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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77391 ***
+
+Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: DODY.]
+
+
+
+                          THE STORY OF PUFF
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                        MRS. C. M. LIVINGSTON
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                                BOSTON
+                        D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY
+                            FRANKLIN STREET
+
+
+
+                            COPYRIGHT, 1883.
+                        D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY.
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS.
+
+   CHAPTER I
+
+   CHAPTER II
+
+   CHAPTER III
+
+   CHAPTER IV
+
+   CHAPTER V
+
+
+
+                            ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+   Dody
+   A little Girl came with a Basket
+   Rita and Dody
+   What a lovely Spot my Home was
+   They brought me fresh Chickweed
+   They eat Bugs
+   On the Bough of a tall Tree
+   Making a Breakfast of Cherries
+   Fred spread his Wings
+   Somebody said "Here he comes"
+   Dody cried as if her Heart would break
+   Rita
+   On the Wing
+   A Drink of Water
+   Then they had a Dog
+   Grandma and Rose
+   I saw myself in a Mirror
+   Dear Rose lay on a Bed of Flowers
+   Since Rosie died
+   When I saw other Birds
+   Making a lovely Nest
+   Such a Chattering as they kept up
+   I heard a great long Me-ow
+   I guess they were Cousins
+   Everything looks fresh and clean
+   My Friends took long Journeys
+   How dreary the pretty World began to look
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+                           STORY OF PUFF.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+[Illustration] I belong to the Canary family, and that is a very good
+old family as everybody very well knows. The first that I can remember
+of anything was the time that I was taken away from my mother and
+brothers and sisters. A little girl came with a basket after me. She
+had on a blue dress and a white sunbonnet, and her name was Rita. I was
+frightened almost to death, and screamed with all my might when she
+took hold of me; my mother screamed too, and spread out her wings and
+scolded, but it did no good. I was hurried into the basket, the cover
+shut down tight, and there I was in the dark. It was dreadful. I could
+hardly breathe.
+
+[Illustration: A LITTLE GIRL CAME WITH A BASKET.]
+
+When she got home, she took me out of the basket and put me in a small
+wire cage. I curled up in one corner, and did not dare to look about me
+for a long time. They brought me some supper, but I would not taste it.
+I was only just learning to feed myself; my dear mother used to feed
+me nice bits from her bill; my heart swelled right up in my throat. I
+could not have eaten if I had tried.
+
+When it began to grow dark, I cried as hard as I could: we used to
+cuddle down under mother's wings and go to sleep; I thought my heart
+would break. Towards morning I tucked my bill in my neck, and snugged
+down in a heap with one foot under me and got a little sleep.
+
+I was wakened next morning by the sun shining right into my cage. I was
+glad of it, for I had been quite cold. My feathers were not so very
+thick yet. Pretty soon two little girls, Rita and her sister Dody, came
+and talked to me. Dody was a little bit of a round-faced girl, with
+bright blue eyes and red cheeks.
+
+I loved her right away. She said "Poor birdie!" and her voice was as
+sweet as my little sister's voice when she said "peep" to me in the
+mornings. They stood and looked at me a long time, and talked about me.
+"How bright his eyes are!" they said, and, "What funny little feet!"
+"How pretty he will be when he gets all his feathers." Then their
+mother called, "Children, come to breakfast," and they ran off.
+
+I ate a very few seeds for my breakfast, and drank a little water. Then
+I tried to dress my feathers just as I had seen my dear mother do hers,
+but mine would not lie down smoothly. After breakfast they came back
+and talked to me again, but I never gave a single chirp in answer. It
+was a long, sad day, and I was glad when night came again.
+
+Just as I was going to bed, Dody came to the cage with her hands full
+of little fixings. I wondered what she was going to do. I flew up on
+the top perch and watched her. She opened the door, and in one corner
+of my floor she put a piece of cotton, soft stuff like thistledown.
+Then she spread some pieces of white flannel on it, and covered it with
+a piece of pink stuff. Then what did she do but catch me and try to put
+me in the little bed she had made.
+
+I tried my best to make her know that birds didn't sleep in beds, but
+she kept saying, "Poor Puffy was tired! Shall have a nice bed, so he
+shall."
+
+So she put me on the soft little bed, and spread the blanket and the
+pink thing over me; then she took her hand off and I flew right back to
+my perch.
+
+"Why, Puffy!" she said. "You musn't do so."
+
+Then we had another hard time. Her little hand chased me about the cage
+till I was ready to drop, but she got me. She put me in the bed again
+and held me down. She tucked the blanket around me, and said:
+
+"Dear Puff, it's a very cold night; little birdies will freeze if they
+don't cover up. Dody wants you to learn to sleep in a bed, just as she
+does. That's no way to rest; get way up on a perch, and stand on one
+foot, and stick your head in your feathers way behind you. I'll just
+tell you, Puffy, we ain't going to have any such uncomfortable works in
+this house. Now be still, and I'll sing you to sleep."
+
+I wish I could tell you just how she looked while she sat there singing
+her sweet little hymn:
+
+   "Hush my dear, lie still and slumber,
+    Holy angels guard thy bed."
