is our enemy."  And
+resolving to ask my mother to more fully explain her unjust assertion I
+fell asleep.
+
+But a source of fresh anxiety arose which for a time caused me to
+forget the matter.
+
+The lindens which fringed the wood were now in full leafage, adorned
+with their delicate ball-like tassels, and hosts of birds flitted among
+them daily.  Many of them were of the kind frequently known as indigo
+birds, smaller than the ordinary bluebird.  In color they were of the
+metallic cast of blue which has a sheen distinct from the rich shade
+seen on the jay's wings or the brilliance of the bluebird.  Flashing in
+and out among the hanging blossoms their beautiful blue coats made them
+an easy target for the boys who attended the neighborhood country
+school.
+
+[Illustration: The Indigo Bird.]
+
+To bring down a sweet songster with a shower of stones, panting and
+bleeding to the ground, they thought was the best sport in the world,
+and the woods rang and echoed with their whoops and cheers as each poor
+bird fell to the earth.  A mere glimpse of one of the blue beauties as
+he hid among the leaves seemed to fire these cruel children with a wish
+to kill it.
+
+One half-grown boy, who went by the name of Big Bill, was noticeable
+for his brutality.  He encouraged the others in cruelties which they
+might not have thought of, for such is the force of evil example and
+companionship.  A distinguishing mark was a large scar on his cheek,
+probably inflicted by some enraged animal while being tortured by him.
+I always felt sure Big Bill would come to some bad end.  My mother said
+that a cruel childhood was often a training school for the gallows, and
+the boy who killed defenseless birds and bugs deadened his
+sensibilities and destroyed his moral nature so that it was easy to
+commit greater crimes.
+
+So dreadful became the persecutions of the schoolboys that the indigo
+birds finally held a council and determined to leave that part of the
+country and settle far from the habitations of men, where they might
+live unmolested and free from persecutions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE RULER WITH THE IRON HAND
+
+  But evil is wrought by want of thought
+  As well as want of heart.
+          --_Hood._
+
+
+One morning as we flew across the open space which lay between the wood
+and the wheat fields, we noticed two gentlemen in the orchard who were
+carefully examining the trees, peering curiously into the cracks of the
+rough bark or unfolding the curled leaves.
+
+As we came nearer we discovered that one of them was the owner of the
+place, the father of Miss Dorothy and Miss Katie.  The other was a thin
+gentleman in spectacles, who held a magnifying glass through which he
+intently looked at a twig which he had broken off.
+
+After a few minutes' inspection he said: "Colonel, your orchard is
+somewhat affected.  This is a specimen of the _chionaspis furfuris_."
+
+"Is it anything like the scurfy-bark louse?" inquired the colonel.
+
+"The same thing exactly.  It occurs more commonly in the apple, but it
+infects the pear and peach trees.  You will find it on the mountain
+ash, and sometimes on the currant bushes," he answered.
+
+The colonel asked him if he would recommend spraying to get rid of the
+pests, and was advised to begin immediately, using tobacco water or
+whale-oil soap.
+
+"By the way," said the colonel, "there is a beetle attacking my shade
+trees.  They are ruining that fine row of elms in front of the lawn."
+
+"It is undoubtedly the _melolontha vulgaris_," said the professor.  I
+designate him in this way because he used such large words we did not
+understand.  My mother told us that she was positive he was president
+of a college.  "The _melolontha vulgaris_ is the most destructive of
+beetles, but the larvae are still more injurious.  They do incalculable
+damage to the farmer.  Fortunately enormous numbers of these grubs are
+eaten by the birds."
+
+"Unfortunately the birds are not so numerous as they used to be.  They
+are being destroyed so rapidly, more's the pity!  These grounds and
+woods yonder were formerly alive with birds of all kinds.  Flocks of
+the purple grakle used to follow the plow and eat up the worms at a
+great rate.  You are familiar with their habits?  You know they are
+most devoted parents.  I have often watched them feeding their young.
+The little ones have such astonishingly good appetites that it keeps
+the old folks busy to supply them with enough to eat.  They work like
+beavers as long as daylight lasts, going to and from the fields
+carrying on each return trip a fat grub or a toothsome grasshopper."
+
+"I am a great lover of birds," returned the professor enthusiastically,
+"and I find them very interesting subjects of study.  By the way, I was
+reading the other day a little incident connected with one of America's
+great men which impressed me deeply.  The story goes that he was one
+day walking in company with some noted statesmen, busily engaged in
+conversation.  But he was not too much occupied to notice that a young
+bird had fallen from its nest near the path where they were walking.
+He stopped short and crossing over to where the bird was lying,
+tenderly picked it up and put it back into its nest.  There was a
+gentleman of a noble nature!  No wonder that man was a leader and a
+liberator!"
+
+"Who was he?"
+
+"The grand, the great Abraham Lincoln," responded the professor
+impressively.
+
+"Well, he'd be the very one to do just such a kind deed as that," was
+the colonel's hearty response.  "No man ever lived who had a bigger,
+more merciful heart than 'Honest Abe.'"
+
+For myself I did not know who Abraham Lincoln was.  I had never heard
+the name before, but I was quite sure from the proud tone of the
+professor's voice that he was a distinguished man, as I was equally
+sure from the story of his pity for the helpless bird, that he was a
+good man.
+
+"You mentioned the industry of the grakle a moment ago," resumed the
+professor.  "Do you know that the redwing is equally as useful, and
+besides he is a delightful singer?
+
+  "The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee.
+
+"Do you remember that line, colonel?" and the professor softly whistled
+a strain in imitation of a bird's note.  "The services of our little
+brothers of the air are exceedingly valuable to the horticulturist.
+And think of the damage done to arboriculture by the woodborers alone
+were it not for the help given by the birds.  Did you ever notice those
+borers at work, colonel?  Some writer has well described them as
+animated gimlets.  They just stick their pointed heads into the bark
+and turn their bodies around and around and out pours a little stream
+of sawdust.  The birds would pick off such pests fast enough if people
+would only give them a chance and not scare them off with shotguns."
+
+"Yes, the birds earn their way, there is no denying it, and he is a
+very stupid farmer who begrudges them the little corn and wheat they
+take from the fields.  The account is more than balanced by the good
+they do."  Then the conversation ceased, for the colonel and his friend
+moved off to inspect the quince bushes.
+
+Pleased by the praises they had bestowed on us for our efforts in
+cleaning the fruit trees and cornfields of injurious insects, I went to
+work with new vigor to get out some bugs for my luncheon, and was thus
+pleasantly employed when a sharp twitter from my mother attracted my
+attention.
+
+"Look, children!" she exclaimed.  "Here come our young ladies with some
+company from the city.  Be careful to notice what they have on their
+heads and then tell me what you think of our sweet, pretty ladies."
+
+One of my brothers was swaying lightly on a little swing below me.  I
+flew down hastily and placed myself on the next bough, where I could
+also get a good view of the ladies as they strolled toward us.  They
+were in a very merry mood and each one seemed striving to say something
+more arousing than her companions.  Miss Dorothy led the way, her arm
+linked in that of one of the stranger guests.  Then followed the others
+with Miss Katie and Marian hand in hand in the rear.  They were all
+very handsomely dressed, and having just returned from a drive had not
+yet removed their hats.
+
+As they came under the tree where we were perched, which was a favorite
+spot with Miss Katie, they halted for some time and consequently I had
+an excellent opportunity to look, as my mother had bidden me.
+
+And what did I see?
+
+I saw six ladies' hats trimmed with dead birds.  Fastened on sidewise,
+head downward, on one was a magnificent scarlet tanager, his body half
+concealed by folds of tulle, his fixed eye staring into vacancy.  On
+another was the head and breast of a beautiful yellow-hammer; it was
+surmounted by the tall sweeping plumes of the egret, which this bird
+produces only at breeding time.  Oh, how much joy and beauty the world
+had lost by that cruel deed!  A third hat had two song sparrows
+imprisoned in meshes of star-studded lace.  Their blithesome carol had
+been rudely silenced, their cheer to the world cut short, simply that
+they might be used for hat trimming.  Of the remaining ones some were
+as yet unknown to me, but my mother, who had an extensive acquaintance
+with foreign birds, said that in that strange murderous mixture of
+millinery, far-away Australia had furnished the filmy feathers of the
+lyre bird which swept upward from a knot of ribbons, and that the
+forests of Germany had contributed the pretty green linnet.  Dove's
+wings and the rosy breast of the grosbeak completed the barbarous
+display.
+
+How my heart sickened as I gazed at these pleasant, refined,
+soft-voiced women flaunting the trophies of their cruelty in the
+beautiful sunlight.
+
+Had they no compassion for the feathered mother who had been robbed of
+her young for the sake of a hat?
+
+"Oh, how can they do such dreadful, such wicked things!" I moaned.  My
+mother heard my lament and signaled for us to come up where she was
+perching.
+
+"You see now who are our worst enemies," said she.  "The cat preys on
+us to satisfy his bodily hunger, but women have no such excuse.  We are
+not slaughtered to sustain their lives but to minister to their vanity.
+For years the women of Christian lands have waged their unholy war
+against us.  We have been driven from our old haunts and forced to seek
+new places.  We have been shot down by thousands every season until now
+many species are destroyed from the face of the earth.  There is no
+security for us in any place.  The hunter with his gun penetrates into
+the deepest forests, he perils his life in scaling the most dangerous
+cliffs, he wades through bog and marsh and mud and tracks us to our
+feeding grounds to surprise us with the deadly shot, and kills the
+mother hovering over the nest of her helpless offspring with as little
+compunction as if she were a poisonous reptile instead of a melodious
+joy-giver.  And all this horrible slaughter is for women."
+
+I grew feverish with excitement at this terrible arraignment of the
+"gentler sex."
+
+"But why are they so cruel?  Why do they do this wicked thing?" I asked.
+
+"For the sake of Fashion," said my mother.
+
+"Fashion, what is that?"
+
+My mother was very patient with me, so when I asked questions she did
+not put me off by telling me she didn't know, or advise me to fly away
+and play, or tell me she was busy and couldn't be bothered just then,
+therefore she now took pains to make me understand.
+
+"You ask me what is Fashion," she began.  "Well, Fashion is an exacting
+ruler, a great, tyrannical god who has many, many worshipers, and these
+he rules with an iron hand.  His followers cannot be induced to do
+anything contrary to his wishes.  He sits on a high throne from which
+he dictates to his slaves what they must do.  Often they do the most
+outrageous things, not because they like to, but because he demands it.
+He is constantly laying down new laws for their guidance, and some of
+these laws are so unreasonable and absurd that a part of his followers
+frequently threaten to rebel.  They do not hold out against him long,
+for he manages to make it quite unpleasant for those who disobey him or
+refuse to come under his yoke."
+
+"Has he any men slaves?" asked my brother.
+
+"Yes, he has some slaves among men, but the larger number of those who
+wear his most galling fetters are women.  If he but crooks his little
+finger these bond-women rush pell-mell in the direction he points.
+They are thus keen to do his bidding, because each woman who is the
+first to carry out his rules in her own particular town or neighborhood
+acquires great distinction in the eyes of the other worshipers."
+
+"His slaves are nearly always rich women, aren't they?" asked my
+brother.
+
+"By no means.  Many of them are poor working women who have to labor
+hard for a living.  But they will rob themselves of necessities and
+needed rest to get the means to follow his demands.  Often it takes
+them a long time to do this, and perhaps just as they have accomplished
+the weary task he suddenly proclaims a new law, and all this toiling
+and drudging and stinting must begin over again.  In this way the
+unhappy creatures have never a breathing spell.  It is utterly
+impossible for them to conform to the new law when it is first
+proclaimed by the god, and so they are always struggling to keep up.
+Their chains are never lifted or lightened a particle."
+
+"If the chain is so heavy why don't they break it?" I asked impatiently.
+
+"Because they are afraid," she replied.
+
+"Afraid of the god?"
+
+"No, no, child, they are afraid of each other.  They are afraid the
+richer slaves, who are able to comply with the demands will laugh at
+them and ridicule them, and that is why they strain every nerve to
+follow the god's wishes.  A slave, whether she is rich or poor, grows
+more cringing year by year, until at last she loses all her
+individuality, and becomes a mere echo of the god."
+
+"What about the slaves who rebel at first and afterward yield?"
+
+"Oh, they denounce the god very severely when he lays down some new law
+they don't happen to like, but as all the other slaves are obediently
+complying with it they dislike to be set off by themselves as
+different, and so they reluctantly give in after a time.  Sometimes
+they try to compromise with the god by going half-way."
+
+I inquired what the other slaves thought of that.
+
+"They mildly tolerate them," said she.  "Sometimes they look askance at
+them when they meet, and try to show their superiority as being
+obedient, full-blooded, genuine slaves, while the others are only
+lukewarm servants of the monarch!"
+
+I wondered how the slaves regarded the woman who was independent and
+wouldn't worship the god.
+
+My mother twittered softly at my question, and I knew she was smiling
+to herself.  "Why," said she, "they call that kind of a woman a
+crank--whatever that is."
+
+It was very evident that this god Fashion was a cruel tyrant, and it
+was clearly through his influence that we were killed, and I so told my
+mother.  She looked very sorrowful as she replied:
+
+"Yes, the women do not hate us.  They do not dislike to hear our pretty
+songs; they have no revenge to gratify; but the god orders them to have
+us killed, and they do it.  He tells them that to wear our poor
+mutilated dead bodies will add to their appearance, and so we are
+sacrificed on the altar of their vanity and silly pride.  As members of
+humane societies women have denounced the docking of horses' tails as
+cruel, but from what I know of woman's indifference to the sufferings
+of the innocent birds, I venture to assert that were Fashion to say
+that she should trim her cloak with horse tails there would not be left
+an undocked horse in the country."
+
+I knew my mother was very excited or she would never have been so
+vehement.
+
+"Just hear how those birds twitter," remarked one of the ladies,
+looking up into our tree.  "One would think they were holding an
+indignation meeting over something."
+
+"Yes, the dear little things; I love to hear them chirp," commented
+Miss Katie, turning a sweet glance toward us, and then the party moved
+to go and we saw the six hats loaded with their mournful freight file
+off to the house.  We followed the retreating hats with sad eyes till
+they were lost to view.
+
+My brother broke the silence by asking, "Are there any Christian women
+who wear birds, and are among the god's worshipers?"
+
+My mother's manner grew very grave and solemn.  "That is not for me to
+say," she replied.  "They know whether they are guiltless of our
+wholesale slaughter, and they know too, how the gentle, merciful Christ
+regarded us when he declared that 'not a sparrow is forgotten before
+God.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+DICKEY'S COUSINS
+
+Another of my airy creatures breathes such sweet music out of her
+little instrumental throat that it might make mankind to think that
+miracles are not ceased.  We might well be lifted up above the earth
+and say, Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven,
+when thou affordest bad men such music on earth?--_Izaak Walton._
+
+
+The fine pasture adjoining was a popular resort for some handsome birds
+that often visited it as a playground.  They were said to be relatives
+of ours, but I do not think they were closer than seventh or eighth
+cousins, which is so distant that it doesn't count--especially if one
+doesn't want it to.
+
+All I know is that their family name was the same as ours, _Icteridae_,
+and means something or other, I forget what.  It was a good honorable
+name, however, and our branch was as proud of our ancestry as any
+Daughter of the American Revolution could possibly be.
+
+There were some tall weeds growing along the margin of a little stream
+in the pasture which produced quantities of delicious seeds, and to
+these we often repaired when we wanted a choice breakfast, as well as
+to watch the playful pastimes of these queer bipeds.
+
+What would you think of a bird taking a bareback ride on a cow?   They
+were extremely fond of settling themselves on the cattle which browsed
+in the field and presented a truly comical picture as they complacently
+gathered in little groups on the backs of those huge animals.  Moving
+slowly along munching the dewy grass, first on one side, then on the
+other, the cows did not seem particularly to mind their saucy bareback
+riders.  Occasionally they would toss their heads backward, when up all
+the birds would fly into the air only to descend again as soon as the
+cattle were quiet.
+
+As I said, they were very handsome.  At a short distance they looked to
+be clothed in black, but the breast and neck were really a very rich
+brown, with the rest of the body like jet and as lustrous as satin.
+They were not general favorites with the other birds on account of some
+dishonorable tricks which they did on the sly.  For instance, they
+never troubled themselves to make nests, but watched their chance to
+sneak in and lay their eggs, only one in a place, in the nests of other
+birds.  For some reason their eggs always hatch a little sooner than
+the eggs rightfully belonging there, consequently the foster-parents,
+not knowing of the deception, are quite delighted with the first little
+one that comes out of the shell, and immediately fly off to get food
+for it.  This is very unfortunate, for during their absence their own
+eggs get cold and will not hatch.  After a time the old birds grow
+disgusted and tumble the poor eggs all out of the nest and bestow their
+whole attention to the juvenile cowbird, entirely ignorant of the fact
+that they are the victims of a "put-up job."
+
+Once when we were dining in the pasture we found out the cause of the
+booming noise we had often heard sounding through the woods.  Two men,
+each carrying in his hand a long club, shaped large at one end,
+appeared in the meadow and began looking among the long grasses which
+sheltered the nests of some meadow larks.  A number of the larks were
+on the wing, others sat on the rail fence rolling out cadenzas in
+concert in a gush of melody from their downy throats.  The men moved
+cautiously nearer under cover of the weeds.  Raising their long clubs
+to their shoulders they gazed along their narrow points a moment.