+
+Her singing was so sweet, and she looked so loving! If anybody could
+make me sleep in a bed she could, but I wasn't going to do it not even
+for her. I thought I should smother, bundled up there, and I knew I
+was right, for my mother began to teach us to sleep on a perch. I kept
+still, though. It was no use to flutter; she only squeezed me the
+harder. Pretty soon she thought I was asleep. She softly raised her
+hand, and I popped up quick as wink and was back on my top perch in no
+time. Then poor Dody cried. I felt sorry for her, but I couldn't help
+it. Her mother came in then, and explained it all out nice to her and
+she felt better.
+
+They all sat around then, looking at me and talking about me. They
+tried to find a name for me. One said "Billy," and another said "Dick."
+"Call him 'Goldy,' he is so yellow," Rita said. But their mother said,
+"Better call him Puff; he looks just like a little puff ball." They
+clapped their hands and cried out, "So we will; that's a sweet little
+name." I never forgot my name from that day to this. I couldn't, I
+heard it so much.
+
+It was a pretty little home that I had come to. There was no fine
+furniture in it, but it was snug and warm, the fire was always bright
+and everybody looked sunshiny. Even when the wind blew and the snow
+flew, it always seemed as if the sun shone in that room. I think
+one reason was because everything went on smoothly, and there was a
+good deal of singing. Rita and Dody sang all their little songs, and
+evenings and Sundays their father and mother sang with them.
+
+I never shall forget the day I began to sing myself. I didn't know I
+could. I remember the very first song—Rita and Dody were singing it. It
+was "Blooming May makes all gay."
+
+It made the girls almost wild with joy when I piped out a few little
+notes, no louder than a katydid's. They said, "He's going to be a
+singer! Isn't that nice?"
+
+And they ran and told their mother, and she came and stood looking at
+me a long time. But I didn't sing a word while she was there. Somehow
+I couldn't when they were all watching me so. They told all the
+neighbors, too, and when their father came from his work, they ran to
+meet him the first thing. I never could see why they made such an ado
+over it. I thought birds were made on purpose to sing, and of course
+they all did. But now that I come to think of it, my dear mother did
+not sing. My father did all the singing in our family. She chirped a
+little, but it was sweeter than any singing to me.
+
+The cold winter went away and spring came. My cage was hung out of
+doors under the apple-tree every day now, and here was a beautiful new
+world, made of soft blue and pretty green and white blossoms. What a
+lovely spot my home was! A little brown house, with tall old trees
+around it, standing on a green hill sloping down on one side to a
+little brook that rattled and hurried over the stones. The trees were
+covered with pink and white blossoms, and the air was soft and sweet.
+
+There was a wide porch where everybody came to get cool, so I had
+plenty of company. There were other birds, too, who came often to the
+apple-tree. I was afraid of them at first, but I soon got over that.
+One by the name of Jenny Wren, built a nest just in the corner, at the
+top of the porch. I enjoyed her society very much.
+
+I grew very fast, and could sing almost as well as the birds that came
+in the trees and sang in the mornings. I began to be very happy, too,
+and to like my new home. Rita and Dody loved me so much, and I loved
+them. They always ran to me the first thing when they came from school.
+They brought me fresh chickweed and lumps of sugar, and sometimes a bit
+of orange or apple, and I ate it right from their fingers. It was good,
+too.
+
+There is one thing that I never could understand, and that is why they
+do not give us oranges to eat all the time when we like them better and
+they are so much easier to eat than seeds. I do get very tired getting
+the shells off from my seeds. I would have much more time to sing, if
+I did not have to keep pecking away at those hard old things all the
+time. It is a very hard way to earn one's living, I think. And yet it
+is not so bad as it might be, for my friends in the apple-tree tell me
+that nobody brings them anything at all, that they pick up their eating
+just where they can. Sometimes they get plenty, and sometimes not. They
+eat bugs and worms and all such vile things. Pah! I am sure I should
+not like that. But then it must be nice to spread one's wings and fly
+away up into the blue, and sit and swing on a bough of a tall tree.
+
+[Illustration: THEY EAT BUGS.]
+
+One morning the little girls brought me some news. They told me that a
+rich lady who lived down in the village, was going away with all her
+family for a month, and that she was going to pay them for taking care
+of her bird while she was gone.
+
+"So you see you are going to have company, Puffy," Rita said. "I'm
+going to bring him home to-night, and you must be sure to have your
+feathers all smoothed down nicely, and your best manners on, for he's
+very stylish, Puffy, and he lives in a great, grand house ten times as
+big as ours."
+
+That day seemed very long to me, and I dressed my feathers a great many
+times, and tried to look my best. I grew very restless as it drew near
+to four o'clock, and hopped up and down stairs till I was all tired
+out; for you must know my little house is three stories high. There is
+the first floor, then the first perch, where I stand to reach my seeds
+and water, and the second one where I sleep nights, and that makes
+three stories, besides the attic where my swing is.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE BOUGH OF A TALL TREE.]
+
+Pretty soon I heard the gate click. I peeped through the leaves. Yes!
+There he was coming, sure enough—the grand company bird. My heart
+fluttered so I could hardly breathe, but I flew up-stairs with all
+speed, curled down on my feet, puffed out my feathers, and tried to
+look as if I didn't care.
+
+"Here he is, Puff," Rita said, as she came up the steps of the porch
+with a pretty cage in her hand. "This is Fred, Puffy; why don't you
+make a bow to him?"
+
+I straightened myself up then and looked at him, and he looked at me,
+but neither of us spoke. I forgot all about manners. Rita hung his cage
+very near mine, and went away, and we went on staring at each other. He
+was a handsome fellow, large, and yellow as buttercups. I thought he
+looked proud, he stood up so tall and stiff, and snapped his black eyes
+at me, just as if he were poking fun at something. Then he went up to
+his highest perch and sat and looked and looked.
+
+I had always thought my cage was a cosey little home until his great
+gilt one was put by the side of it. Then I began to feel ashamed of my
+little house, so very small and plain. I remembered just then what Rita
+said about manners; so I chirped a few times to him in a friendly way,
+to let him know he was welcome. He never answered my chirps at all, but
+just kept on staring, and I could feel that he was looking me over from
+head to foot, as if he were measuring every feather I had on. Of course
+I could not make as good an appearance as he did; I hadn't had so much
+time to grow in.
+
+All at once he jumped up on the highest perch he had and began to sing
+with all his might. He trilled and warbled and went up and down the
+scale, in and out and every way, and when he came to the high notes,
+he opened his mouth as wide as he could and screamed. He certainly had
+a very powerful voice, but not a sweet one. When he went up so high it
+was just yelling, and that's all you can call it.
+
+When he had finished, he cocked his head on one side and looked at me
+out of the corner of his eye, as much as to say, "There! Did you ever
+hear anything like that?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+[Illustration] I WENT on cracking seeds as if I didn't hear him, but
+after he had performed two or three times like that, I thought I would
+show him I could sing a little, too. I knew I could, for people often
+stopped at the gate as they passed, and said to each other, "What a
+sweet singer that bird is!"
+
+I had heard the wild birds sing so much that I had caught many of their
+airs; so while he was taking his supper, I tuned up. I did my very
+best. I was surprised at myself.
+
+Fred was surprised, too. He dropped the seed he was biting in two,
+and glared fiercely at me. Then his wings began to drop down, and
+he looked very mad. Then he spread his wings till he looked like a
+great bat, and flew at the side of his cage as if he would dash right
+through it, and fly at me. I sung away, and he chattered and scolded
+and tried his best to get out. I was glad he couldn't. I should not
+have liked him to come to my cage as mad as he was then.
+
+When I got to the end of my song, I stopped and gave him a little piece
+of my mind. I don't know how I dared to speak so to a stranger, but I
+guess I was a little out of patience myself.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I think Fred was all worn out, for he went to bed soon after. I did not
+go to sleep right away, though I went to my chamber. Somehow I didn't
+feel so happy as I usually did. I knew I had not been polite or kind to
+Fred, and I had been jealous and vain. I did not sleep well. I had bad
+dreams. When I woke in the night, I was afraid. I heard cats walking
+round I thought. I thought I would try to be a very good little bird
+to-morrow.
+
+When I woke again, the sun was shining, and Fred was already stirring.
+He seemed to have forgotten how cross he had been. He said "Good
+morning," and chirped away quite pleasantly.
+
+After we had eaten breakfast, and taken a bath and dressed ourselves,
+we sung. We sung together, just as loud and high as we could yell.
+My throat was almost split, but I wasn't going to let him beat me.
+For the first few days we did not get along very well. Fred was very
+quick-tempered. He would spread his wings and open his mouth as if to
+swallow me, if I said the least thing to provoke him.
+
+Some days we had very good times. Our cages hung so near that we could
+talk together all we pleased. Fred told me about his life when he was
+at home; how he hung between lace curtains in a pretty window of a
+large, fine house, and watched people pass all day long. And there were
+a great many visitors, and they all said, "What a beautiful bird!" and
+"What a wonderful singer!" And he had cake and candy, just as much as
+he wanted, and oranges and bananas, and they had a piano, and when
+they played, he sang with it, and people said it was as good as a
+concert. He said it was very dull in that little old brown house, and
+he wondered I didn't die.
+
+And one day when he felt very good-natured, he told me that I was very
+handsome, and that I had a wonderful voice, and that I ought to be out
+in the world where people would admire me. He said, too, that it was
+a shame to give me nothing but seeds and water to eat; that they were
+mean, stingy people to treat me so. I did not like to hear him talk in
+that way about my dear Rita and Dody, who were always so kind to me.
+But when I came to think it over, it did seem as if I had been treated
+badly, and I felt cross when Dody filled my seed-cup. I wouldn't touch
+one for quite a while.
+
+I sat and pouted half the morning, and Dody thought I was sick. She
+went and told her mother how I acted. Her mother was looking over
+lettuce for dinner; beautiful green leaves they were—oh! How I wanted
+to get my bill into it.