+Without exactly knowing why, we took alarm, and larks, bobolinks, and
+cowbirds sped upward like the wind.  At the same instant something
+bright shimmered in the sunlight, and with it a horrid burst of noise
+and a puff of smoke.  We did not all get away, for some of the
+beautiful larks fell to the ground pierced by the sportsman's deadly
+hail.
+
+Again and again, all through that long, sad day we heard the ominous
+booming crash, and knew the savage work of killing was going on.
+
+Among our acquaintances was a lame redbird who at one time had been
+trapped and made a prisoner, confined behind the bars of a wire cell
+for many weeks and months.  Luckily he made his escape one day when his
+grated door was accidentally opened, and he speedily made his way back
+to his dearly loved forest.
+
+During the period of his imprisonment in the city he had picked up a
+great deal of information regarding the bird trade, and some of the
+facts recited by him of the terrible cruelties perpetrated and the
+carnage which had been going on for years, almost caused our feathers
+to stand upright in horror as we listened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+"DON'T, JOHNNY"
+
+  Farewell happy fields, where Joy forever dwells.
+          --_Milton._
+
+
+A very pleasant, sociable fellow was this redbird, and often when on
+hot afternoons we were hiding in the treetops from the rays of the sun
+he told us stories and anecdotes about the people he had seen while he
+lived in the city.
+
+He and his brother had been caught in a trap in the woods set by a
+farmer's boy.  One cold spring morning when the boy came to look at his
+trap he was overjoyed to find he had snared two redbirds, and forthwith
+carried them to the village nearby and sold them to the grocer for five
+cents apiece, which sum he said he was going to invest in a rubber ball.
+
+As he put the dime into his coat pocket he told the man that one of the
+birds was named Admiral Dewey and the other Napoleon Bonaparte.  The
+groceryman agreed that these names were good enough names for anybody,
+but he thought he'd change Bonaparte's name to Teddy Roosevelt, as
+being easier to pronounce, and the two birds were accordingly given
+these titles then and there.  Not having any cage at hand to put them
+in, the man thought that for a few days the new-comers could share the
+quarters of an old sparrow he had in the rear end of the store until an
+extra cage could be procured.
+
+But alas for Teddy Roosevelt!  The very first night he was
+ignominiously whipped by the spiteful occupant of the cage, who
+resented having these country visitors thrust into his house without
+his leave.  Poor Teddy died the next day.  Admiral Dewey stood the
+battle better than his unfortunate friend, but he too was pecked at in
+a way so threatening that the groceryman concluded it would be wise to
+get rid of him immediately.  Because the admiral had not defended
+himself better from his pet's attack, the grocer regarded him with some
+disgust.
+
+"Being as there was two of you and only one of the sparrow, 'pears as
+if you hadn't much grit," he said.  "I would better take your
+high-soundin' name away from you and call you something else besides
+Dewey, if you can't fight."
+
+For all the man's censure, the redbird knew that if Teddy Roosevelt had
+killed the sparrow instead of being killed by it, the grocer would have
+been much more grieved at the loss, for he had heard him say the
+sparrow was like one of his family.  The man forgot that the result
+might have been different if the redbirds had been older.
+
+Having decided to dispose of the admiral, the grocer, who had an errand
+in the city the next day, carried the bird with him.  He knew of a
+probable customer for it in a gentleman named Morris, who had been
+advertising in the papers for a redbird.  He soon found the street and
+number where was located the gentleman's office, at which the
+advertisement was to be answered, and displayed the admiral.
+
+"Your bird looks kind of ragged, as though he hadn't been treated
+well," said Mr. Morris, as he examined the scarlet plumage.  "My boy
+wants a redbird, and I promised him one if he would get the highest
+grade in arithmetic in his class this term and he did it, so of course
+I must keep my word.  What d'ye ask for this bird?"
+
+"He'd be cheap at five dollars," answered the groceryman.  "A nice
+redbird is hard to get, and they're powerful nice singers, but bein' as
+it's for your boy that has earned it by studying his lessons so good--I
+always like a boy that is fond of his books--you can have it for two
+dollars and a quarter."
+
+As he had paid but five cents for it this advance in price would be a
+fine business speculation.  After a little further talk, Mr. Morris
+counted out the money, and the man went back to his home doubtless
+wishing he had a hundred more redbirds to sell at the same handsome
+profit.  After he had gone, Mr. Morris went to a box hanging against
+the wall, and turning a handle began talking to the box as if it were a
+human being.  Though it was just a plain wooden box, the admiral said
+there was something mysterious about it, for Mr. Morris actually seemed
+to be carrying on a conversation with it, though the bird could not
+hear what the box answered, but he felt sure it talked back.
+
+Mr. Morris' residence was a fine stone house with wide porches and
+sunny bay windows, over which were trained graceful creeping vines.  A
+boy of about eleven years of age and a very pretty lady stood arm in
+arm on the broad steps leading up to the front entrance that evening
+when Mr. Morris and the admiral arrived.  They were Johnny Morris and
+his mother, who had already learned that Mr. Morris had bought the bird
+and would bring it when he came to dinner.  The admiral discovered the
+next day that Mrs. Morris owned a box like the one at the office, into
+which she talked, and that it was called a telephone.  He often
+mentioned this mysterious box as one of the most remarkable things he
+saw during his stay among men.
+
+Johnny Morris capered and danced and jumped so hard in the exuberance
+of his joy at receiving the redbird that all the way to the sitting
+room his mother was coaxing him to be quiet.
+
+"Don't act so foolishly," she begged; but he only capered and kicked up
+his heels still harder.  When the cage was placed on a stand in the bay
+window he pranced around it, whistled and chirped, threw the bottom of
+the cage floor full of seed and splashed the water about so recklessly
+in his attempts to be friendly as nearly to frighten the poor admiral
+to pieces.
+
+"Now, Johnny, don't," pleaded his mother.
+
+"Johnny, don't do that," commanded his father every few minutes.
+
+It was a constant "Don't, Johnny, do this" and "Don't, Johnny, do
+that," until, the admiral said, the conversation was so mixed up with
+"Don't-Johnny's" as made it almost unintelligible.  Of course these
+expostulations made not a bit of impression on Johnny Morris.  To be
+sure, he might stop for the moment, but the next second he was doing
+something else which brought a fresh round of "Don't-Johnny's" from
+each parent.
+
+He was such a generous, affectionate, pretty boy, with his rosy cheeks
+and wavy yellow hair, it was a great pity that he should keep a whole
+household in a state of constant commotion by his habit of not promptly
+minding when he was spoken to.  His father and mother were very
+indulgent to him, and the admiral believed he had every kind of a toy
+known to the boy world.  He also had a machine to ride on, which they
+called a "wheel."  On this he went out occasionally, although Mrs.
+Morris declared she never felt at ease a minute while he was gone,
+because he never came back at the hour he promised he would.  Besides
+this, he had a dear little pony, named Jock, on whose back he often
+cantered about the big park.  Frequently from the bay window the
+admiral watched him as he mounted Jock and rode away, while his mother
+stood on the house step and called after him as long as he was in
+sight: "Don't ride in that reckless way, Johnny; you'll tumble off," or
+"Don't, Johnny; the pony will throw you," at which Johnny would laugh
+and make the pony go faster.
+
+Among the boy's other possessions was a parrot, which the admiral
+asserted was the smartest bird in the world.  She was a highly educated
+parrot, and much time had been spent on her training, and she was
+usually very willing to show off to company all her various
+accomplishments.  Occasionally she assumed an air of offended dignity
+when asked to display her talents, and no amount of threats or coaxing
+could change her purpose.  At such times she impatiently flapped her
+wings and croaked "No, no" in her harshest tones.
+
+Her favorite retreat when her temper was ruffled was on the back of an
+armchair, where she would sit with her bill in the air and her head
+cocked disdainfully on one side, pretending not to hear or see any one.
+In her affable moods, however, no one could be more complaisant and
+entertaining than Bessie.
+
+Her name was an uncommon one for a parrot.  Strangers usually accosted
+her as Polly, at which mistake she was greatly displeased.
+
+"No, no--not Polly; call me Bessie," she would scream, so angrily that
+it always made people laugh, which angered her still more.
+
+Bessie could sing a verse of an old-time song, at least she thought she
+could.  The admiral said nothing could have induced him to sing for
+company if his voice had been as harsh and cracked as hers, but he said
+it was a fact that everybody seemed to enjoy her noise more than his
+music; that when she took up her position on top of the piano to sing,
+they crowded around and called her "nice Bessie," "nice lady," and
+praised her, and gave her bits of sugar, as if she were the finest
+singer in the world.  The admiral thought they showed very poor taste,
+for her music was simply horrid and couldn't compare with the warblings
+of the woods birds.  It is well, however, to make allowance for the
+admiral's opinion, for musicians are proverbially jealous of each other.
+
+The song the parrot sang was "Listen to the Mocking Bird," to which
+Mrs. Morris played a little gliding accompaniment on the piano.  Great
+hand-clappings always followed the performance.  These Bessie accepted
+with an air of studied indifference.  But if for the purpose of teasing
+her they did not applaud her performance, she shrilly screamed:
+"Bessie's a good bird, a good bird I tell you," raising her voice
+higher and higher at each repetition.
+
+Then she would wait a moment for some one to assure her that she was
+indeed a very good bird, quite the smartest bird that ever breathed.
+But if these soothing assurances were not quickly forthcoming, she
+would retire to the back of her favorite chair and, elevating her bill
+to show her disdain, sulk in silence.
+
+"Did she like you?" I asked the admiral one day when he was telling us
+about her funny tricks.
+
+"No, she was a little bit jealous of me; yet she was not unfriendly,
+except when Johnny or some other member of the family paid me
+attention.  She always wanted to be the center of attraction herself,
+which showed she was a vain creature.  No matter how silent she had
+been or how firmly she might have refused to talk only the minute
+before, if Johnny came to my cage and called, 'Hello, Admiral! you're a
+daisy,' Bessie immediately struck up such a chattering as would almost
+deafen one.
+
+"'Johnny dear, open my cage.  I want to take a walk,' she would say in
+her most coaxing manner.  If she happened to be already out of her cage
+and walking about the room, she endeavored to get him to leave me by
+saying: 'Here, Johnny, boy, put me on your finger.  Kiss poor
+Bessie--p-o-o-r Bessie.'
+
+"Mrs. Morris used to laugh at these schemes of the parrot to attract
+notice, and said Bessie reminded her of some people she had met who
+always wanted to monopolize the conversation."
+
+"Monopolize?" said I.  "That's a large word.  I don't know the meaning
+of it."
+
+"Well, I think it means getting the most of anything and crowding other
+people out," replied the admiral; "and it was true in Bessie's case,
+for she always wanted the most attention.  A gentleman friend of the
+Morrises had this habit too.  He had been a general in a war that took
+place in the South a good many years ago, and was often entertained at
+dinner at the Morrises'.  Though he was a well-informed, genial man, he
+was almost rude in making himself heard, so determined was he that
+people should listen to his jokes and stories, which were generally
+something about himself.  At a large tableful of guests, General
+Peterson's voice was always heard above that of every one else.  He
+seemed to compel the rest of the company to listen.  His big voice
+drowned the others out.  Though Mr. and Mrs. Morris liked him very
+much, when they were alone they often ridiculed this disagreeable habit.
+
+"'Bessie and General Peterson are just alike,' Mrs. Morris used to say
+jokingly, when the parrot pushed herself into notice by her loud
+jabbering.  'Neither of them can endure to have any one else receive
+attention when they are present.'
+
+"Although Bessie had not a pony to ride on as Johnny had, she took a
+great many jaunts around the parlors on the cat's back.  This cat was a
+great pet in the house.  A very striking-looking cat he was too.  He
+was jet black with a flat face and long white whiskers.  Johnny always
+said he resembled an old colored man who used to be their coachman, and
+he wondered if they were any relation to each other.
+
+"When Bessie was out of her cage the cat did not often visit the
+parlor, because he was afraid of her.  He always appeared to be much
+relieved when she did not notice him.  If she had decided to take a
+ride, however, he never was quick enough to get away from her.  With a
+shrill laugh of triumph she would fly upon his back, and holding on by
+digging her claws into his fur, around and around the room they would
+go, the poor cat feeling so completely disgraced that he dragged his
+body lower and lower at every step, until his legs could scarcely be
+seen at all.
+
+"Bessie enjoyed it greatly.  She seemed to take a wicked satisfaction
+in making poor Jett ridiculous, and laughed and chuckled and scolded
+till the cat looked as if he were ready to drop from very shame.
+Urging him on with, 'Get up, get up, you lazy thing,' she refused to be
+shaken off till his body was actually dragging on the floor, a sign of
+his complete humiliation.  As soon as he threw off his unwelcome
+burden, Jett always ran away to hide.  With his tail slinking, his ears
+drooping, and crawling rather than walking, he was the most
+abject-looking, miserable cat in existence.  Bessie meanwhile flirted
+herself saucily and chuckled with the conscious air of having done a
+very smart thing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE PARROT AT A PARTY
+
+  A parrot there I saw, with gaudy pride
+  Of painted plumes, that hopped from side to side.
+
+
+"How did you happen to get away from the Morrises?" asked my brother.
+
+The red-bird laughed heartily, as if the recollection were exceedingly
+amusing.
+
+"Well," said he, "it all came about through Johnny's having a tea
+party.  For months he had been coaxing and begging his mother to invite
+his schoolfellows to the house and entertain them with games and plays
+and music, ending with a fine supper.  Early in the spring when he
+began talking of it, it was too cold, his mother said.  Then after a
+while it was too rainy, or too warm, or they were house-cleaning, or
+something, and so she kept putting him off from one time to another,
+hoping by deferring it to make him forget it.  The Morrises always
+spent the month of August at their seaside cottage, and the night
+before they left home, Johnny tried to get Mrs. Morris to promise that
+he might have the party the very first thing on their return.
+
+"'I'll think about it, my dear,' she answered.
+
+"'Whenever you say you'll think about it then I'm pretty sure not to
+get what I want,' sighed Johnny."
+
+[Illustration:  The Summer Tanager.]
+
+"His mother seemed to be much amused at this statement.  'Oh, no, my
+son, it doesn't always turn out that way; but you know it wouldn't do
+for me to promise to have it just as soon as we get back,' she
+objected.  'I am always very busy just at our return.  It might be very
+inconvenient for me to prepare for a children's evening at that time;
+but when I am ready I shall take pleasure in getting up a nice party
+for you sometime in the autumn.'
+
+"This sounded well, but it was not definite enough to suit Johnny.
+However he said no more at that time.  While the family were gone
+Bessie and I had the back porch to ourselves, and no one being there
+except the housemaid to whom she could display her superiority over me,
+she grew to be quite agreeable.  For some time before the Morrises had
+bought her, which was years and years before, long before Johnny was
+born, she had lived in a taxidermist's shop.  The owner of the shop was
+also a bird dealer in a small way.  On account of her accomplishments
+he had held her at a price that few were willing or able to pay, and so
+she had been forced to stay with him a long time.  She much preferred
+being owned by a refined family to living in a dingy store, for she was
+a bird of luxurious tastes, she said.
+
+"I too had never ceased being glad that the grocer had sold me to the
+Morrises, for I was sure that life would not have been so comfortable
+for me in the back part of a country store, inhaling the odors from
+fish barrels and molasses kegs, and with the dreary outlook afforded by
+shelves full of canned vegetables and cracker boxes.  The only point in
+favor of a life at the grocery was that I would have been nearer to the
+woods; but if I could not be in the woods, of what avail was that?  The
+Morrises were people of elegance and refinement, and their home
+expressed their culture.  I had made a pleasant exchange, and I felt it
+was wise to be as contented as possible.
+
+"August slowly passed, and Johnny came back.  The big house that had
+been so quiet for four weeks was suddenly wakened as from a sleep.  His
+noisy, joyous voice rang through the halls, and from cellar to garret.
+
+"'Bless the b'y! he's that plazed to git back, it does one's sowl good
+to hear him,' said the housemaid.
+
+"Mrs. Morris was so busy for the first day or two that she saw little
+of Johnny.  He was sent on several errands, and took his own time in
+returning, but every one had too much to do to inquire what kept him so
+long.
+
+"'Can't I shine up Bessie's and the admiral's cages?' he asked his
+mother after dinner the second day.
+
+"Mrs. Morris was delighted with her son's thoughtfulness.  'Why,
+Johnny,' she said, 'I'll be so glad to have you do it.'
+
+"So master Johnny wiped and dusted our cages till we felt very clean,
+although I own I did not enjoy having him work about me with his brush
+and dust cloth.  Just as he had finished and put us back in our places
+the doorbell sounded, and presently we heard children's voices in the
+hall asking the maid if Johnny Morris was at home.
+
+"'It is some one to see you,' said Mrs. Morris.  But Johnny did not
+reply.  He was nowhere to be seen.  At the first sound he had quietly
+slipped out of the room and I could now see him hiding behind the
+curtains in the library.  Soon Sarah came ushering three or four little
+barefooted children into the parlor.
+
+"'They've come to Johnny's party, ma'am,' she explained to Mrs. Morris,
+who looked up from her work as the children entered.
+
+"'How do you do, my dears?' said Mrs. Morris sweetly, though I could
+see she was greatly surprised.  'I believe I don't know your names, so
+you will have to introduce yourselves.'
+
+"The children looked bashful, and made no reply.
+
+"'You are not Johnny Morris' schoolmates, are you?' she questioned.