+
+Her mother said, "Poor Puffy, he needs something fresh and green. Give
+him a leaf of lettuce."
+
+So she did—a lovely curly, tender leaf. I was going at it at once, but
+I waited to see what Fred would do with his leaf. I was afraid he might
+laugh at me if I ate lettuce. But when I saw him eat his as if he liked
+it very much, I began on mine. It was so good. In a few days after that
+the cherries were ripe, and we each had a fresh one every morning. I
+felt ashamed of being so bad and talking as I had, when a great red
+juicy cherry was given me every day.
+
+[Illustration: WHAT A LOVELY SPOT MY HOME WAS.]
+
+"I can tell you what it is," said Fred one morning, as he was nibbling
+a big cherry, "it must be a very nice thing to get just as many of
+these as you want. Think of our sleeping up in that big tree, all
+tucked in among the leaves, then in the morning making a breakfast of
+cherries, and away we'd go sailing off just where we please! No cage
+for us any more! See here, Puff," and Fred came to the side of his
+cage, and poked his head away out through the wires and spoke low,
+"let's you and me run away!"
+
+[Illustration: MAKING A BREAKFAST OF CHERRIES.]
+
+The idea of such a thing almost took my breath away. I looked up in
+the blue sky. The white clouds were floating along softly. What if we
+could escape and fly away up, up, and stand on that soft cloud, and
+sail along, sail along, through the blue forever! It would be lovely.
+Just then Rita and Dody came to bring us chickweed, and we had not time
+to talk about it. But when the time came for our evening song, instead
+of singing a low, soft hymn, we talked again about running away. Fred
+talked so much and so fast, that before I knew it I had promised to try
+to escape. We made up our minds that we would go in the morning.
+
+"The sooner we are off the better," Fred said, "for this is the
+grandest time in the year. Everything is ripe—cherries and berries, and
+we shall find hosts of friends as soon as we get out. I was talking
+with Mr. Wren only yesterday, and he promised to help us in any way he
+could."
+
+We sat up very late that night laying our plans. We decided to slip out
+when the cage doors were opened to change the water in our bath-tubs.
+
+"Be quick as a wink when the time comes," Fred said. "Whoever gets
+out first will wait on the top of that tall lilac for the other.
+Good-night! We must be off to sleep now, so as to be ready for morning.
+And don't you go and back out. Have some spirit about you; as if a
+creature with wings ought to live in a cage, like a poor little mean
+mouse!"
+
+Then Fred stretched himself up tall, and looked very proud. He bounded
+into his swing in high spirits, and soon swung himself to sleep. But I
+couldn't sleep. It seemed dreadful to be going out into the great wide
+world all alone. Perhaps the cats would get us, or a bad boy shoot us.
+I could hear the dogs barking, and everything seemed dark and gloomy. I
+wished I hadn't promised to go. Dody told me once that God took care of
+little birds, but I couldn't feel sure about it that night. I started
+at every noise I heard. I was very unhappy.
+
+It was a long night, but morning came at last. Dody was up bright and
+early. She brought Fred and me each a beautiful fresh clover blossom
+the first thing she did. Much as I loved clover, I couldn't bear to
+taste it, I felt so bad, thinking of what we meant to do. I couldn't
+eat much breakfast, for when I heard the little breakfast bell tinkle,
+I knew it would be time to start in a little while. I always had
+sung at prayers, but I couldn't that morning. Dody sat in her little
+rocking-chair and sung from her hymnbook as hard as she could. It was
+a sweet hymn, and a tune I liked. But I could not sing a note, and she
+kept looking at me as if she wanted to know why. Fred sang louder than
+anybody.
+
+It was but a few minutes afterwards that the girls came to attend to
+us. They carried our cages out on the back porch, and brought the
+seed-box and fresh water. Rita tended to me that morning, and Dody
+took Fred. Dody turned her back just a minute to get the seeds. Fred's
+door was open a little bit, and he stood down close by it waiting his
+chance. He slipped out as swift as a butterfly! Dody gave a scream, but
+Fred spread his wings and went way, way up. How beautifully he soared
+along. I wished I was with him. I had no chance to get out myself, for
+Rita shut my door tight and went off trying to catch Fred.
+
+[Illustration: FRED SPREAD HIS WINGS.]
+
+Everybody shouted and ran here and there. The neighbors all came over,
+and one said, "I see him!" and another cried, "There he is!" and at
+last somebody said, "Here he comes on top of the lilac. Hand me his
+cage and I'll get up on the fence and hold it towards him. Maybe he'll
+go in!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Maybe he didn't! Naughty Fred flew up in the tip-top branch of the
+maple, and swung gayly back and forth, just as if he greatly enjoyed
+seeing a woman on the fence with a red face turned up to the sky, and
+an empty bird-cage in her hand. He only stayed a minute, then he flew
+far away and was never seen again.