+
+"'No, ma'am,' answered the tallest girl, as she gazed about the
+handsome room with wide-open eyes, I could see that she was not
+accustomed to such beautiful things.
+
+"Where did you get acquainted with him, then?' went on Mrs. Morris
+kindly.
+
+"'We hain't acquainted at all, ma'am; but he seed us on the street this
+morning, and said for us to come to his party to-day.  He thought as
+how maybe they'd be ice-cream to eat, and he told us where he lived,
+and so we are here.'
+
+"'Well, we must try to make you have a pleasant time,' she replied.
+'Sarah, please call Johnny and tell him his guests have arrived.'
+
+"But Sarah had been answering a second peal of the bell, and now
+appeared with a very queer smile on her face at the head of a line of
+three girls and a small boy, whom she introduced by saying:
+
+"'A few more children, ma'am, who have come to take tea with master
+Johnny.'
+
+"'Why, really,' exclaimed Mrs. Morris, in a sort of flutter, as she
+helped Sarah to seat the new arrivals.  'The house is hardly in order
+for company.'
+
+"The children appeared quite embarrassed, and ranged themselves
+silently and sedately on the chairs to which they had been directed.
+
+"'Dear me, Sarah, what a predicament to be in!  Where do you suppose
+Johnny scraped up all these youngsters?  I don't know what I ought to
+do to him for playing me this trick.'  Mrs. Morris said this to the
+maid as they came to my side of the room.  'Think of all the work to be
+done, and which will have to be stopped for the day--the house all
+upside down--no chance for preparations for an extra supper for his
+company.  And that big girl bespoke ice-cream as soon as she entered.'
+And then Mrs. Morris and Sarah turned into the recess of the bay window
+and laughed softly.  Her vexation seemed to pass away in a few minutes,
+for she added, 'We must make the best of it, since they are here, and
+let everything else go.  But there's the bell; I expect it's another
+batch of Johnny's friends.'
+
+"And so it proved, for these were old acquaintances, eight or ten of
+his schoolmates.  Little misses dressed in fine style, in dainty
+ruffled frocks and necklaces and bright hair-ribbons, tripped
+gracefully in and advanced to meet Mrs. Morris, quite like grown ladies
+in their manners.  Behind them came several boys, spick and span in
+fresh white linen waists and silk neckties and well-fitting shoes.
+
+"'Ah! here are Frances and Naomi and Justice and Karl and Mary Ethel
+and Philip and Jessica and all the rest,' said Mrs. Morris, giving them
+each a hand of welcome as they gathered about her in a pretty group.
+'Will you make yourselves quite at home and help me to entertain these
+other visitors till Johnny comes in?  I don't know what keeps him so
+long.  If you'll excuse me I'll go and look for him.  There are the
+pictures in the portfolio that you might like to show to these little
+girls.  And there's the admiral, our redbird, and Bessie, the parrot.
+Maybe they would like to look at them.'
+
+"The two girls whom she had designated as Jessica and Frances looked at
+the strange children a minute but made no movement to carry out Mrs.
+Morris' wishes.  Instead they drew a little apart and began to talk to
+each other.  Mary Ethel, a round-faced girl who giggled a great deal
+behind her fan, crossed over to where sat the large girl who had
+mentioned the ice-cream, and started a conversation by remarking that
+it was a warm day.  The girl made no audible answer, only nodded.
+
+"'Do you like to go to school?' inquired Mary Ethel.
+
+"The girl again nodded.  There was a little pause.  Mary Ethel, who was
+bent on carrying out Mrs. Morris' suggestion to help her entertain
+them, began again on the weather.  I suppose she couldn't think of
+anything new to say, so she observed:
+
+"'It's a nice warm day for the first of September, don't you think?'
+
+"The girl's head once more wagged up and down in assent, but not a word
+did she utter.  At this a subdued titter came from Frances and Jessica.
+Mary Ethel's face grew red and she frowned at them.
+
+"Just at this moment in ran Johnny.  He had put on his best suit.  His
+yellow hair was freshly brushed and his face was wreathed in smiles.
+He reminded one of a dancing sunbeam.  It was wonderful to see how
+quickly he set the social wheel moving in the parlor.  In three minutes
+he had them all acquainted and talking to each other.  At one side I
+noticed Naomi and Jessica who were trying to make the parrot talk for
+the big girl.  Mary Ethel was turning the crank of a small music box,
+around which were clustered a group of the stranger children.  On a
+sofa three or four others had the portfolio of pictures spread out.
+Others came to my cage coaxing me to whistle for them, while Johnny
+capered hither and thither and joked and had more funny things to say
+than anybody in the room.  When he let Bessie out of her cage and put
+her on the piano to sing the 'Mocking Bird,' the joy of the visitors
+knew no bounds.
+
+"'Have you a parrot, Jeannette?' he asked one of the little barefooted
+girls, whose dancing black eyes showed how much she enjoyed Bessie's
+performance.
+
+"'No, but I have two lovely cats.'  She made the announcement as if
+very proud of their ownership.
+
+"'I have a cat too.   He dresses in black and wears long white
+whiskers, and looks just like a respectable old colored man.'  This
+description amused the children very much.
+
+"'What's your cat's name?' they shouted.
+
+"'Jett.  What do you call your cats, Jeannette?'
+
+"'The big one is _Boule de Neige_ and the little one is _Jaune
+Jaquette_.'
+
+"'What queer names!'  exclaimed Mary Ethel.  'How did you happen to
+select such names for them?'
+
+"'Oh, miss, because the names do suit them so well.'
+
+"'They don't sound like any cats' names that ever I heard.  I don't
+understand how they would suit.'  Mary Ethel looked perplexed.
+
+"'Why, miss, on account of the color of those cats, to be sure,' said
+Jeannette in surprise.
+
+"'Pooh!' explained Johnny, 'that's easy.  _Boule de neige_ is the
+French for snowball, and _jaune_ means yellow, so _jaune jaquette_
+means yellow jacket.  I learned that in our French reader.  I expect
+one of the cats is all white and the other is a yellow one.  Is that
+it, Jeannette?'
+
+"'Yes, sir,' said the French child, and she tipped him a polite little
+bow that was very pretty indeed.
+
+"'_Boule de Neige_! what a funny name.  I haven't named our white
+kitten yet.  I believe I'll call it _Boule de Neige_ for a change,'
+said Karl.
+
+"Then Jett was brought in and Bessie pounced upon him for a ride, she
+chuckling and singing and looking from side to side with proud
+satisfaction, knowing she was being observed by everybody.  The
+children almost screamed with delight at this performance.
+
+"'Now, Bessie,' said Johnny, as the poor cat at last shook her off and
+slank away.  'You did that beautifully, and you deserve something to
+eat.  I am going to let you have some bread and milk right here in the
+parlor, and the company can see how nicely you can feed yourself with a
+spoon.'
+
+"'All right,' croaked the parrot.  Sarah brought in a saucer in which
+was a little bread moistened with milk, and two spoons with it.  A
+cloth was spread over one corner of the table and Bessie crawled up to
+the top of a chair which had been placed with its back close to the
+table.  This brought the bird almost in line with the saucer.  Johnny
+took his seat beside her and broke the bread into tiny pieces with his
+spoon, shoving the particles into the other spoon as fast as Bessie
+disposed of them.  She gravely clasped her spoon with one claw and
+brought it to her mouth quite dextrously and ate the contents with
+evident relish, though it was plain that she enjoyed being admired for
+being able to do it really more than she enjoyed the bread.  Once in a
+while her grasp was uncertain and the food was spilled on her breast
+feathers or fell to the floor.  At this she scolded herself roundly and
+seemed quite ashamed.
+
+"'One of these days, when I get time, I am going to train her to use a
+napkin when she eats,' said Johnny.
+
+"'She'll be a perfectly accomplished lady then,' added Mary Ethel.
+
+"By this time some of the stranger children had left the table and had
+come over to my cage to look at me.
+
+"'The admiral's an awful purty feller,' said one.
+
+"'Wouldn't his tail be sweet on a Sunday hat?' suggested another.
+
+"'Oh, I choose his wings for my hat,' exclaimed a third.
+
+"'I choose his head and breast for mine,' said the first one who had
+spoken.  'And Naomi chooses his whole body for her hat, I expect,' she
+added as Naomi joined them.
+
+"'No,' said Naomi, 'we don't wear birds any more in our family.  My
+sister and I used to have our hats trimmed with them, but we've quit.
+I had a lovely one on my blue velvet hat last year.  It was a beautiful
+hat," and she smiled at the recollection.  'But we've quit now,' she
+added gravely.
+
+"'Why?' asked the other girls in a breath.
+
+"'Oh, because my mother thinks it is wrong to wear them.  Little boy,
+little boy, be careful or you'll let the bird out,' she called hastily.
+
+"But the warning was too late.  While the girls had been talking the
+small boy who was with them had been entertaining himself by slightly
+opening my cage door and letting it spring back to its fastening.
+Suddenly he was seized with fright at discovering that it had stuck
+while half-way back, and refused to come together.
+
+"Oh, dear!' he called.  'He's out.'
+
+"'Mercy on us!  Oh, dear!' screamed the girls as I made a dash through
+the opening, and flew to the top of a picture frame.  'Johnny, Johnny,
+your redbird's out,' they called.
+
+"All was confusion in an instant.  Boys and girls ran hither and
+thither, tumbling over each other, and over the chairs and stools, and
+all talking and screaming at once.
+
+"'Bring a broom or a flagpole, Johnny,' called Philip.  'I'll shoo him
+down for you while you stand underneath and catch him.'
+
+"'Shoo, shoo!' said Jeannette, catching her dress skirt with both hands
+and waving it back and forth rapidly.  In a minute all the girls were
+waving their dress skirts at me and saying 'shoo.'
+
+"'Oh, my pretty Admiral Dewey, my dear old admiral,' wailed Johnny,
+almost in tears.
+
+"I didn't wait for the broom or the flagpole to help me from the
+picture frame.  I balanced myself steadily and then I flew out of the
+open window and away into the world, without saying good-bye to
+anybody.  I suppose they all crowded to the window to look after me as
+I disappeared, for the last thing I heard was Mrs. Morris' voice
+saying, 'Don't, Johnny; you'll fall out if you lean over so far.  Papa
+will get you another bird.  Don't grieve so hard.  Don't, Johnny.'"
+
+"Did you ever see Johnny afterward?" we asked the redbird.
+
+"Yes, once I saw him cantering along slowly on Jock.  He could not go
+very fast because he was holding a great bunch of red and pink roses in
+one hand.  His cheeks were as pink as the flowers and his yellow hair
+curled up under the edge of his cap the same as it used to.  I knew him
+in a minute.  A great many carriages were on the street trimmed in
+flags and flowers.  Little flags were fastened to the horses' harness.
+Jock had one on each side of his head, which made him look very pretty.
+Children were running about carrying wreaths.  On a corner of the
+street where a band was playing some men were holding banners.  I heard
+some one say it was Decoration Day, and that everybody strewed flowers
+on the graves in the big cemetery that day.  I thought it was a very
+beautiful custom.  Through all the buzz and confusion I kept an eye on
+Johnny.  He didn't seem to be riding anywhere in particular, but was
+just looking around for the fun of the thing.  Presently he drew up to
+the sidewalk where a little ragged boy was leaning up against a tree.
+He had a wistful look, as if he would like to be taking part.
+
+"'Hello!' said Johnny, as he reined Jock in.  'Aren't you going to help
+to decorate?'
+
+"'Naw--ain't got any posies, I tell you.'  The boy said this in a
+sullen tone.
+
+"'Here, take these.  I brought you a big bunch so you could divide 'em
+with some of your friends.  There's enough for all of you boys to have
+a few flowers to take to the cemetery.'  Johnny extended the roses with
+a smile as he spoke.
+
+"The boy grabbed them eagerly.  'My!  You're a jolly one, I'll say that
+for you,' he said heartily by way of thanks, then he ran off with a
+whoop.
+
+"I saw from this action that Johnny was the same generous, kind-hearted
+boy he used to be, and I felt proud to have had the honor of his
+acquaintance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A WINTER IN THE SOUTH
+
+    I was wrong about the Phoebe bird;
+  Two songs it has, and both of them I've heard;
+  I did not know those strains of joy and sorrow
+  Came from one throat.
+
+
+As the season advanced our May songs became less melodious until
+finally our music was merely a metallic but pleasant, "chink, chink,"
+and we knew we would soon be putting on our new fall attire, as toward
+the close of the summer our family exchange their pretty
+black-and-white suits, so much admired, for a becoming yellowish-brown
+one.  The different flocks were also now arranging for their regular
+winter trip to the sunny Southland, where their winters were spent.
+
+I was very glad to know that we bobolinks were to travel only in the
+daytime, as that would afford us younger ones a better opportunity to
+see the country.  The return trip to the North is always made by night.
+A great many people have wondered why we do this, and those who are
+interested in our habits have tried to find out; but it is a secret the
+birds have never yet divulged, and probably never will.
+
+The blue jays were going to remain behind, for the winters which we
+dreaded so much had no terrors for them.  Sometimes when we were
+preening our feathers under the radiant skies near the Southern gulf, I
+thought of our old neighbors the jays, and fancied them in their bleak
+Northern home flitting about in the tops of the leafless trees, swayed
+by the icy winds from the upper lakes, and with perhaps but little to
+eat.  I would not have exchanged places with them for the world.  But
+my older comrades assured me the jays were not in need of my sympathy
+or pity.  They liked the invigorating cold and chattered merrily in the
+desolate boughs and enjoyed many a nice meal from under the melting
+snow.  The crimson dogwood berries, standing out like rosettes of
+coral, at which they liked to peck, also furnished them an aesthetic
+and sumptuous feast.  Much more to be dreaded than the winter's cold
+was the cruel sportsman, said my comrades.
+
+The day of our departure came.  The concourse of birds setting out on
+their annual journeys was immense, and oh, what joy it was to soar
+aloft on buoyant pinion high up in the blue sky, over housetops and
+tops of trees, skimming along above rushing waters or tranquil streams
+in quiet meadows.  Mere existence was a keen delight.  The sense of
+freedom, of lightness, of airiness, was gloriously exhilarating, a
+delicious sensation known only to the feathered tribes of all God's
+creation.
+
+Our trip took us across some densely wooded mountains, where we rested
+for a time.  A thick undergrowth of young saplings prevented any roads,
+and only occasional narrow footpaths showed that people sometimes
+passed that way.
+
+The mountain was grand in its loneliness; but doubtless was a desolate
+spot to the settlers, whose cabins were scattered at long distances
+from each other in the depths of the wood.  I could imagine how cut off
+from the whole world the women and children in these cabins would feel,
+for it is natural for human beings to love society.  The perpetual
+stillness must have been hard to bear when months sometimes passed
+away, especially in the winter season, without their getting a glimpse
+of other human faces.
+
+The mountains were full of wildcats too, which made their situation
+worse, as these fierce animals were frequently known to attack men as
+savagely as wolves do.  One day while we were there two travelers
+camped under the tree where our family was roosting.  They had
+evidently had a hard time making their way through the tangled
+undergrowth, for as one of the men flung himself down on the ground and
+stretched himself out at full length, he exclaimed peevishly:
+
+"Well, I don't want any more such experiences.  I'm dead tired; my face
+is all scratched with the thorns and bushes; and I haven't seen a
+newspaper for a week.  If the railroad company needs any more work of
+this kind done, they must get somebody else."
+
+"Fiddle-dee-dee!  You mustn't be so easily discouraged," answered the
+other young man, who had already set to work scraping up dry chips and
+pieces of bark to make a fire, "Think of these poor mountaineers who
+stay here all their lives.  Your little tramp of a few days is nothing
+to what they do all the time and never think of complaining.  The half
+of them are too poor to own a mule.  They eat hog and hominy the year
+around, and are thankful to get it.  Their clothes are fearfully and
+wonderfully made, but for all that they don't give up and think life
+isn't worth living."
+
+As the two young fellows talked on in this strain I named them Growler
+and Cheery, because the one was so determined to look on the dark side,
+while the other took a cheerful view of everything.  Growler continued
+to lounge on the ground, looking with careless interest at Cheery, who
+was preparing dinner.
+
+The dinner was in a small tin box which he took from his coat pocket.
+Opening it he disclosed some eatables very compactly put in.  He took
+out several articles and set them on the ground in front of him.  In
+the box was a bottle stoutly corked containing a dark liquid, some of
+which he poured into a flat tin cup which formed a part of the lid of
+the box.  This he set over the fire, which by this time was snapping
+cheerily.
+
+"Come," he said.  "Here's a lunch fit for a king.  Get up and have your
+share.  Maybe when your stomach is warmed up with a few ham and mustard
+sandwiches, some cheese and coffee, you'll be in better spirits.  These
+crackers are good eating too."
+
+"Fit for a king, eh?  Mighty poor kind of a king, I should say,"
+growled Growler sarcastically; but he rose and flicked the leaves and
+twigs from his clothing before he helped himself to the coffee which
+was now hot.
+
+"One cup for two people is just one too few," laughed Cheery when it
+came his turn to take some.  "My! but it tastes good.  There's nothing
+like the open air to give one an appetite."
+
+"I don't like coffee without cream," objected Growler, chewing moodily
+at his cracker.
+
+"Well, we'll get to Girard by to-night, and then possibly we will get a
+good supper."
+
+While they were lunching I had observed another traveler slowly
+approaching through the underbrush.  Over one shoulder was slung a
+leather strap in which were a few books.  He carried a rifle, and from
+his coat pocket bulged a small package.  As he drew nearer the sound of
+his footsteps startled Growler who nervously upset his coffee over his
+shirt front.
+
+"What d'ye suppose he is?" he asked of Cheery as the stranger
+approached.
+
+"I judge he's a parson, from the cut of his clothes," observed Cheery.
+Then as the new-comer advanced he called: "Hello, friend!  Who'd 'a
+thought of meeting company this far back in these mountains?"
+
+"This is only about eight miles from the town where I live," answered
+the gentleman, who now seated himself near them with his back against a
+tree, "I know the paths through here fairly well, for I come this way
+several times through the summer.  But this will be my last trip for
+the season, and I'm giving a little more time to it on that account.
+I've taken it somewhat leisurely to-day."
+
+He was a delicate-looking, middle-aged man, with a mild voice and a
+kind face.
+
+"You're a drummer for a publishing house, I take it?" said Growler,
+nodding toward the books in the strap.  "I've just been wondering where
+you'd find any buyers in these infernal woods."
+
+The gentleman laughed.  "No," said he, "this is my regular route; but
+I'm not a commercial traveler in any sense.  I'm a pastor at a town
+near here, and I go out to these mountain families to hold services
+every few weeks."
+
+"You don't mean you foot it through these bushes and among these
+wildcats to preach to the mountaineers!" exclaimed Growler in
+astonishment.
+
+"Certainly I do.  These poor people would never hear the sound of the
+gospel if some one did not take it to them.  They have souls to be
+saved, my friend.  I feel it is my duty to carry the word to them.  As
+for the wildcats," he continued, smiling, "I have my rifle.  Besides
+the government offers a small bounty for every wildcat."
+
+"Oh, yes, I see.  You combine business with pleasure and have your
+wildcat bounty to pay expenses as you go along--or else keep it for
+pin-money," and Growler laughed good-humoredly at his own fun.
+
+"You're the parson from St. Thomas, I judge," said Cheery.
+
+The gentleman bowed, and said he was the pastor of that little church.
+
+"I've heard of your mission work, and I understand you've done a great
+deal of good among the mountain whites."
+
+"How many churches have you in these mountains?" interrupted Growler.
+
+"I have but the one church organization, for outside through the
+mountains there are no churches--no buildings, no organizations.
+People ten and fifteen miles apart can't very well have churches.  I
+visit the families.  I have three on this mountain side.  I am well
+repaid for all the sacrifice of comfort I make, in knowing how glad
+they are to have me come.   To many of them I am the connecting link
+with the rest of mankind.  Ah! the world knows nothing of the
+privations and sorrows and ignorance of many of these poor creatures!
+Through the winter I am obliged to stop my visitations, but I generally
+leave a few books and papers for those who can read, and pictures for
+the children."
+
+"Well, parson, I didn't know there was enough goodness in any man in
+the United States to make him willing to tramp right into the wildest
+part of the Allegheny.  Mountains to preach the gospel to half a dozen
+poor people!" exclaimed Growler, still more astonished.
+
+"My friend," responded the gentleman earnestly, "the world is full of
+Christian men and women who are trying to help others."
+
+Just then my mother said to me, "When I hear the beautiful words that
+minister speaks and see what he is doing, then indeed do I believe that
+human beings have hearts."
+
+As we resumed our journey I wondered if Growler would profit by the
+sunshiny example of Cheery and the devotion of the parson of St. Thomas.
+
+Later in our travels we came upon some old acquaintances.   Our
+stopping-place was near an ancient house on a mountain side.  The
+outlook was the grandest I had ever seen, and though I have traveled
+much since then I have never found anything to exceed it in beauty.  A
+glistening river wound its way in a big loop at the foot of the
+mountain, and beyond it lay stretched out a busy city.
+
+A good many years before a battle had been fought on these heights,
+which people still remembered and talked about.  I heard them speak of
+it as the "Battle above the clouds."  There was still a part of a
+cannon wagon in the yard which visitors came to see and examined with
+much interest.  They also often requested the landlady to let them look
+at the walls of an old stone dairy adjoining the house, because the
+soldiers had carved their names there.
+
+To me it seemed strange that the guests would sit for hours on the long
+gallery of this hotel, and go over and over the incidents of the
+battle, telling where this regiment stood, or where that officer fell,
+as if war and the taking of life were the most pleasant rather than the
+most distressful subjects in the world.  In the distance was a mammoth
+field of graves, miles of graves, beautifully kept mounds under which
+lay the dead heroes of that sad time.
+
+The days up here were beautiful, but it was at night that this was a
+scene of surpassing loveliness.  Far below the lights of the city
+glowed like spangles in the darkness.  Above us was the star-encrusted
+sky.  It was like being suspended between a floor and a ceiling of
+glittering jewels.
+
+On this plateau grew the biggest cherry trees I ever saw, and they bore
+the biggest and sweetest cherries, though I could not taste any at that
+time, as the season was past.  I heard the landlady complaining one day
+to some of her guests that the rascally birds had hardly left her a
+cherry to put up.
+
+"The saucy little thieves! they must have eaten bushels of the finest
+fruit," she said.
+
+"And didn't you get any?" inquired a childish voice.  There was
+something familiar in the voice and I flew to the porch railing to see
+who it was.  And who should it be but dear little Marion.  And there
+too was her aunty, Miss Dorothy, and the professor, and in the parlor I
+caught a glimpse of Miss Katie and the colonel.  They were having a
+pleasant vacation together.
+
+Marion looked inquiringly into the landlady's face.  No doubt she was
+thinking the mountain birds were very greedy to eat up all the cherries
+and not leave one for the poor woman to can.
+
+"Our birds always eat some of our cherries too," she said, "but they
+always leave us plenty."
+
+"There were bushels left on our trees," observed the landlady's
+daughter.  "We had all we wanted, mother.  We couldn't possibly have
+used the rest if the birds had not eaten them.  We had a cellar full of
+canned cherries left over from the year before, you remember, and that
+is the way it is nearly every year."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," answered her mother impatiently; "but for all that
+I don't believe in letting the birds have everything."
+
+"I never begrudge a bird what it eats," commented the professor.  "Of
+course you can discourage the birds, drive them off, break up their
+nests, starve them out, and have a crop of caterpillars instead of
+cherries.  But, beg pardon, madam, maybe you don't object to
+caterpillars," and he bowed low to the landlady.
+
+The laugh was against her and I was glad of it, for I didn't consider
+it either kind or polite to call us "saucy little thieves."
+
+We were amused one morning when, flying over a piece of pretty country,
+we saw a lady moving rapidly along on the red sandy path below.  She
+seemed to be neither exactly riding nor walking, as she was not on foot
+nor had she a horse.  On closer inspection it was seen that she was
+propelling a strange-looking vehicle.  Two of her carriage wheels were
+gone, and between the remaining two the lady was perched.  At sight of
+it I was immediately reminded of the queer thing that Johnny Morris
+rode which the admiral had described to us and called a "wheel."  I
+felt sure that this was the same kind of a machine.  The lady looked
+neither to the right nor to the left, but her glance was fixed intently
+on the road before her.
+
+Farther along another lady leaned against the fence awaiting her
+approach.  As she bowled along the friend asked enthusiastically: "Is
+it not splendid?"
+
+The rider called back to her: "It is grand!  It is almost as if I were
+flying.  I know now how a bird feels."
+
+Think of comparing the sensation produced by moving that heavy iron
+machine, with the rider but three feet from the ground, to the
+exhilaration felt by a bird spurning the earth and soaring on delicate
+wing through the fields of heaven!  It was truly laughable!
+
+Our amusement was cut short, however, when we noticed that the lady's
+hat was decorated with a dead dove.
+
+"Can we never get away from this millinery exhibition of death?" I
+exclaimed in horror.
+
+"No," said my mother sorrowfully.  "The god, Fashion, I told you of has
+his slaves all over the land.  We will find them wherever we go, north,
+south, east, and west.  No town is too small, no neighborhood too
+remote, but there will be found women ready to carry out his cruel
+laws."
+
+Had we not been haunted by this vision of death which we were
+constantly meeting wherever women were congregated, we might have been
+happy in the fair land of rose blossoms and magnolias where we now
+sojourned.  The air was soft and balmy, and the atmosphere filled us
+with a serene, restful languor quite new to those who had been
+accustomed to the brisker habits of a colder clime.  Besides the birds
+there were many human visitors from the North spending the winter
+months here.  Some sought this warmer climate for their health, others
+for pleasure, and these also soon fell into the easy-going,
+happy-go-lucky ways induced by the sluggish climate.
+
+Among the birds the waxwings most readily acquired this delightful
+Southern habit of taking life easy.  In fact the waxwings are inclined
+to be lazy, except when they are nesting; they are the most deliberate
+creatures one can find, but very foppish and neat in their dress.
+Never will you find a particle of dust on their silky plumage, and the
+pretty red dots on their wings and tails look always as bright as if
+kept in a bandbox.  They have, indeed, just reason to be proud of
+themselves, for they are very beautiful.
+
+Hunters by scores were after them with bag and gun mercilessly killing
+them for the New York millinery houses.  The slaughter was terrible,
+and made more easy for the hunters by reason of the poor birds flocking
+together so closely in such large numbers when they alighted in circles
+as is their habit.  As they came down in dense droves to get their
+food, the red dots on their wing tips almost overlapping those of their
+fellows, dozens were slain by a single shot.  They were very fond of
+the berries of the cedar trees, and after the other foods were gone
+they hovered there in great numbers.  Here too, the hunters followed
+them and made awful havoc in their ranks.  One man made the cruel boast
+that the winter previous he had killed one thousand cedar-birds for hat
+trimmings.
+
+Many of our family had located for a time near the coast, but here too,
+on these sunny plains, the death messengers followed us and slew us by
+the thousands.
+
+We learned that one bird man handled thirty thousand bird skins that
+season.  Another firm shipped seventy thousand to the city, and still
+the market called for more and yet more.  The appetite of the god could
+not be appeased.
+
+I am sure this account of the loss of bird life must have seemed
+appalling to my mother, for I heard her moan sadly when it was talked
+about.
+
+It was during my stay in the Southern islands that I first saw the
+white egret, whose beautiful sweeping plumes, like the silken train of
+a court lady, have so long been the spoils of woman, that the bird is
+almost extinct.  As these magnificent feathers appear upon the bird
+only through the mating and nesting season, the cruelty of the act is
+still more dastardly.  The attachment of the parent birds for their
+young is very beautiful to witness, yet this devotion, which should be
+their safeguard, is seized upon for their destruction, for so great is
+the instinct of protecting love they refuse to leave their young when
+danger is near, and are absolutely indifferent to their own safety.
+
+Never shall I forget one sad incident which occurred while I was there.
+Overhanging the water was an ancestral nest belonging to a family of
+egrets which had occupied it for some seasons.  Unlike the American
+human species, in whom local attachment is not largely developed, and
+who take a new house every moving day, the egret repairs and fixes over
+the old house year after year, putting in a new brace there, adding
+another stick here, to make it firm enough to bear the weight of the
+mother and the three young birds which always comprise the brood.
+
+The three pale-blue eggs in this nest had been duly hatched, and the
+fond mother was now brooding over her darlings with every demonstration
+of maternal affection.  She was a beautiful creature with her graceful
+movement, her train of plumes, and her long neck gracefully curved.
+
+The quick sharp boom, boom of the guns had been echoing through the
+swamp for some time, and the men were now coming nearer.  The efforts
+of the poor mother to shield her babies were piteous, but the hunters
+did not want them.  Their scant plumage is worthless for millinery
+purposes.  Possibly the mother might have escaped had she been willing
+to leave her dear ones; but she would not desert them, and was shot in
+the breast as the reward of her devotion.  The nestlings were left to
+starve.
+
+Would you think the woman who wore that bunch of feathers on her bonnet
+could take much pleasure in it?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE PRISON
+
+  Like a long-caged bird
+  Thou beat'st thy bars with broken wing
+  And flutterest, feebly echoing
+  The far-off music thou hast heard,
+          --_Arthur Eaton._
+
+
+This was my last day of liberty for many, many months.  The very next
+evening I was stunned by a stone thrown by a small boy who accompanied
+a hunter.  Picking me up he ran toward his father, who was coming back
+from the neighboring swamp with his loaded gamebag.
+
+"This bird isn't dead," said the boy, holding me up to view, "and I'm
+going to put it in a cage and train it to talk."
+
+"Crows are the kind that talk.  That's no crow nor no starling
+neither," answered the man.  "Better give it to me to kill.  I'll pay
+you a penny for it."
+
+"Naw, you don't," and the boy drew back, at the same time closing his
+hand over me so tightly that I feared I would be crushed.  "I'm going
+to keep him, I tell ye.  He's mine to do what I please with, and I
+ain't agoing to sell him for a penny, neither."
+
+So saying he ran along in front of his father till we reached the mule
+cart.  Into this clumsy vehicle they climbed and soon we were jogging
+over the sandy road to their home.  As we drove along the man computed,
+partly to himself, partly aloud, how much money the contents of his
+game-bag would bring him.  The result must have been satisfactory, for
+presently he observed:
+
+"Purty fair day's wages, but I believe I could make more killing terns
+and gulls than these birds.  Bill Jones and the hunters up on Cobb's
+Island last year got ten cents apiece for all the gulls they killed.
+Forty thousand were killed right there.  Oh, it's bound to be a mighty
+good business for us fellows as long as the wimmen are in the notion,
+that is, if the birds ain't all killed off."
+
+"Air they getting scarce?" questioned the boy.  The man ejected a
+mouthful of dark, offensive juice from between his grizzled whiskers
+before replying.
+
+"Yes, purty tol'ble scarce.  So much demand for 'em is bound to clean
+the birds out.  There used to be heaps of orioles an' robins an' larks
+an' blackbirds an' waxwings through the country, but they're getting
+played out too, since the wimmen tuk to wearin' 'em on their bunnets."
+
+"Well, no woman sha'n't have my bird for her bunnet," and the boy gave
+me another friendly pinch that nearly broke my bones.  "I'm a going to
+put it in that old cage that's out in the shed and give it to Betty, if
+she wants it."
+
+"Humph! she won't keer for it.  You'd better kill it.  Betty won't be
+bothered with it."
+
+"She may give it away, or let it loose, or do what she pleases with it,
+then," was the boy's reply.
+
+I learned from their further conversation that the hunter sold his game
+to another man who cured the skins for shipment to the city.  To this
+dealer the bag which held my dead companions was taken and I saw them
+no more.  Arriving at the hunter's home I was put under a bucket that I
+might not escape, while my captor prepared my prison for me.  It was an
+almost needless precaution for I had been so cramped between his
+fingers that I feared I could never again use my legs or wings.  Just
+before putting me in my rude prison house he brought a pair of shears
+and bade Betty clip my wings.
+
+"Oh, I'm afraid it will hurt it!" she exclaimed, pushing away the
+extended scissors.
+
+"Nonsense, you ninny!  What if it does hurt it?" and he roughly knocked
+my bill with his hand.
+
+"Now that's real mean, Joe.  You're a scaring it to pieces.  Here,
+Dickey Downy, I'm going to give you a pretty name if you belong to me;
+let me hold you.  Why, its little heart is a thumping as if 'twould
+burst through its body."
+
+Joe was reluctant to loosen his grasp, and between being pulled first
+one way and then the other by the two children, I was badly bruised.
+Finally I was permitted by my young captor to enter the cage, where I
+sank, trembling and exhausted, to the floor, and remained there all
+night, being too sore to ascend the perch.
+
+As may be imagined I was very sorrowful and unhappy.  The separation
+from my mother and my dear companions, coupled with the fear that I
+might never again wing my blithesome flight through the bright blue
+sky, but spend the balance of my life in this miserable cell, filled me
+with despair.  Frantic but useless were my efforts to escape.  In vain
+I beat my head against the hard steel bars; in vain I endeavored to
+crowd my body between them.  My prison was too secure.
+
+At length I found that fluttering back and forth buffeting my wings
+against the sides of my cell only injured me and availed nothing.  Then
+it was I wisely made the resolution to endure my imprisonment as
+cheerfully as possible.  I soon began to regain my strength and spirits
+and, save that I was deprived of my liberty, I had no special fault to
+find for some days with my treatment from Betty, who was now regarded
+as my owner and keeper.
+
+I was always glad when Joe was absent from home, for he was vicious as
+well as rough.  One of his favorite tricks was to dash my cage hard
+against the wall, laughing boisterously as he did so to see how it
+frightened me.  The concussion was frequently so great that my claws
+could not hold to the perch, and I would be tossed helplessly from side
+to side with my feathers ruffled and broken.  There was but one thing
+Joe liked better than this cruel sport, and that was gingerbread; and
+my tortures were often stopped by Betty's producing a slice of this
+delicacy which she had saved from her own luncheon for this particular
+purpose.  When I discovered that Joe could be bought off with
+gingerbread it can be imagined that I was always glad on the days when
+the pungent odors of cinnamon, ginger, and molasses issued from the
+cook-stove.  It was a surety of peace, of a cessation of hostilities as
+long as the cake lasted.
+
+All went fairly well for a little while, but as the novelty of
+possession gradually wore off, my little jailer grew negligent and left
+me much of the time without water or food.  Frequently my throat was so
+parched from thirst that I could not utter a protesting chirp.  I knew
+no other way to attract attention to my wants than to flutter to the
+bars and thrust out my head; unfortunately this action was attributed
+to wildness and a desire to escape, and I was allowed to suffer on.