+
+Dody cried as if her heart would break. When I saw how badly everybody
+felt about Fred's getting away, I couldn't make up my mind to try to
+go that day. I couldn't go if I had tried, for Rita opened and shut my
+door in a flash when she waited upon me. I suppose Fred was vexed at me
+because I didn't come. Rita and Dody and their mother spent nearly all
+that day out doors looking for him, and they kept his cage hanging out
+for him a good many days, but he did not come.
+
+[Illustration: DODY CRIED AS IF HER HEART WOULD BREAK.]
+
+I missed Fred very much, and felt discontented and unhappy. I did not
+enjoy life as I did before he came. I was all the time wishing and
+longing to be somewhere else, and to have things I had not. I did not
+sing any more. I moped. I thought if I could live in a big, handsome
+house, such as Fred told me about, and have a golden cage and all those
+new things to eat, and see people passing back and forth all day, then
+I should be happy. How could I be expected to content myself always in
+this back place, seeing nothing all day long but trees and birds and
+two or three people?
+
+[Illustration: RITA.]
+
+Sometimes I thought about following Fred, but I felt a little afraid to
+go alone. I heard them say that perhaps the cats or dogs had killed him
+by this time: But I kept thinking of all he had told me, and I made up
+my mind at last that I would not be a prisoner any more. I would get
+out and see the world. So now I spent all my time in planning how it
+should be done. It would not be an easy thing to do. Rita and Dody were
+so very careful they never left my door open a second. You may wonder
+how it was that I could make up my mind to leave my dear friends, but
+when one begins to go wrong, I guess nothing is of any account but the
+thing they want to do. So night and day I thought and contrived how to
+escape.
+
+One pleasant afternoon when the little girls got home from school, they
+came to pet me. They brought a great treat they thought. It was a piece
+of banana. I wanted to taste it and see what it was like, but I sat
+sulkily in one corner, and never touched it. They talked to me, but I
+wouldn't answer.
+
+"Oh dear," said Dody, "he's sick, I know he is."
+
+Her little hot face looked so tired after her long walk, I ought to
+have been ashamed of myself for acting so.
+
+"Shut the windows and let him out for a little while," her mother said.
+"That will rest him."
+
+So she took my cage into the dining-room, and opened the door. I flew
+right out and alighted on the window-sill. I went straight to the
+window, because, I knew something that I guess Dody had forgotten.
+There was a hole in one of the dining-room windows, just a little one,
+no bigger than Dody's hand.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"You stay here, Puffy," Dody said, "and I'll get you some nice cold
+water, and you'll feel better, birdie dear. I always do when I take a
+bath."
+
+No sooner had she shut the door than I rushed up to the broken window,
+and out I went! I was free—free as the wind!
+
+I waited just a minute on the rose bush, and peeped in to see Dody
+hunting under chairs and tables, and calling, "Where are you, Puffy!"
+
+Then I said softly, "Good-by, dear Dody," and I spread my wings and
+away, away. I thought I never would stop till I got up into the
+beautiful blue and sat on one of those soft, white clouds.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+[Illustration] I DID stop, though, very soon, to rest me. I didn't
+think when I saw the other birds skim through the air that flying would
+tire me so. I kept going on toward the blue, but the white clouds
+seemed just as far off as when I started.
+
+I came to a lovely garden and stood on a honeysuckle vine a few minutes
+to rest myself. The vine clambered over a porch, and I heard voices
+talking and laughing. I was enjoying myself very much snuffing the
+sweet air from the honeysuckle, when a hand came softly down over me
+and drew me in through the vines.
+
+It was so sudden I had no time to get away, and my heart fluttered
+with fear. The hand was soft and white, and I found when I dared to look
+up that the owner of it was a beautiful young lady. She was dressed in
+gauzy white stuff, and was such a pretty creature that I thought I should
+like to stay with her always.
+
+"Do see what I have found," she said to another lady. "A darling little
+canary."
+
+Then there gathered about me ever so many ladies dressed in silks and
+jewels. They talked to me and called me a beauty, and wondered if I
+could sing.
+
+One lady called a girl, and said, "Angeline, go up in the attic and
+bring down that old bird-cage."
+
+Then they put me in it and the lady said, "Hang it in the dining-room."
+
+It was near a window that I was placed, and not long after I saw the
+pretty young lady who caught me, get in a carriage and go away.
+
+I heard them say, "Better take your bird home with you."
+
+But she said, "No, if nobody comes to claim him, he shall belong to
+Rose."
+
+And who was Rose? I did not find out that night for I soon went to
+sleep, tired out with my journey. I had time in the morning to look
+about me before the rest got up. Here I was at last in a large fine
+house such as Fred told me about. I could see through into the parlor,
+and there were the lace curtains and pictures, and ever so many pretty
+things. It was better than being free to live in such a place. I was
+almost wild with joy. I sung at the top of my voice, and swelled out
+my feathers till I was three times as big as usual. I should never
+have any more trouble; everybody would praise me, and I should have
+everything I wanted. I thought there was only one thing lacking to make
+me perfectly happy. I wanted a big gold cage like Fred's.
+
+While I was watching them set out the table in a scarlet and white
+cloth, and china and silver, just wonderful to see, a little girl
+danced into the room and came toward me.
+
+"Good morning, little birdie," she said. "What's your name? My name's
+Rose."
+
+Her voice was low and sweet, and she looked like one of the little
+pinkish-white roses that clamber over the porch at Dody's house. Her
+eyes were blue, like the sky, and her gold hair hung on her shoulders
+in pretty waves. I was glad I belonged to Rose. I was just thinking
+what a nice place I had come to, when I heard a great noise and a boy
+burst into the room with a whoop and a yell. I trembled when I saw him,
+for I had heard about boys. He was short and chubby, with very black
+eyes and hardly no hair on his head—I guess his feathers hadn't grown
+out.
+
+"Hulloa!" he said. "Who's this?"
+
+Then he poked his fingers through the wires and hooted at me, and kept
+me flurrying about from side to side, frightened almost to death.
+
+Rose said, "Please, Rob, don't tease him. See, he's afraid, poor
+birdie!"
+
+He paid no attention to her, though, and I was glad when the breakfast
+bell called him away. After breakfast both he and Rose went off to
+school.
+
+It was pretty quiet all day. The dining-room was darkened to keep out
+the flies, and nobody brought me any nice little bit to eat. I had
+nothing but seeds and water. I missed my cuttle-bone and my chickweed.
+I began to be lonely, and to wish I could see Dody. Then I sat and
+thought just how the little room looked with the roses peeping in at
+the window. I could see my empty cage hanging there, and dear Dody sad
+and lonely. A little whisper from somewhere asked me whether I did
+right to run away, and if, after all, I was going to like my new home
+so very much better than the old. But I hushed it up with a very loud
+song.
+
+In a few days something happened. Angeline cane walking in with a great
+beautiful gilt cage in her hand, larger and handsomer than Fred's even.
+She opened its door, then she opened my door and put the open doors
+close together. I stood and looked at it in great astonishment and
+delight.
+
+Then Angeline said, "Why don't you go in, you little goose?"
+
+I didn't like being called a goose, nor did I think it was a polite
+way to invite me. But I stepped in, and she shut the door and carried
+the old cage away. Then she took the new cage into the back parlor,
+and fastened it on a pretty gilt chain that hung down from the ceiling
+between the lace curtains of the window. There! Now I had everything
+just as I wanted it. Was it I, or somebody else, in that great bright
+cage among the lace curtains, looking out on the gay street? I danced
+up-stairs and down, and strutted about and tried to look like Fred.
+I nibbled the cuttle-bone, and took a seed and a drink of water, and
+tried to sing a little to express my feelings. But, somehow, it seemed
+as if my throat was all swelled up. I couldn't sound a note.
+
+[Illustration: A DRINK OF WATER.]
+
+You would think that then, surely, I was perfectly happy, with
+everything so nice and a dear little mistress who loved me. But, oh,
+that boy! I knew as soon as I saw him that my troubles had begun. He
+seemed to have a great many names. Most of the time it was "Bob,"
+but Rose called him "Rob." When he was going to bed his mother said,
+"Good-night, Robbie," and his father said "Robert!" when he was
+naughty, and that was most of the time. Saturdays he nearly tortured
+the life out of me. He would catch me, and squeeze me till I was almost
+choked. He would poke at my eyes, and open my mouth and try to get hold
+of my tongue. I tried to get away from him. If I could, I would have
+gone out of the window and left everything, and never have come back.
+Schools ought not to have Saturdays. Rose was in school all the week,
+and Saturdays she often went to visit her cousins, so nobody knew how
+the naughty boy tormented me.
+
+I began to find out that Fred had told only the bright side of things.
+As the weeks passed away, I got tired of the life I led. It was fun at
+first to watch the people pass, but at last I got very tired watching
+them come and go, come and go all day long. Some of them looked cross,
+and some looked sad, and nobody looked very happy. It wasn't half so
+nice, after all, as hanging under the apple-tree and having calls from
+the other birds that flew about. Here no birds came to see me, except
+one ill-natured old sparrow, and he came to pick a quarrel with me. He
+would dart at my cage when the window was open, his mouth stretched
+and his eyes fierce as cat's eyes, I learned how to manage him after
+a while. I would just get back in the further corner of my cage, keep
+perfectly still, and look at him. So he got ashamed of himself and left
+me in peace. That was one of my troubles. I had others.
+
+Some days I nearly starved. Everybody would go off and forget me. Not
+a drop of fresh water, not a seed in my cup, I thought many a day I
+should die before night. I would get so weak I couldn't sing, and I sat
+sad and cross and remembered how Rita and Dody never forgot me once.
+Rose would have seen to me if her mother had allowed her to, but I
+was left to the care of servants, and Rose went to school very early
+and did not know how badly I was treated. There were days, though,
+when I had everything and more too; sugar and orange and berries and
+cake. Then I often made myself sick. I would rather have had something
+steady, even if it was plain.
+
+I was very lonely, too. Nobody seemed to have time to give me a kind
+word. Once when I had sung one of my best songs and did the high notes
+beautifully, a young man sitting in the room reading a newspaper, said,
+"What a horrid screecher that bird is. He ought to have his neck wrung!"