+
+"That bird is the most annoying, restless thing I ever saw," complained
+Betty's mother one evening when I was thus trying to tell them my cup
+was empty.  "It spends all its time poking its head through the wires
+or thrashing around in the cage, instead of getting up on its perch and
+behaving itself quietly as a decent bird should."
+
+"Do you reckon it's sick?" suggested Betty, and she came to my cage and
+looked at me attentively.
+
+"Reckon it's hungry, you mean," growled her father, who was in one
+corner of the kitchen cleaning his gun.
+
+"She never feeds it any more," commented the mother.  "What's the use
+of keeping it?  I'd wring its neck and be done with it.  Betty don't
+keer a straw for it."
+
+"Yes, I do," cried the little girl.  "I'll get it something to eat this
+very minute."
+
+These spasms of attention only lasted a day or two, however, when my
+young keeper would lapse into carelessness, and again I would be
+allowed to go with an empty crop and a dry throat.  My beautiful
+plumage grew rusty from this irregularity and continual neglect, and
+although I am not a vain bird, my dingy appearance was a source of
+daily grief and mortification to me.  When Betty was not too busy
+playing she sometimes hung my cage outside the door of the cottage, but
+often for days together through the pleasant summer I was left hanging
+in the kitchen, sometimes half-choked with smoke or dampened with
+steam.  No wonder I drooped and ceased my cheerful song.
+
+The days when I was put out of doors were indeed gala days to me.  Many
+families of young chickens lived in the back yard, and the pipings of
+the little ones and the scoldings of the mothers when their children
+ran too far away from them, were always amusing to listen to and gave
+me something to think about which kept my mind off my own troubles.
+
+I liked to watch the hens with their fuzzy broods tumbling about them,
+or with the older chicks when they scratched the ground and ceaselessly
+clucked for them to come to get their share of what was turned up in
+the soil; meanwhile they kept a sharp lookout with their bright eyes to
+see that no outsider shared in the feast.  And how angrily did they
+drive it away should a chick from another brood heedlessly rush in
+among them to get a taste.
+
+One old hen in particular interested me very much.  I noticed her first
+because of her pretty bluish color and the dark markings around her
+neck, but I soon came to pity her, for she made herself quite unhappy
+and seemed to take no comfort in anything.  She was usually tied to a
+tree by the leg, and although her string was long it seemed always just
+a little too short to reach the thing she wanted.  To make matters
+worse she had a bad fashion of rushing wildly around the tree and
+getting her string wound up shorter and shorter until at last she could
+not stir a step, but would hang by one foot foolishly pulling as hard
+as she could.  It always seemed to me that her chickens were more
+disobedient than the rest, because they knew she could not get to them
+nor follow them.
+
+Joe sometimes slyly threw pebbles at this blue hen to scare her and
+make her jump and pull at the string, when he thought his mother was
+not looking.  As pay for his sport he often got his ears cuffed, for
+though his mother did not seem to notice how cruelly he teased me, she
+would not allow him to frighten her fowls.
+
+"Don't you know that a hen that's all the time skeered won't lay?" was
+the lesson she tried to impress on him as she punished him.
+
+But the thing I liked best of all was to see Betty's seven white ducks
+crowd up to the kitchen door every time any one appeared with a pan of
+scraps.  Such gabbling and quacking, such pushing and such stepping on
+each other and on the chickens, in their eagerness to get there first,
+was almost laughable.  In fact, the pink-toed pigeons that walked up
+and down the ridge of the barn roof, did make fun of them openly.  Had
+I not known the ducks were well fed and so fat they could scarcely
+waddle, I might have thought they were really hungry, but I soon
+discovered that they were simply greedy.
+
+Standing on tiptoe and stretching up their long necks they often seized
+the food before it had a chance to fall to the ground.  By this good
+management they usually got more than the chickens.  Joe accused Betty
+of being partial to the ducks.
+
+"You allus give 'em the best of everything, and twice as much as you do
+the chickens," he complained.
+
+"They get the most because they've got the most confidence in me," said
+Betty, putting on a very wise look.  "They come close up to me, while a
+chicken shies off and misses the goodies coz she's silly enough to be
+afraid.  Besides, the ducks are mine.  I raised 'em.  I paid twenty
+cents a setting for the eggs out of my own money, and when you raise a
+thing you generally like it the best.  Ducks are a heap smarter'n
+chickens, anyway," she asserted.  "I never can get one of the chickens
+to feed out of a spoon, and the ducks like it the best kind."  To
+convince him she held toward them a large baking spoon of soured milk.
+This milk was thickened into a paste or ball by being put on the stove
+and separated from the whey, or watery part, by the action of the heat.
+
+It was a favorite dish with the fowls, and they all smacked their lips
+when they saw it coming.
+
+As fast as Betty could fill the spoon it was emptied by the ducks, who
+stuck their big yellow bills into it and devoured the contents, letting
+the chickens below scramble and push and pick each other for any stray
+bits that fell to the ground.
+
+"Didn't I tell you?" said Betty triumphantly.  "Them chickens had just
+as good a chance as the ducks, but they wouldn't take it."
+
+"Huh!" answered Joe.  "Their necks ain't long enough, is what's the
+matter."
+
+There were several trees in the yard, and often when the fowls were
+fed, birds flew down from their leafy recesses to pick up the crumbs
+left lying about.  How I used to wish they would come near enough to my
+cage that I might converse with them, but it always happened that just
+at the time when one of them would settle close to the house, either
+Joe's little dog, Colly, would run across the yard, or Betty or her
+mother would appear at the door and frighten my feathered friend away.
+Only once did I exchange a word with any of these birds, and that for
+but a few short minutes.
+
+The bird did not belong to our family, nor had I ever met any of his
+relatives before, but that made but little difference.  He was a bird,
+and that was enough.  We did not wait for any formal introduction; but
+as he balanced himself on the edge of my cage he hurriedly told me news
+of the woods, and how he wished I might get free and come to live
+there.  He told of the lovely dragon flies, with purple, burnished
+wings that floated in the forest, mingling their drowsy hum with the
+chirping of the birds.  He told of the great mossy carpet spread under
+the trees; how at set of day the owls came out, and the moles rustled
+in the fallen leaves, and the frogs raised their evening hymn to the
+sinking sun.
+
+I could have listened for hours to the sweet familiar tale my feathered
+brother told of life in the happy woodland, but Betty's mother suddenly
+hurrying out to the pump to fill her bucket, cut short the story, and
+away my bird friend skimmed out of sight without so much as saying
+"good-bye."  Though I saw him several times after that, he never came
+so close again.
+
+"Oh, what heaps and heaps of fireflies!" exclaimed Betty, as she
+unhooked my cage to move me into the house that evening.  "It looks as
+if our door-yard was full of moving lanterns."
+
+"Nothin' but lightnen bugs!" said Joe contemptuously.  "Here, see me
+catch 'em," and in a few minutes he showed her a handful which he had
+killed by crushing between his hands.
+
+"Hold on, I want to catch some too!" and hustling me into the kitchen,
+Betty ran along with him and was soon engaged in catching and killing
+the beautiful fireflies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE HUNTERS
+
+Song birds, plumage birds, water fowl, and many innocent birds of prey,
+are hunted from the everglades to the Arctic Circles for the barbaric
+purpose of decorating women's hats.  The extent of this traffic is
+simply appalling.--_G. O. Shields._
+
+
+When Joe and his father came back from their gunning expeditions, the
+accounts they gave of the day's slaughter made me very homesick and
+miserable, and wore sadly on my spirits in my captivity.
+
+The heartless indifference with which the woman would ask her husband
+if it had been "a good day for killings," almost made me wail aloud.
+
+"Best kind of luck; I bagged nearly a hundred this trip," he replied
+exultingly, one night when she put the usual question.  "The birds were
+as thick as blackberries in the high weeds along the creek, and were
+havin' a mighty good time stuffing themselves with seeds.  Joe fired
+the old gun to start 'em and, great Jerushy! in a minute the sky was
+dark with 'em; I just blazed away and they dropped thick all around us,
+and it kept us tol'ble busy for a while a pickin' 'em up."
+
+"Pop, tell 'em about the old water bird down in the swamp," said Joe
+with a wicked laugh.
+
+"Yes, tell us; what was it, pop?" urged Betty.
+
+"Oh, nothin' partickler, I reckon; just an old bird that hadn't the
+grit to get away from me," and the man gave a low chuckle at the
+remembrance.
+
+"My, oh! the way them old birds hung around and wouldn't scare worth a
+cent when we was right up close to 'em was funny, I tell ye," and Joe
+leaned back in his chair and slapped his knees in a fresh burst of
+merriment.
+
+"There was eggs in the nest was the cause," said the man; "them birds
+are always as tame as kittens then.  You can go right up to 'em and
+they won't leave the nest.  Them birds has two broods in a season, and
+then's the chance to get a good whack at 'em."
+
+Joe rubbed his hands together in delight as he turned to his sister,
+"You'd ought to have seen 'em, Betty.  There was pop in his rubber
+boots a creepin' along--a c-r-e-e-p-i-n' along as sly as a mouse toward
+'em, and there they stayed.  The male bird he fluttered and' squawked,
+and the female she stuck to the nest till pop he got right up and he
+didn't even have to shoot her.  He just clubbed her over the back and
+down she went ker-splash as dead as you please.  Them there eggs won't
+hardly hatch out this year, I don't reckon," and at the prospect Joe
+broke into a malicious guffaw.
+
+"I think to club it was meaner'n to shoot the poor thing," said Betty
+indignantly.  "And, anyway, I wouldn't a-killed it on the nest.  It's
+mean to treat an 'fectionate bird so."
+
+"Pshaw, you'd do big things!" was Joe's scornful reply.
+
+"Well, I wouldn't be so tremenj'us cruel," persisted Betty; "I don't
+believe in killing a pretty bird."
+
+"But what would the wimmen do without bunnet trimmen' if we didn't kill
+'em, hey?" and Joe finished his question with a taunting whistle.
+
+As the shadows of each evening gathered around the cottage, the shadow
+over my life seemed to deepen and grow more gloomy.  Outside the door I
+could hear the hum of the bees as they flew homeward, the wind-harp
+played in the yellow pines its softest, sweetest music, and I scented
+the odor of honeysuckles and roses far away.  The rushing of the waters
+over the stones in the creek tinkled dreamily, but in the midst of all
+earth's loveliness I was desolate, because I was not free.
+
+And thus the summer days dragged wearily along, and the autumn came.
+It is not surprising then that I was overjoyed when later on I learned
+that I was to be given as a present to a young relative of Betty's, who
+lived to the northward in a distant State.  My present existence had
+grown almost intolerable, and I felt that any change could scarcely
+make my condition worse, and there was a chance of its being better.
+The prospect put new life into me.
+
+Preening my feathers became a pleasant task once more.  I whetted my
+bill till it glistened, and my long-neglected toilet again became my
+daily care.
+
+"I shall be mighty glad to get rid of the mopy creature," Betty's
+mother had, said when they talked of my departure.  "I wouldn't give
+the thing house-room for my part."
+
+"Cousin Polly will like it, though," Betty answered her mother.  "Polly
+was always fond of pets, and she'll be powerful pleased to get it as a
+present from her Southern kinfolks."
+
+"We'll have to go to the cost of a new cage, I reckon, and I don't feel
+like spending the money, neither," mused the mother.  "Polly might like
+a bresspin better.  I don't know as it will pay to send her the bird
+after all."
+
+How my heart sank at this announcement! so fearful was I that I might
+have to remain at the cottage; but Betty's answer gave me new hope.
+
+"Oh, certain it will pay!" she exclaimed eagerly.  "You know how many
+nice things Cousin Dunbar's sent us off-and-on, and only last Christmas
+Polly sent me my string of beads.  As for giving her a bresspin for a
+keepsake, she can get a heap nicer one out of their own store than any
+we could send her, and I'm certain she'd like the bird best of all;
+it's such a good chance to send it by Uncle Dan when he is going to
+their town and can hand it right over to Polly."
+
+"I reckon you're right.  Well, it will be only the cost of the cage,"
+said her mother, and so the matter was settled, much to my satisfaction.
+
+My new cage was very pretty, if anything can be said in praise of a
+prison, and was much lighter and pleasanter than the old, heavy,
+home-made structure in which I had been shut up so long.  Its rim was
+painted a cheerful green, and the wires were burnished like gold.
+Ornamental sconces held the glass cups for my food and there were
+decorated hoops to swing in.  Altogether it was a very handsome house,
+yet I could not forget it was a prison house.
+
+Betty busied herself in fixing it comfortably for me, and was full of
+kind attentions.  She begged me many times not to get frightened when
+the cover would be put on my cage.  The hood was necessary when I was
+traveling, but Uncle Dan would be sitting right near me all the time
+and would be very good to me.  She further assured me that I would find
+the motion of the cars delightful, and that all I would have to do was
+to sit on my perch and munch my seed and have a good time.  How jolly
+it would be to go whizzing past fences and over bridges and through
+tunnels and towns and never know it, she said.  She also charged me
+particularly not to be scared when I would hear an occasional horrible
+shriek and a rumbling like thunder, as if the day of judgment was at
+hand.  I must remember it was only the locomotive, and it was obliged
+to do those disagreeable things to make the cars go faster'n, faster'n,
+faster'n------
+
+How much faster I did not have time to find out, for Uncle Dan just
+then called to get me.  A light cover with a hole in the top was
+slipped over my cage, and I started on my journey.  Of my trip, of
+course, I knew nothing.  Part of the way we rode in a wagon through the
+country to the station where we took the train, but as Uncle Dan did
+not remove my cover in the railway car the time spent on the journey
+was almost a blank to me.
+
+Right glad was I, after what seemed a long, long time of jarring and
+jolting, to find the cage once more swinging from his hand and to hear
+the click of his boot heels on the pavements as we went through the
+streets of the town where Polly lived.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NEW HOME
+
+Should it happen that the last egret is shot and the last bird of
+paradise is snared to adorn a lady's dress, then--then I would not like
+to be a woman for all that earth could hold.--_Herbert O. Ward._
+
+
+When at last my covering was removed I found myself in a large, long
+room, which I afterward learned was a millinery store.  In fact the
+store was the front part of the family residence, the living rooms
+being behind and upstairs over it.  My cage was hung near the wide
+doorway at the end of the apartment and my new mistress at once ran to
+fill my cup with fresh water and bring me a supply of clean millet.
+After I had refreshed myself I began to look about me and study my
+strange surroundings.
+
+My new home was so unlike the little log house in the South from which
+I had come that it was many days before I could accustom myself to the
+clatter of voices which buzzed monotonously all day through the store.
+From ten o'clock in the morning, if the day were fine, till three in
+the afternoon, the din at times was almost deafening; for it was the
+busy season and customers were constantly coming and going, not all of
+them to buy, merely to look over the ribbons and tumble up the goods,
+as I heard the tired clerks say complainingly more than once.
+
+Numerous glass cases were placed near the walls, and running cross-wise
+were a counter and shelves much frequented by ladies who stood eagerly
+examining the array of bright gauzes, the glittering buckles, the
+flowers and plumes displayed there.  And what a chattering they kept
+up!  What a stir and a hubbub they made!  So many "Oh-h's" and
+"Ah-h's," so many "How lovely's," and other ecstatic exclamations, were
+mingled with their conversation as was quite bewildering.  In time,
+however, I became accustomed to this and discovered it was simply a way
+ladies have of expressing their approval of things in general.  Around
+the glass cases which held the trimmed hats the women buzzed like a
+swarm of flies, their volubility assuming a more emphatic character as
+they gazed within at the fashionable headgear placed on long steel
+wires.  Almost every hat held one, or a part of one, of my slaughtered
+race.  Frequently there were parts of two or three varieties on one
+hat--a tail of one kind, a wing of another, or a head of a different
+species.  The ends of the world had been searched to make this
+patchwork of blood.  The women raved over the cruel display; they
+gloated over our beauty; but they cared nothing for the pathetic story
+the hats told of rifled nests and motherless young.
+
+My new owner was a soft-voiced, gentle child, from whom I soon found I
+had nothing to fear.  She was most careful to keep my cage in order and
+never neglected to feed me.  Unlike her little friend Betty, she never
+allowed her sports or pleasures to interfere with this duty.  Often her
+playmates came for a romp in the garden behind the store, but she did
+not join them till she had first attended to my wants.  I was fond of
+having her talk to me, for her voice was sweet and kind, and the little
+terms of endearment she often used were very pleasing and made me feel
+she was my true friend.  She once tried to pet me by stroking my
+feathers, but I did not like it.  Although I knew she did not mean to
+hurt me, the motion of her hand made me nervous.  Instead of
+persisting, she only said reproachfully, as she put me back on my perch:
+
+"Dear Dickey Downy, why are you afraid of me?  Your own little Polly
+wouldn't hurt you for the world.  I wanted to softly stroke your pretty
+plumage just out of pure love and, you dear little coward, you won't
+let me."
+
+In her affection for me, Polly did not forget the wild birds outside,
+which flew about in the big evergreen trees near the garden gate.  She
+showed her thoughtfulness for the little creatures by strewing bread
+crumbs for them on the window sills on snowy days.  She often gathered
+up the tablecloth after the housemaid had removed the breakfast dishes
+and, running out under the trees, would shake it vigorously that her
+wild pets might get all the little pieces of food that fell.  Not a
+bird came down as long as she remained in the yard, but as soon as she
+had tripped back to the house and the door closed upon her brown curls,
+I could see a drove of hungry snowbirds swoop from the trees, and in a
+minute every crumb would be picked up.  I am sure they must have loved
+dear little Polly, for many a choice bit did they get through her
+kindness.