+
+Think of that when I had been doing my best to please him! I didn't
+sing any more for a good many days. I just stood on my highest perch,
+and looked into the street to see if I couldn't see Rita and Dody
+coming to take me home. Day after day I tired myself all out watching,
+but they never came. It was dusty in that window, too. My eyes and nose
+were full of it. I thought of the pure air in my other home; how sweet
+the roses smelled in the porch; and Rita and Dody were there and I was
+not. Oh! If I had only been content in the dear little place. Now I
+never should see it again. They were better folks, too, in the little
+house. They never spoke angry words to each other. But in this house I
+heard a great many; besides there were no prayers and hymns there.
+
+I had worse enemies, too, than Bob, I found out after awhile. One day,
+when Angeline took me into the kitchen to clean my cage, she left me
+standing on the kitchen table while she talked with another girl that
+put her head over the back fence. I was looking about the room, when to
+my horror I saw stretched out behind the stove a great long gray cat. I
+kept as still as a mouse—hardly breathed. It was dreadful! What if she
+should wake up? I had heard awful stories about cats.
+
+I never took my eyes from her. Sure enough she did wake up just then.
+She stretched herself and washed her face, and then got up and walked
+about. I kept still. I didn't dare to scream as long as she had not
+seen me. All of a sudden she turned her head and saw me. Oh, what
+frightful big yellow eyes she had! She gave one great bound and sprang
+up on the table. Then I screamed loud and sharp, and Angeline rushed
+in, just as that dreadful monster had her paw raised all ready to
+strike at me.
+
+Angeline took a broom and sent that cat out of the door pretty fast.
+Then she talked real nice to me, and comforted me, and I thought more
+of her than I ever did before.
+
+[Illustration: THEN THEY HAD A DOG.]
+
+Then they had a dog, too. He was another trouble. He was white as snow,
+and had little curls all over him, and wore a blue ribbon around his
+neck. His name was Beauty. He didn't act very beautiful. He tormented
+me too. He would jump up towards me, and bark furiously whenever he
+came into the parlor. I did not really think he could catch me, but it
+made me nervous.
+
+The only happy moments I ever had was when I was alone with dear Rose.
+She was so gentle, and seemed to love me so much. She would put her
+face to mine and say low, sweet words. She called me "Tina," after the
+pretty young lady. Her name was Christina. Sometimes Rose took me to
+her room. Then she would open my cage door and tell me to fly. She shut
+all the windows first, or I think I should have run away again to get
+rid of my tormentors. But I did have good times in her room. I flew all
+about and it rested me. I sat on her pretty white bed, and on the tops
+of chairs, and walked all over the bureau and saw myself in the mirror.
+
+[Illustration: GRANDMA AND ROSE.]
+
+I thought at first that I was meeting a stranger. I said to myself,
+"That's a good-looking little fellow; wonder who he is?" Then I bowed
+and talked to him, and he, impertinent fellow, just mimicked me for
+everything I did and said. Then I scolded at him, and he scolded back.
+
+[Illustration: SAW MYSELF IN A MIRROR.]
+
+I began to feel cross, and I was just getting ready to fight him when
+Rose said, "Why, Tina, that's yourself!" And grandma who sat in the
+room said, "He's as foolish as some touchy boys and girls are; ready to
+quarrel with their own shadows." Then I can tell you I felt ashamed.
+
+Grandma was another good friend of mine. She always made Bob let me
+alone when she happened to be in the room with us, and she began to
+look after me every day, and see if I had some nice little bit to eat.
+Whenever she ate an orange, she always gave a piece to me. She was
+a pretty old lady. Her hair was white as snow. She wore black silk
+dresses and white lace caps, and her face looked as if everything was
+just as she liked to have it.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+[Illustration] WHEN I was alone with grandma or Rose, I enjoyed myself.
+Rose taught me to come out when she called me, perch on her finger
+and eat sugar from her lips. I knew one or two tunes that she played
+on the piano, and I would sit on her shoulder and sing them while she
+played. I learned to kiss her good-night too. When there was company,
+she always showed me off. Sometimes she would let me stay out all the
+afternoon when we were in her room. I loved to watch her. She used to
+look so pretty in her white dress and blue ribbons, flitting round
+like a butterfly. I sung a good many songs all to her, telling her how
+pretty and good she was, and how much I loved her.
+
+It was only once in a while on Saturdays that I had such good times.
+All the rest of the week I hung in that window and heard wagons rattle
+by, and wished so much that I could hear the brook gurgling over the
+stones by the little brown house, and smell the flowers, and see Dody.
+
+One Saturday Rose's cousin came after her to spend the day. I watched
+her getting ready with a sad heart, for I knew Bob would tease me as
+soon as she was gone. And sure enough, no sooner was she gone than
+he began to poke a stick through the wires at me. I was patient for
+a while, and kept out of the reach of it by lively work. Then I got
+cross, I opened my mouth wide at him, and dropped my wings and scolded.