+
+While the majority of the customers at the store were well-dressed
+women, there were many who came to buy hats who looked poor and
+pinched.  A few looked slatternly.
+
+A sudden swing of their dress skirts would disclose a badly frayed
+petticoat or a tattered stocking showing above the shabby shoe.  Their
+gloveless hands were red and cold and coarse, and the milliner told the
+clerk that she dreaded to have them handle her filmy laces or
+glistening satins, because their rough fingers stuck to the delicate
+fabrics and injured them.
+
+These poor women worked hard, early and late.  Beyond the barest
+necessities they had little to spare, and yet not a woman among them
+would have bought an unfashionable or out-of-date hat could she have
+had it at one quarter the price.  Feathers were fashionable, and
+feathers she must have.  Might not one "as well be out of the world as
+out of the fashion"?
+
+All this dreadful traffic in my murdered comrades, and their display in
+the glass cases as well as on the heads of the customers, naturally
+made me very sad, and I now looked with aversion at every woman who
+entered the store.  But that all were not heartless fiends who were
+robed in feminine garb I found out another day when a daintily dressed
+lady came in to purchase a winter hat.  The contents of the glass cases
+were looked over critically for some time before she selected one which
+she tried on before the long mirror.  The milliner, who deftly adjusted
+it for her, tipping it first forward a little, then setting it back a
+trifle, stood off now to view the effect, at the same time assuring her
+how beautiful it was, and how vastly becoming to her.
+
+"I like this hat very much," said the lady; "or at least I shall like
+it when the bird is taken off."
+
+"You think the oriole too gay?  Orange is quite the vogue," answered
+the milliner, who seemed reluctant to make any change, and yet was
+anxious to please her customer.  "Perhaps you'd prefer some wings; or
+stay, here is a sweet little gull that will go all right with the rest
+of the trimming.  We will take off the oriole if you wish."
+
+"Thank you, but I have decided not to wear birds any more," said the
+customer.
+
+"But the effect would be quite spoiled without a wing, or an aigrette,
+or something there," exclaimed the milliner.  "You wouldn't like it.  I
+wouldn't think of taking off the bird, if I were you."
+
+"Yes, I shall like it much better with the bird off," returned the lady
+quietly.  "I have sufficient sins to answer for without any longer
+adding the crime of bird slaughter to the list."
+
+The milliner bestowed on her a pitying smile, but evidently was too
+politic to get into a discussion of an unpleasant subject.  Having
+given her final order for the hat, the lady crossed over to the other
+side of the room and shook hands with a friend whom she addressed as
+Mrs. Brown, who had just come in and was making a purchase at the lace
+counter.
+
+"I have been putting my new resolution into effect," she remarked after
+the first greetings; "I have just ordered my new hat, and it is not to
+have a bird or a wing or a tail on it."
+
+"Oh, I'm glad to hear of one convert to the gospel of mercy," said Mrs.
+Brown heartily.  "The apathy of our women on this subject is
+heart-sickening.  Men are denouncing us; the newspapers are full of our
+cruelty; the pulpit makes our heartlessness its theme; and yet we keep
+on with our barbarous work with an indifference that must make the
+angels weep."
+
+Her face glowed with righteous indignation.  It was easy to see that
+any cause to which she might commit herself was sure of an ardent and
+untiring champion.
+
+"But they tell me that chicken feathers, and those of other domestic
+fowls are being largely used now instead of birds," said the other lady.
+
+"Oh, yes; they tell us so because they want to prevent us from getting
+alarmed, since so much has been said against the destruction of the
+birds.  It is true that chicken feathers always have been used to some
+extent, the straight quills for instance.  I know it is frequently
+broadly asserted that the most of the birds used are made birds, but
+the manufactured creatures are poor deceptions; they are mixed with
+bird feathers, and are sold only to the less fastidious customers.  The
+demand for genuine birds is as great as ever."
+
+"But do you think as many are used now as formerly?" questioned her
+companion.
+
+"Yes, indeed!  Just think of the feather capes and muffs and
+collarettes made of birds.  The market for them is increasing all the
+time.  It takes from eighteen to twenty-five skins for each collar, and
+I don't know how many for the muffs.  Oh, I tell you, women are heaping
+up judgment on themselves."
+
+The other lady looked grave.  "I understand," said she, "that in many
+places down on the New Jersey coast the boatmen have given up fishing,
+as they can make so much more money killing terns and gulls for women's
+use.  They earn fifty dollars a week at it, at ten cents apiece for the
+birds.  Isn't that a horrible record for women?"
+
+"I don't doubt they earn that much, and perhaps more," answered Mrs.
+Brown; "for one season there were thirty thousand terns killed in one
+locality alone.  And at Cape Cod, and up along the shore near where I
+lived, they are slain by thousands every season and shipped to New
+York.  Oh, I can't tell you how distressing it used to be to hear the
+report of the guns day after day and know that every piercing sound was
+the sign that more innocent lives were being taken.  I used to cover up
+my ears and try not to hear them.  It made me shiver to know that those
+poor gulls were being shot down for nothing.  Their only crime
+consisted in being beautiful."
+
+Both women turned at that moment attracted by the sight of a young lady
+who was standing on the pavement outside in an animated talk with
+another girl.
+
+"There's Miss Van Dyke, with her new feather collar on," observed Mrs.
+Brown, in a low voice.
+
+The young lady in question was a dashing, radiant creature, bright with
+smiles and a face like a picture.  On her shapely shoulders was a
+magnificent cape, lustrous as satin, of silvery white, into which pale
+dark lines softly blended at regular intervals.  Twenty-two innocent
+lives had been taken to make that little garment.  Twenty-two beautiful
+grebes slain that their glossy breasts might lend splendor to a lady's
+wardrobe.
+
+The two friends looked at Miss Van Dyke in silence for a moment, then
+sighed as she passed along out of their view.
+
+"When I see such perversion of woman's nature I wonder that the very
+stones do not cry out against us," exclaimed Mrs. Brown.  "And mark my
+words, the slaughter will go on; the unholy traffic will not long be
+confined to grebe's breasts for muffs and cape trimmings.  Other birds
+will be used.  The gentle creatures are not all put on hats."
+
+"Oh!  I must not forget to tell you that the new preacher over at the
+Second Church has begun a course of lectures on the work of mercy that
+women might do.  He says that as mothers in the homes, and as teachers
+in the public schools and the Sabbath-schools, we have a grand
+opportunity."
+
+"So we have; but what avails our opportunity if our eyes are blinded so
+that we do not see it?" assented Mrs. Brown.
+
+"Last night," resumed the lady, "he spoke particularly of the crime of
+wearing birds; and he accuses us of being more cruel than men."
+
+"He does?" questioned Mrs. Brown, in great surprise.  "Why, we all know
+that woman's part in this wickedness comes from her desire to look
+pretty; at least she thinks that wearing birds adds to her beauty.  Her
+wickedness does not come from actual love of butchery.  But men and
+boys have shot innocent creatures since the world began for the mere
+brutal pleasure of killing something.  It seems as though they were
+born with a blood-thirsty instinct, a wanting to destroy life, to hunt
+it and shoot it down.  They beg to go gunning almost before they are
+out of dresses and into trousers.  Every mother knows there is a savage
+streak in her boy's nature.  No," continued Mrs. Brown, with a decisive
+nod of her head, "I say let the man who is without sin among them be
+the first to cast stones now.  Perhaps this very preacher spent all his
+Saturdays robbing birds' nests and clubbing birds when he was a little
+boy, and kept it up until he was big enough to kill them with a gun.
+Of course there are some who do not; not all boys are cruel.  But this
+cruelty does not excuse ours.  Man's wickedness does not make us the
+less guilty.  We will be held responsible all the same."
+
+The other woman looked thoughtful.  "Well," she said at last, "I
+haven't quite lost all faith in womanly mercy.  Women don't mean to be
+cruel; the trouble is they don't think."
+
+"Don't think!" echoed Mrs. Brown scornfully.  "Don't think!  That is an
+excuse entirely too babyish for women to offer in this age of the
+world.  Do they want to be regarded as irresponsible children forever?
+Don't you know that childish thoughtlessness on a subject as important
+as the needless taking of life argues tremendously against us?  Here we
+are at the twentieth century, and with all our boasted advancement we
+are as cruel and savage as Fiji Islanders.  Oh, don't talk to me about
+women!" and she made an outward motion of her hand as if pushing away
+an imaginary drove of them that was coming too near.  "I haven't a
+particle of patience with them.  If they're not in the habit of
+thinking, let them begin it right off.  Let them begin it before the
+birds are all destroyed.  If they have the least spark of tenderness
+left in their hearts------"
+
+The rest of the sentence was lost in the louder tones of a pert little
+miss, who in company with her mother was rummaging over a box of
+trimmings on the counter nearest my cage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE ILL-MANNERED CHILD
+
+  O wad some power the giftie gie us
+  To see oursel's as ithers see us.
+          --_Burns._
+
+  There lived of yore a saintly dame,
+  Whose wont it was with sweet accord
+  To do the bidding of her Lord
+  In quaintly fashioned bonnet
+  With simplest ribbons on it.
+
+
+"I won't have ribbon loops, I tell you," exclaimed the child.  "I want
+an owl's head and I'm going to have it."
+
+"Why, my dear, the ribbon is ever so much prettier," urged the mother
+soothingly.  "An owl's head is too old a trimming for your hat, dear.
+It wouldn't do at all.  Here, select some of this nice ribbon."
+
+"Didn't I say I wouldn't have it?" answered "dear" pettishly, as she
+reached into another box containing an assortment of wings, quails,
+tails, and parts of various birds jumbled up together.  Picking out a
+pair of blackbird's wings she placed them jauntily against the rim of
+an untrimmed hat which her mother held.
+
+"There, that looks nice," was her comment.  "If I can't have an owl's
+head I'm going to have these wings."
+
+Her mother mildly assured her that the ribbon was more suitable only to
+be met with the reply: "You can wear it yourself then, for I sha'n't
+wear it."
+
+This shocking disrespect caused two old ladies who were pricing hat
+pins to turn quickly and view the offender.
+
+"Goodness gracious!" ejaculated one of them, drawing a deep breath.
+"If that youngster belonged to me for about twenty minutes, wouldn't I
+give her something wholesome that she'd remember?  I'd take the
+tantrums out of her in short order."
+
+"She deserves it, sure," said her companion.  "But the mother is more
+to blame than the child for letting it grow up with such abominable
+manners.  I dare say the woman at first thought it was cute and smart
+in the little thing, and now she can't help herself.  La, sakes! just
+listen to that."  She re-adjusted her spectacles and gazed with added
+interest at the pair in altercation.
+
+With the hat poised on her finger the milliner was bending smilingly
+toward the little girl who was giving her order in a very peremptory
+tone.
+
+"I want those wings put on my hat.  I won't wear it if you trim it only
+in ribbon."
+
+The mother seemed a little embarrassed as she told the milliner that
+she supposed the hat would have to be trimmed in the way Elsie wanted
+it.
+
+"Humph!  I knew the child would get what she wanted," observed the old
+lady who had first spoken.  "I felt all the time that the mother would
+have to give in.  What on earth did she let her take those big black
+wings for?  Two of those little yellow sugar birds would have been
+better for a child's hat.  The idea of letting a youngster rule you
+that way!  My!" and then she took another deep breath.  "She needs a
+trouncing, if ever a child did," and with that she and her friend
+resumed their shopping.
+
+The cloud had vanished from Elsie's face, and all was serene again.
+Her mother seemed somewhat ashamed of her little girl's bad manners, as
+was shown by her apologetic air when she observed to the trimmer that
+Elsie was as queer a child as ever lived.  When she set her mind on a
+thing, it was so hard for her to give it up.
+
+They waited for the new hat to be trimmed, and on its completion Elsie
+seized it and put it on her head, much against her mother's wishes, who
+preferred not to have it displayed until the next day at Sunday-school;
+but the insistence of the child was so vehement that again the mother
+thought it wise to yield, and Elsie tripped off in triumph to the other
+end of the store with the black wings showing out stiffly on each side
+of her head.  The mother remarked, with forced playfulness, as she
+watched her, "Elsie's a g-r-e-a-t girl, I tell you.  You can't fool
+her."
+
+[Illustration: The Baltimore Oriole.]
+
+As the trimmer returned the boxes to the shelves, I overheard her
+mutter, "Oh, yes, Elsie is a g-r-e-a-t girl, a perfect little jewel, so
+well-behaved.  Her polite manners show her careful home training; quite
+a reflection on her dear mamma."  But from the peculiar laugh she gave
+I didn't believe she really meant it as praise.
+
+When the nights grew longer and the store was closed for the evening,
+the milliner and her husband usually spent an hour or two in the back
+room looking over the newspaper which came every day from the city.
+The man always turned at once to the wheat reports, and the price of
+wool, which he read aloud to his wife, though I could see she did not
+care very much to hear about them; but she hunted first for the fashion
+notes and the bargains in millinery before she read the other news.
+One night while thus engaged she suddenly exclaimed:
+
+"Here's something that is bound to hurt trade."
+
+By trade she meant the millinery business.
+
+"What is it?" her husband inquired, looking over the top of the page he
+held.
+
+"Why, here's a lot of women who have been meeting in a convention in
+Chicago and getting excited and losing their heads, and passing some
+ridiculous resolutions."
+
+"What kind of resolutions?" he inquired.
+
+"Oh, they've been denouncing the fashion of wearing birds.  They belong
+to a society called--called--something or other, I forget what.  Let me
+see," and she ran her eye down the column.  "Oh, yes, here it is.  They
+are members of the O'Dobbin society, and they got so wrought up on the
+subject they took the feathers out of their hats right there in the
+meeting and vowed never to wear bird trimming again.  Well, if such
+outlandish notions spread, you'll soon see how it will injure the
+millinery trade."
+
+"Pshaw! you needn't worry.  The protests of a handful of fanatical
+women can't do your business any harm," he answered carelessly, and
+turned to his paper again.
+
+She shook her head.  "I'm not so sure of that.  I think there are some
+women in this very town just cranky enough to endorse such foolishness.
+There's Mrs. Judge Jenkins for one.  I've never yet been able to sell
+her a real stylish hat.  She won't wear birds, because she thinks it's
+wicked.  I hope to goodness she won't consider it her duty to start an
+O'Dobbin society here."
+
+From the depths of my heart I blessed those kind women who had shown
+their disapproval of the nefarious traffic in bird life, and had
+pledged themselves to our protection.  True, they were but a handful
+compared with the millions whom the god Fashion still held in bondage,
+only a handful who were fighting the good fight; but would not the
+influence of their noble example and their pledge of mercy be spread
+abroad till all the women in Christian lands would join in the crusade
+against the wrong?
+
+In my joy at the thought I chirped so loudly that the lady looked up
+from her reading.  She seemed suddenly to recall a thought as she
+glanced at my cage, for she said, "I must not forget to ask Katharine
+if she can take the bird home with her next week and keep it while
+Polly is gone to the country.  I'll be sure to forget to feed it.
+Anyway, I haven't time to bother with it."
+
+The day before Polly left for the country I heard her inquiring for the
+"Daily," which I remembered was the name they called the newspaper
+containing the account of the noble city ladies who had pledged
+themselves not to wear us any more.
+
+"Tuesday's paper?" her mother asked; she was busy at the time fastening
+a poor, little, mute swallow on a rich hat.  "Perhaps it was thrown
+behind the counter.  Did you want it for any special purpose?"
+
+Polly replied that she wanted to read something in it.
+
+"Well, it is probably torn up by this time," said her mother.  "If it
+isn't on the table in the back room, or on the shelf by the window, or
+behind the counter, I'm sure I don't know where it is."
+
+The young clerk who was arranging the goods on the counter had heard
+Polly's inquiry, and she now asked if it was the newspaper that told
+about the women who thought it wrong to wear birds.  It seemed to me
+that Polly hesitated a little as she replied that that was the very
+paper she wanted.
+
+"Goodness, child, is that the piece you want to read?"  Her mother's
+voice sounded rather sharp, as if she were vexed.  "I hope that subject
+hasn't turned your head too," but she said no more, for just then a
+customer coming in, she laid down her work and went forward to greet
+her.
+
+Polly looked troubled, but she confided to Miss Katharine that she
+wanted very much to read the account.
+
+"Fortunately I cut the piece out to give to my sister.  I knew she'd be
+interested in it, but I have always forgotten to give it to her," said
+the clerk.  She seemed to be very much in earnest as she continued, "I
+do wish something could be done to save the birds.  If women must have
+feathers, why can't they content themselves with wearing ostrich tips
+and plumes?  There is nothing cruel or wicked in the way they are
+procured."
+
+She opened the little satchel hanging at her belt, and from it took a
+folded slip of paper which she handed to Polly, telling her she might
+have it to read, and when she had finished it to please bring it back
+to her.  Polly thanked her, and ran away to a quiet corner of the back
+room, where I saw her slowly reading the clipping as she rocked herself
+in her pretty birch chair.  When she had read it through, she sat for
+some time looking very thoughtful.  At last she rose and carried the
+paper back to Miss Katharine, halting a moment as she passed my cage,
+to whisper softly:
+
+"Dickey Downy, you dear little fellow, I'm going upstairs right this
+very minute to take the feathers off my best Sunday hat and I'm never,
+never going to wear birds any more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+TWO SLAVES OF FASHION
+
+  I do not like the fashion of your garments.
+          --_Shakespeare._
+
+  I'm sure thou hast a cruel nature and a bloody.
+          --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+Two young ladies, fashionably dressed, met each other that afternoon
+just in front of our side window, which had been raised to let in the
+air.  From the warmth of their greeting I saw that they were on terms
+of friendly intimacy.
+
+One of the girls stood a little out of the range of my vision,
+therefore I could not hear her voice when she talked, if, indeed, she
+had a chance to say anything, but the vivacious monologue carried on by
+her friend was amply sufficient to show the theme which interested them.
+
+How glibly that pretty creature chattered!  How fast the words flew!
+How she arched her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders and winked her
+eyes and wrinkled her forehead and pursed her rosy lips and tilted her
+nose and gesticulated with her slender hand and tapped the pavement
+with her umbrella point, passing from each phase of expression to the
+next with a rapidity truly wonderful.  Occasionally she went through
+with these strange grimaces all at once.  She was indeed a whirlwind of
+language, an avalanche of emotion.
+
+Her voice was high pitched and shrill, so that every one on the street
+must have heard her as she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Nell, how perfectly lovely your new hat is!  Turn around so that I
+can see the other side.  Oh-h, ah-h, that darling little bird with its
+glossy plumage among the velvet is too sweet for anything!  If anything
+it is prettier than Kate Smith's hat with the thrush's head and wings,
+although I'll admit hers is awfully stylish.  You ought to see my new
+hat.  Ah, I tell you it's a beauty; soft crown of silvery stuff, and on
+one side a tall aigrette and a dear little cedar-bird, and toward the
+back is the cutest, cunningest humming-bird with its tiny green body
+and long bill.  It looks as if it were ready to fly or to sing.  I
+selected the trimming for sister May's new hat too.  It is brown velvet
+and has an oriole on it; you know they are so showy and bright it makes
+you almost think you are in the woods.  At Madame Oiseau Mort's, where
+I get my millinery, there was another hat I had a notion to take.  It
+was built up with robins' wings and part of a tern was on it too, I
+believe--just lovely! but afterward I was glad I didn't buy it, for
+that decoration is more common.  I counted nine hats in church last
+Sunday trimmed with gulls.  Of course they were pretty, for a handsome
+bird makes any hat pretty.
+
+"By the way, Nell, I must tell you something perfectly ridiculous!  Do
+you know papa pretends it's wicked for women to wear birds on their
+hats or trim their gowns with feather trimming?  Did you ever?  I told
+him we'd be a mighty sorry-looking set going around like a lot of
+female Dunkards or Salvation Army women, without a bit of style, and he
+said those women hadn't the sin on their souls of wearing birds that
+had been killed on purpose to minister to their vanity; that he'd
+rather be a peaceful-faced Dunkard woman or Salvationist with her plain
+bonnet and her gentle heart than a gay society butterfly with her empty
+head loaded down with dead birds.
+
+"Isn't it perfectly horrid for him to talk like that?  He is such an
+old fogy in his ideas he actually makes me tired.  Then he went on to
+say that never again could he believe that women are the tender-hearted
+creatures they have always been supposed to be, when they show
+themselves so eager to be decked with the innocent songsters whose
+lives are sacrificed by the million on the altar of fashion; the men
+have always been taught that woman's nature was morally superior to
+theirs, but we'd have to give up this criminal fad which we have
+persisted in at such a fearful price of bird life before we could be
+regarded as other than monstrously cruel and bloody.  However, he
+prophesied that the fashion can't continue much longer anyway, because
+there soon won't be any birds left, and then, he says, we'll have a
+world without its sweetest music.  It will be hushed by the folly of
+woman.
+
+"Oh, Nell, don't you dislike to have anybody lecture you like that?  It
+makes one feel so uncomfortable.  I don't suppose it's so very wrong to
+wear bird trimming or our minister's wife wouldn't do it.  You know her
+black velvet hat with that big bird on it with the red points on the
+wings, is one of the most striking hats that come to church.  And her
+feather muff is so elegant, awfully expensive too.  And what would her
+hat look like without that bird on it, I'd like to know?  So if it
+isn't wicked for her it isn't wicked for us, Nell, and I'm not going to
+give up looking nice just to please papa.  He'd like to have me dress
+as antiquated as old Mrs. Noah when she came out of the ark, but I'm
+not going to encourage him in his old-fashioned notions.  And here,
+Nell, just listen to this!  Don't you think, he says the Episcopal
+Prayer Book ought to be revised for the women worshipers and omit that
+part of the litany where it says, 'From pride, vain-glory, and
+hypocrisy, good Lord, deliver us.'  What fol-de-rol!"  And being out of
+breath she stopped talking and they walked away down the street
+together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+DICKEY'S VISIT
+
+  Kind hearts are more than coronets.
+          --_Tennyson._
+
+
+Plainly furnished and small was the house to which I was taken by Miss
+Katharine to stay during Polly's absence at her grandmother's in the
+country.  But though it was destitute of fine furnishings, it was the
+abode of peace and love, and its lowly roof sheltered noble and kindly
+hearts.  The two sisters lived there alone, supported mainly by
+Katharine's earnings in the millinery store, though occasionally the
+sister, who was lame, added something to their little income by making
+paper flowers and other articles of bright tissues.  It was her
+business to keep the house while Miss Katharine was at the shop, and
+very long and lonely the hours must have seemed to her while her sister
+was away.
+
+The first day I was there a boy whom she addressed as John Charles came
+to the house.  Apparently he had been carefully trained, for he raised
+his cap when the lame girl opened the door to his knock.  His manners
+were fine, for he remained standing after he entered until she had
+first seated herself, as if to say, "A gentleman will not sit while a
+lady stands."
+
+He had come to inquire if she wished to buy some cooking apples.
+
+"They are very nice," said John Charles briskly, quite as if he were an
+old salesman.  "No mashed or decayed ones among them."
+
+"I have been wanting some apples," said Eliza.  "If I knew what yours
+were like I might buy some."
+
+"I have a few here to show," and John Charles drew from a small paper
+sack one or two bright rosy apples.  "There, try one," he said.  "You
+will find them nice and juicy and sour enough to cook quickly."
+
+Eliza bit into one and expressed her approval of the fruit.  "They will
+make delicious apple-sauce, I'm sure," she said.  After inquiring the
+price she told the young merchant he might carry in a peck.
+
+With a business-like flourish John Charles took a small note-book and
+pencil from his pocket and wrote something at the top of the leaf.
+
+"I'm not delivering now," he said as he returned the note-book to his
+pocket.  "I'm only taking orders; but I'll have your apples here in an
+hour."
+
+Eliza bit her lip to keep back a smile.  A boy in knee pants
+transacting business like a grown man, appeared quite amusing to her.
+
+"Oh, I see," she said.  "You take orders for your goods.  You don't
+sell from door to door."
+
+"No, indeed!" answered John Charles with a lofty air.  "That's too much
+like peddling.  I won't peddle.  I prefer to get regular customers and
+take orders and fill them."
+
+While he had been talking he had been glancing toward me where I hung
+in the window, and he now politely asked if he might come to look at
+me.  Eliza gave a surprised consent, but watched the boy closely as he
+stood near and chirped to me calling me, "Po-o-o-r Dickey Downy," as
+soon as he found out my name.  I saw from the way Eliza kept her eyes
+on his movements that she was expecting he would do something to hurt
+me, but in this she was pleasantly disappointed, for he never once
+touched my cage and cooed as softly when he spoke to me as Polly
+herself might have done.
+
+I was quite afraid of him at first, for ever since my experience with
+the wicked schoolboys who clubbed us in the linden trees, and my later
+experience with Joe, I disliked boys very much.
+
+[Illustration: The Bobolink.]
+
+When John Charles had bidden Eliza "good-morning" and tipped his hat
+again and the door closed after him, she said to me: "Why, Dickey, that
+was a new kind of a boy!  He never once tried to hurt you or to scare
+you.  It shows that all boys are not rough, and I shall always like
+John Charles, for he is a little gentleman."
+
+To this sentiment I fully agreed, and I thought, "Alas! why are not all
+boys as gentle as John Charles?"
+
+In a few hours I felt as much at home with Eliza as if I had always
+lived there, and I was much pleased when I heard her tell Katharine at
+the supper table the next evening how much she had enjoyed having me
+with her.
+
+"A bird is ever so much better company than a clock," she said; "though
+when I'm here by myself I always like to hear the clock tick.  It seems
+as if I were not so entirely alone.  But a bird is better.  I talked to
+Dickey to-day and he twittered back.  He has such a cute way of perking
+his little head to one side just as knowing as you please, and he acts
+exactly as if he were considering whether he should answer 'yes' or
+no' to what I say, and then it is such fun to watch him smooth down his
+feathers.  He washes and irons them so nicely and works away as
+industriously as if he were afraid he'd lose his 'job.'"
+
+Miss Katharine rose from the table and stuck a lump of sugar for me to
+taste between the wires of my cage.
+
+"I am surrounded by poor dead birds in the store all day," she
+observed, "and spend so much of my time sewing their wings and heads
+and tails on hats and sort boxfuls of them for customers to look at,
+that even a living bird saddens me."
+
+"Yes, it must be very depressing.  What a shame to kill them; they are
+so cute and pretty and such happy little creatures!  See how cunning he
+looks nibbling at that sugar," and the sister joined Miss Katharine in
+watching me.
+
+"But do you know, Kathy, I don't believe that women would continue
+wearing bird trimmings if they stopped a minute to think about it.  It
+doesn't seem wrong to them because they never considered the question.
+They simply haven't thought about it at all."
+
+"Somebody set the fashion and they all followed like a flock of sheep,"
+answered the other with a sneering laugh.
+
+"Yes, that's just the way.  They go along without thinking.  They only
+know it is the style, and they don't stop to inquire whether it can be
+indulged in innocently or hurtfully.  Now I believe that if their
+attention was particularly called to it, the most of them would quit
+it."
+
+Miss Katharine brightened into a smile and half unclasped her little
+satchel.
+
+"If a bird could talk," pursued the lame girl, "what a revelation it
+could make.  What lovely things it could tell us of that upper kingdom
+of the air where it floats and the distant land it sees!  What sweet
+secrets of nature it knows that man with all his wisdom can never find
+out.  And then its gift of song!  Why, if thousands and thousands of
+dollars were spent in training the finest voice in the world it could
+never equal the notes of a bird.  A woman who could perfectly imitate a
+lark's carol would make her fortune in a month.  The world would go
+wild over her."
+
+"But as she can't do that she has the lark killed to stick on her hat,
+and then she goes wild over it," interrupted Miss Kathy.
+
+Her sister smiled at this outburst and continued: "While I was working
+at that morning-glory wreath to-day I couldn't help but watch this bird
+of Polly's with its innocent little antics, and it made me see more
+than ever how wrong it is to cage and kill them.  I just felt as though
+I ought to do something to help save the birds and, Kathy, I wonder if
+we were to invite some of our friends here some evening and call their
+attention to the subject, and explain the wrong to them, if we couldn't
+do some good that way?  Maybe they'd decide not to wear birds on their
+hats."
+
+"We might try, sister, I would be perfectly willing to try; but I'm
+afraid it wouldn't do much good, for we have but little influence.  As
+long as fashionable and wealthy ladies will do it, the poorer classes
+will not give it up very readily."
+
+"But they have hearts which can be appealed to.  They have feelings
+which can be roused," answered the lame girl eagerly.  "Being alone so
+much I have more time to think over these things than the shop girls
+who are hurried and busy all day, and perhaps nobody has ever tried to
+show them how wrong it is; but I really believe some of them could be
+influenced, if once they would seriously think of the wrong they are
+doing.  That is the reason, Kathy, I suggested to get a lot of them
+together to talk about saving the birds."
+
+The gentle cripple had never even heard of the great Audubon.  She did
+not know that societies existed in many States called by the name of
+the distinguished naturalist, engaged in the same merciful work.
+
+Miss Katharine drew from the satchel the paper clipping and handed it
+to her sister, saying: "This is a coincidence surely; I cut this out of
+the daily paper at the store some time ago, intending to give it to
+you, but I always forgot it.  It is an account of the proceedings of a
+convention in one of the big cities.  You will see by reading it that
+somebody else has been thinking your identical thoughts."
+
+"How lovely that is!" exclaimed Eliza when she had carefully read the
+notice.  "How I should have enjoyed being at that meeting.  We will
+help those people all we can, Kathy, by stirring up our acquaintances
+here.  You invite the girls for tomorrow night and I'll have the house
+ready for them."
+
+That I had been an inspiration to this gentle girl in her work of mercy
+was a great joy to me, and all the next day I was constantly bursting
+into a round of cheerful twitters and I swung myself in my hoop as fast
+as I could make it go.
+
+The best room was swept and dusted with the greatest care, and a few
+extra chairs moved in from other parts of the house.  My cage was
+transferred from its usual hook to the parlor, and about eight o'clock
+the guests thronged in and soon every seat was filled.  They were
+principally girls who were clerks in stores, or worked in shops and
+offices, and many of them were very smartly dressed.  A few, like Miss
+Katharine and her sister, were more plainly attired; but all were
+lively and full of girlish fun and seemed to enjoy being together.  My
+cage hung in view of every one, and I was proud to be selected as an
+object-lesson by the lame hostess in her introductory appeal to her
+guests to help save the birds.  She so presented the facts that before
+the evening was over she had roused an enthusiasm in some of them
+almost equal to her own, and several pledges were given not to wear
+birds again.
+
+"There is something new in the way of womanly cruelty which isn't so
+well known as the destruction of the birds," remarked one of the
+company.  "The humane society ought to get after the women who wear
+baby lamb trimming."
+
+"The way sealskins are procured is also very cruel," said another girl.
+
+"I have never read much about it," answered Eliza, "but it surely
+cannot be so wicked as killing song birds, because the sealskin is an
+article of clothing which serves to keep the body warm, while a dead
+bird sewed on your hat is merely for show and doesn't keep you warm or
+cool or anything else."
+
+"It is not the use that is made of the sealskin that is wrong, but the
+cruelty of the hunters in getting it," replied the young lady who had
+first spoken.  "They say when the parent seal is captured the young one
+cries for it exactly as a human baby cries after its mother.  It is
+most pitiful to hear it wail.  The branding of the poor creatures is a
+most brutal thing."
+
+"Why are they branded?" asked Kathy.
+
+"Well, you know, for some years there has been a great strife between
+the United States and Canada, principally over the seal fisheries.
+Each was afraid the other would get more than its share.  To put a stop
+to the seals being entirely killed off, as was likely to be the case
+since so many poachers were in the business, one of our government
+agents suggested that the seals should be branded.  They drive them
+into pens and burn them with red-hot irons."
+
+"It isn't likely that any of us will be called upon to deny ourselves
+the wearing of baby lamb, as it is quite expensive, but we can condemn
+it by word if not by example," observed Kathy.
+
+The good-nights were said and the company dispersed, not so jolly and
+noisy as they came, but with thoughtfulness arising from awakened
+consciences.  The humble lame girl had sowed the good seed.
+
+Polly was to come back from her grandmother's the next week and, though
+I looked forward with pleasure to being with her again, I felt sorry to
+leave this peaceful home.  The worthy lives and beautiful aims of these
+obscure girls of whom the world knew nothing was a sweet remembrance to
+carry with me.
+
+"Thank Polly for me for Dickey Downy's visit and tell her whenever she
+wants to go away anywhere I'll be glad to take care of him for her,"
+Eliza said when the time came for me to go.
+
+She gave the cage into Miss Kathy's hand.  I chirped a farewell to her
+and she whistled back to me and we parted to see each other no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE COUNTRY SCHOOL
+
+  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
+          --_Bible._
+
+
+Polly's welcome to me was most cordial.  She was bright as a cricket
+and full of chat about her visit.  With her usual care she examined my
+cage closely to see that everything was in order and petted and praised
+me for a little while to my full content, then ran to Miss Kathy to
+tell her of the new story book which had been presented to her while
+away.
+
+"And I am going to read you the stories some day," she added.
+
+Her young playmates flocked in to see her and as I listened to their
+glad voices my heart yearned more than ever for my comrades of the
+woods, for a thought of spring was in the air.
+
+As the days went by there were indeed signs all around that spring was
+on the way.  The wind no longer bellowed hoarsely in the treetops, but
+had a mellow, musical sound and the raindrops that struck the window
+pane trickled softly as if glad to come out of the clouds.
+
+Just after school one bright afternoon Polly came to the door on the
+side porch and called in to Miss Katharine:
+
+"I'll be playing out in the yard awhile.  Louise and Nancy have come to
+stay till half-past five o'clock, so if mother needs me you'll know
+where to find me."
+
+"All right" said Miss Kathy.  "Go on and have a jolly time."
+
+And a jolly time they had, judging from the merry shouts that came in
+through the open door.
+
+"I've got your tag!  I've got your tag!" I could hear Polly say, and
+then there was a great scampering of feet and roars of laughter as they
+chased each other up and down the walks.  This was kept up for some
+minutes, then a voice began:
+
+  "Intery-mintery, cutery-corn,
+  Apple-seed and briar-thorn,
+  Wire, briar, limber-lock,
+  Three geese in one flock;
+  One flew east and one flew west
+  And one flew over the cuckoo's nest."
+
+"Oh, Louise, you're out!  It's your turn first."
+
+"I wonder if we are the geese?" said Nancy.  Then they all giggled as
+if what she had said was very funny.
+
+"Louise, Louise, look, look!  You're going to have good luck,"
+presently shouted two voices.  "A ladybird has lighted on your
+shoulder."
+
+"Oh, goody!" said Louise.  "I wonder what my good luck is going to be?"
+
+"Shake it off, Louise, let it light on me," said Nancy.  "I want good
+luck to come to me too."
+
+"It is just the color of my new crimson dress," declared Polly.
+
+"Only your red dress hasn't spots on it," corrected Louise.
+
+"No, but the red is about the same shade as my dress.  Oh, girls,
+wouldn't a row of ladybirds for buttons be pretty on my waist?"
+
+At this quaint conceit the three girls all giggled again.
+
+"I do think they are the cutest little bugs.  I never get tired of
+looking at them," observed Polly.
+
+"Bugs?  You wouldn't call them bugs, would you?" inquired Louise.  "I
+think they are little beetles."
+
+"Beetles?  No, no," said Polly and Nancy both in one breath,  "A beetle
+is a big black thing that flies around only at dusk."
+
+"Do you suppose your father would know?" asked Louise of Polly.  "Let's
+take it in the house and ask him, and so settle whether it is bug or
+beetle."
+
+And they came running into the sitting room behind the store to show
+the lady-bird to Polly's father, who was there looking over his paper.
+
+"Is it a bug or a beetle?" they asked.
+
+He laid down the paper and looked at the pretty little insect a moment.
+
+"It is a ladybird."
+
+"Yes, of course, we know that, papa; but Nancy and I say it is a bug,
+and Louise says it's a beetle," explained Polly.
+
+"Louise is right," was his reply.  "It is classed as a beetle.  It is
+one of the best friends the farmer has, and the fruit grower too."
+
+"How is it useful to him?" asked Nancy.
+
+"Why, it eats the lice that spoil certain plants and leaves and grain.
+I notice that the Australian government is--Do you girls know where
+Australia is?" he asked, interrupting himself.
+
+"Of course we do," they all shouted with much laughing, as if it were a
+great joke to ask them such a question.
+
+"Well, I was going to tell you that the Australian government is taking
+steps to encourage the ladybird on purpose to help the fruit farmers of
+that country.  Perhaps they have heard that it brings good luck," he
+added with a smile.
+
+"Let's show it to Dickey Downy and then put it out of the door and let
+it go home," said Polly.
+
+"Dickey Downy wouldn't know a lady-bird from a grasshopper," answered
+Nancy teasingly.
+
+Polly retorted, "Don't be too sure!  Dickey is a very intelligent bird,
+a very extraordinary bird."
+
+She contented herself with paying me compliments, for instead of
+bringing the crimson beetle into the store she opened the window and
+let him fly away.
+
+"Well, I'm glad I have learned something new about ladybirds," remarked
+Louise, as she tied her hat strings ready to go home.
+
+"And I too," chimed in Nancy.  "I am glad the Australians prize the
+pretty little creatures.  It's nice to be useful and handsome too."
+
+Then both girls said good-bye and ran home.
+
+A few days later Polly announced to Miss Kathy that she was ready to
+read the long promised tale.
+
+"Mother says you will be in the back room sewing this afternoon, so I
+will bring my little rocker and sit here and read to you.  My book is
+full of beautiful stories about children and birds and bees."
+
+I too anticipated a pleasant afternoon, for my cage still hung within
+the doorway where I could hear and see all that took place in both
+apartments.  Soon after dinner Miss Kathy appeared in the back room
+with her thimble and scissors and seated herself at the work-table.
+Polly drew up her chair beside her.  The book she held was a pretty
+little affair bound in red with a silver inscription on the covers, and
+after being duly admired by both, Polly opened it and selected the
+following story, which she read aloud:
+
+
+    THE MOUNT AIRY SCHOOL.
+
+The breath of blossoms was in the air and spicy scents from the woods
+that lined the lane on each side came floating to the delighted senses
+of a little girl who drove slowly along the road leading to Mount Airy
+School.
+
+Young horses frisked in the pastures or came whinnying to the fence as
+she passed.  Lazy cows cropped the grass at the sides of the road,
+pushing their heads into the zigzag corners of the rail fence in
+pursuit of the tender clover that had crept through from the thrifty
+meadows.
+
+The school was a little brick structure standing back a short distance
+from the road, with a playground on each side as enchantingly beautiful
+as it was novel to Alice Glenn, the little girl who had come from town
+by invitation of the teacher to visit the school.  Accustomed to the
+severer discipline of the graded school of which she was a member, the
+unconventional ways of these children amused the young visitor greatly.
+But who could study on a morning like this, with the delicious warbling
+of the birds sounding in one's ears?
+
+Who could be expected to take an interest in nouns and adverbs while
+his heart was out in the woods with the bugs and bees or with the sheep
+over in yonder field, whose ba-a, ba-a, was borne in distinctly through
+the open door?
+
+"I'm sure I would never have my lessons if I went to school here in the
+summer time," thought Alice as she glanced over the room.  "The country
+is too lovely to be spoiled by school books.  Why, that boy has a
+wounded bird in his desk!  I wonder if Miss Harper knows?"  And a
+moment after, Alice met the bold, defiant look of the boy himself,
+which seemed to say, "Well, what are you going to do about it?  That
+bird belongs to me."
+
+The history class being called at this moment the big boy got up,
+shoved the little creature to the farthest corner of his desk and
+giving Alice a parting scowl, went forward to recite his lesson.
+Notwithstanding her desire to befriend the feathered captive she soon
+became interested in the class and could scarcely refrain from laughing
+outright at the answer to the teacher's question, "What happened at
+Bunker Hill?"
+
+"Old Bunker died."
+
+This was bawled out by a freckled-faced boy, who reminded her of a
+rabbit, owing to a fashion he had of twitching his nose and keeping it
+in motion in some mysterious way.  Even the teacher wanted to laugh,
+but assuming her sternest manner she speedily restored order.
+
+It was during the arithmetic lesson that Alice's heart went out in pity
+for the youthful instructor.  The majority of the pupils were bright;
+but an unruly fraction, one child, refused to comprehend.
+
+"If a family consume a barrel of flour in nine weeks, what part of a
+barrel will they use in one week, Matilda?"
+
+Matilda rolled her blue eyes up to the ceiling as if to find the answer
+there, then studied a board in the floor for several minutes, then
+slowly shook her head and sat down.  A dozen hands were raised, and the
+teacher nodded permission to a small boy who analyzed it successfully.
+
+"Now, Matilda, you try it."
+
+But Matilda shook her head and fidgeted with her apron string.
+
+"Try it, and we will help you," persisted the teacher.
+
+Thus urged, Matilda cleared her throat, folded her arms and began: "If
+nine persons use a barrel of flour in nine weeks, in one week they
+would use nine times nine, which is eighty-one."
+
+"What! eighty-one barrels?  But, Matilda, it makes no difference about
+the number of persons.  It may be one hundred or it may be twenty.
+Suppose it were a bushel of potatoes they consumed in nine weeks.  How
+many would they use in one week?"
+
+The girl again shook her head and resumed her upward gaze.
+
+"Would they not use one-ninth of a bushel?  Or, we'll take a peach for
+instance."
+
+Matilda's face brightened perceptibly and almost lost its look of
+dejection.  The teacher noted the change and smiled encouragingly as
+she said:
+
+"We'll suppose a peach will last you nine days.  What part of it will
+you eat in one day?"
+
+The expectant look faded out of the poor girl's face.  One peach to
+last nine days!  No wonder the question seemed impossible of solution.
+
+"Well, then," said Miss Harper quite in despair and almost perspiring
+in her effort to make it plain to the child, "we'll let the peach go.
+Suppose instead, it were a watermelon.  If you ate a carload of
+watermelons in nine days, what part of a carload would you eat in one
+day?"
+
+At the mention of her favorite fruit, Matilda's eyes glistened, her
+features relaxed into a broader smile, and almost before the teacher
+had finished she had her answer ready and gave a correct analysis.
+Watermelons had won.
+
+At last the little clock that ticked away the hours on the teacher's
+table pointed to the time for the noon intermission, and with a whoop
+and halloo almost deafening, the pupils rushed out with dinner pails
+and baskets to eat their luncheon in the shady woods.
+
+Miss Harper led Alice away to her boarding-place across the fields.
+Scarcely taking time to taste the different kinds of jams, jellies,
+grape-butter, and other sauces set out by the hostess in special honor
+of the young visitor, Alice hastily dispatched her dinner and was soon
+back at the playground, where she found a bevy of girls seated on a big
+grapevine which one of the larger girls was swinging backward and
+forward amid shouts of glee.  Nearby two gingham sunbonnets bobbed up
+and down as their owners bent their heads to watch a speckled lady-bug
+crawl up a twig.
+
+  "Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home,
+  Your house is on fire, your children will roam,"
+
+repeated Esther in a low monotone.
+
+"See, it's going now.  I wonder whether it really understands us?"
+
+"Of course it does," replied her companion positively.
+"Daddy-long-legs are real smart too.  I caught one last night and I
+said over three times, 'Tell me which way our cow goes or I will kill
+you,' and it pointed in the direction of our pasture lot every time."
+
+"You wouldn't really have killed the poor thing, though," exclaimed
+Alice, who had drawn near to look at the crimson lady-bug.  "A
+daddy-long-legs is such a harmless creature.  It has a right to live as
+well as we have."
+
+"Oh, Caleb, did you catch it?" interrupted Matilda.  "Bring it here!"
+and she beckoned to a small boy who was busy near a large beech tree
+some distance away.  "He's been after a tree-frog," she explained.
+"There's one up in that tree that sings the cutest every evening and
+morning.  I hear him when I am gathering bluebells."
+
+"It's pretty near dead," said the boy bringing his trophy.  "I guess I
+squeezed it too hard.  We might as well kill it."
+
+"No, no! that would be cruel; the poor little thing will soon be all
+right if you put it back on its tree.  We'll go with you and help you
+put it up," replied Alice.  "Come on, girls."
+
+"It ain't hardly worth the trouble," and the boy looked at the frog
+disdainfully.  "It's uglier than a toad, if anything.  But I never kill
+toads; I know better'n to do that."
+
+"I am glad to hear it," said the visitor from town as they turned
+toward the elm tree.  "Toads enjoy life and it's wicked to molest 'em."
+
+"Oh, I don't know about their enjoyin' life.  The reason I let 'em
+alone is, coz if you kill a toad, your cow'll give bad milk."
+
+Alice did not dispute this wise statement.  She could not help wishing
+that the same law of retaliation protected all birds, beasts, and
+insects.
+
+After seeing the frog deposited in safety in a hole in one of the big
+boughs, she with Matilda and Esther scampered back to the swing
+expecting to find the others there.  To their surprise the big
+grapevine was unoccupied, and the shouts and screams issuing from the
+schoolhouse led them too, to hurry on to see what was the matter.
+
+"Maybe Jim Stubbs has got a mus'rat, or somethin' in there a-scarin'
+the children," suggested Esther, as they entered the door.
+
+A crowd had gathered in front of the teacher's desk on which was placed
+the large dictionary, and seated on the book was the boy who winked
+with his nose.
+
+"Stand back!" he called, "I'm going to let it out, and then you'll see
+fun."
+
+With that he jumped down, removed the dictionary, raised the lid of the
+desk, and out popped a red squirrel.  Round and round over the floor
+flew the frightened animal, dodging here and there and wildly darting
+into corners to evade the books and other missiles that were thrown at
+it.  Not only the boys took a part in the cruel sport, but some of the
+girls helped with sticks, sunbonnets, and whatever they could lay their
+hands on.  Two or three times the little creature was struck.  At last,
+helpless, it stood panting while one of its tormentors dealt it a blow
+that killed it.
+
+A cry of protest broke from Alice's lips, but her voice was lost in the
+roar of applause that followed the big boy's action, as he tossed the
+lifeless squirrel across the room into the face of another boy, who in
+turn pitched the animal at his neighbor.
+
+"The poor little creature!  How could they abuse it and take its life?"
+cried Alice, turning to those nearest her.  The other girls shrank back
+abashed at her reproachful tones, which were noticed by Jim Stubbs, and
+that hero felt called upon to make a speech.
+
+"Bah! boys, that girl is getting ready to cry over a dead squirrel.
+What d'ye think of that?"  And a heartless chorus echoed his laughter.
+
+"No, I'm too indignant to cry," replied Alice with spirit.  "I never
+knew boys could be so awfully wicked, yes, and girls too.  I should
+think you would love these dear little creatures, and pet and protect
+them.  They are what make country life pleasant.  I wouldn't give a fig
+for your pretty woods if there were no living things to be seen there."
+
+This was an aspect of the situation the boys had never before
+considered.  They did not realize that to a lover of nature the
+humblest form of animal life is interesting.  Did other people really
+prize squirrels and frogs and lightning bugs and such things?
+
+Just at this moment the teacher entered, and the crestfallen pupils
+busied themselves in gathering up the scattered books and other
+articles used in storming the squirrel.
+
+"My young visitor is quite shocked by such an exhibition of cruelty,"
+said Miss Harper, when she had learned how matters stood.  "Think what
+the woods would be without the song of birds and the chirp and hum of
+insects.  Your playground teems with happy beings that love the warmth
+and sunlight as well as you do.  Would not the forests be robbed of
+half their beauty and interest if the squirrels and chipmunks and birds
+and butterflies were killed off?"
+
+"Wimmen folks are nice ones to talk about cruelty to birds," sneered
+the big boy to his neighbor, "when they stick wings and tails and whole
+birds on their hats and bonnets whenever they can raise a cent to buy
+'em with.  Oh, yes, wimmen are awful consistent!  They are, for a fact."
+
+Had his words reached Miss Harper's ears she might have replied that
+sensible and humane "wimmen folks" regarded the fearful slaughter of
+birds as little less than a crime; but unfortunately she did not hear
+this and resumed:
+
+"Yet you hunt out these harmless and beautiful creatures and wantonly
+destroy them.  Nearly every boy gives way to this savage, brutal
+impulse to kill something.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+POLLY'S FAREWELL
+
+  Happy little maiden,
+  Give, oh, give to me
+  The highness of your courage,
+  The sweetness of your grace,
+  To speak a large word in a little place.
+          --_E. S. Phelps-Ward._
+
+
+Closing the volume, Polly laid it in her lap.
+
+"That was a good story," observed Miss Kathy, as the child paused.  The
+little girl did not immediately reply, but leaned forward and looked
+wistfully in her companion's face for a moment.
+
+"Do you think it is so very wicked to keep--that is, to--to deprive a
+bird of its liberty?" she asked timidly.
+
+"Oh, I don't know that it could be called wicked.  A canary bird, born
+in a cage, that never knew any other home, would be apt to die if it
+were turned loose to shift for itself and get its own living.  It
+possibly could not stand the exposure to the weather," replied Miss
+Katharine.
+
+"But supposing it wasn't a canary," said Polly hesitatingly; "supposing
+it might be a redbird, or a wren, or--or----"
+
+"Or a bobolink?" Miss Kathy smiled as she supplied the word.
+
+"Well--yes, a bobolink, for instance."  And Polly glanced toward me.
+
+"Any captured bird certainly feels very bad to be shut up in a cage all
+its life, though I have seen robins in captivity that grew to be as
+tame as canaries.  My aunt had one that lived twelve years in a cage.
+It would peck her cheek, and pretend to kiss her, and do all sorts of
+sweet little tricks.  His cage door stood open, and he went in and out
+as it suited him, but he never thought of flying away.  However, it is
+only natural to suppose that hopping about in a narrow space would be
+dreadful to a bird accustomed to spreading its wings and soaring up
+through the sky whenever and wherever it pleased."
+
+Miss Kathy looked at the clock.  She saw it was time for her to go back
+into the store, then gathered up her work and went into the front room.
+When Polly was left to herself I could see she was thinking very hard.
+The rocking-chair kept moving faster, and her forehead was drawn into a
+little pucker between her eyes.  She sighed too, occasionally, as if
+she were sad.
+
+I noticed that Miss Katharine from her post behind the counter looked
+in at the child from time to time, and I heard her say half-aloud: "If
+the fashionable women of the land had hearts as merciful and
+consciences as tender as that dear little Polly's, the slaughter of the
+birds would soon come to an end."
+
+The birch chair finally ceased to rock.  The deep-drawn wrinkle passed
+away from Polly's forehead.  She laid down her book and came to my
+cage, then she stood for a moment looking at me tenderly.  Then she
+took the cage down from its hook and carried it to the door leading to
+the garden.  The air was pleasant, and a sunbeam slanted across the
+porch making a yellow gleam on the lattice.  How beautiful it looked to
+my weary eyes!
+
+"Dearest Dickey Downy, good-bye," she said to me, and her voice had a
+little tremor in it.  "You had a right to be happy and live out of
+doors among the trees, and I kept you a prisoner.  Please forgive me
+for it, and forgive me for wearing birds' wings on my Sunday hat.  I
+shall never do such cruel things again.  It's coming spring now,
+Dickey, so be happy and fly away to the beautiful clouds."
+
+She set the little wire door wide open.  A warm zephyr swept by, laden
+with the scent of wild flowers and all sweet growing things.  My heart
+fluttered with joy.  I heard the far cry of the hills as I floated out
+and upward, higher and higher, on joyous wing.  I was free, free!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Dickey Downy, by Virginia Sharpe Patterson
+
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