+He only laughed at that. Then he caught me. I slipped away from him
+ever so many times at first, and bumped my head and bruised my sides.
+But at last I was fast, and he squeezed me tight and tried to bend my
+legs the wrong way, and put his little black fingers in my mouth. I bit
+him then, so he pulled out one of my longest, brightest feathers, to
+pay me off, he said. That hurt me, and I screamed so that grandma came
+to see what was the matter. I was trembling like a leaf.
+
+She sent Bob off, then she took me in her own hands, talked low to
+me, and cuddled me up in her soft neck and smoothed my feathers down
+gently, and took the mad all out of me. Little girls are nice and
+pretty, and so are young ladies, but grandmas are best when you get
+into trouble. This grandma always seemed to be around when I was
+frightened almost to death. I loved her dearly.
+
+One day I sat gazing idly into the street, and who should I see but
+Rita and Dody walking along! My heart jumped with joy! Were they
+coming after me? I leaned over and looked down. No! They passed on. I
+called and screamed to them, but the window was shut, and they did not
+hear. They went on. I was almost sick the rest of that day, I was so
+disappointed.
+
+[Illustration: DEAR ROSE LAY ON A BED OF FLOWERS.]
+
+But, oh me! I didn't know then what other hard thing was coming. For a
+great many days I missed Rose, and wondered where she was. I thought
+everybody looked sad, and everything looked quiet, though a good many
+people were coming and going. One afternoon the folding doors were
+opened, and they trimmed the doorway with pretty green vines, and the
+room was filled with white flowers. Dear Rose lay on a little bed of
+flowers. She was just as white as the lilies that lay all over her
+pillow. It was really Rose, and she lay very still, and the pink was
+all gone out of her face. I was going to pour out a glad little song
+when I saw her, but when I noticed that everybody was crying and I
+saw Rose did not wake up, I gave two or three sad little chirps. Rose
+always used to come to me when she heard them, and say, "What's the
+matter, Tina, dear?" But now she never moved.
+
+Somebody said, "Oh that bird will break my heart."
+
+Then a lady came and carried me away to grandma's room. I did not know
+what happened next; I only know that I never saw my darling Rose again.
+But I am sure God took care of her, for she was kind and loving; and,
+once when she let me hang in her room all night, I saw her kneel down
+and pray just as they used to do in the little brown house.
+
+I stayed in grandma's room always after that. I think she was lonely
+without her little Rose, and wanted me for company. She prayed, too,
+and read a good deal from a big book.
+
+I was very lonely and sometimes, just at dusk, grandma would sing such
+sad tunes that I thought they would break my heart. One was:
+
+   Silently the shades of evening
+     Gather round my lonely door.
+
+I never could sing with her when she hummed that, but when she sang:
+
+   I lay my body down to sleep,
+     Peace is the pillow for my head.
+
+or
+
+   Around the throne of God in heaven
+     Thousands of children stand.
+
+I always sang them, for it seemed as if little Rose was singing too.
+
+I never saw the dog or cat now, and Bob didn't come into the room very
+often, and grandma would not let him tease me. I don't know as he would
+have done it, anyway. He seemed to feel so bad because Rose was gone.
+He didn't do as much mischief as he used to. I felt sorry for him.
+
+When winter came on and it was time to shut the doors and windows,
+I enjoyed myself. Grandma let me stay out of my cage all I pleased.
+I liked flying about the room and sitting up on top of a picture. I
+sat on grandma's head, too, and picked her lace cap; and when she ate
+apples, I sat on the arm of her chair. She would take a piece and then
+give me a bite. I have sat for a long time and watched her put a shiny
+needle in and out a piece of cloth. It was very funny work. I played
+with her spools, and her spectacles when she took them off. I think a
+bird would look very funny with little spectacles on.
+
+Sometimes grandma's tea was sent up to her. Then I took tea with her. I
+took nibbles right out of the bread on the plate, and dipped my bill in
+the butter. I always noticed that people ate bread and butter together.
+I ate a little cake and some peaches, and walked all over the table and
+she never said "stop," once.
+
+Grandma had some nice plants, and I had fine times with them. Sometimes
+I stayed all day among them. I enjoyed picking in the earth, and I
+played that I lived out doors, and that I had great, beautiful grounds,
+all my own, and that the high plants were my tall trees, and the little
+ones my rose bushes and lilacs. There was one big geranium that was my
+very tallest tree. When I felt tired, I played it was night and flew
+into my big tree and hid among the sweet-scented leaves and went to
+sleep. It was just beautiful. Sometimes I played that I had a great
+many brothers and sisters, or that each one of the pots was the house
+of one of my friends, and I would go out calling and have long talks
+with them; or they would come to visit me. I couldn't help thinking at
+times how nice it would be if Fred were there too. I suppose we would
+have quarreled if he had, for Fred always wanted his own way, and that
+shows me that I must have wanted my own way too, or there wouldn't have
+been anything to quarrel about. Grandma says that one can't quarrel
+alone. I heard her tell Bob so.
+
+Once I did something very bad. Grandma went out and stayed a long time,
+and I got into great mischief. She had one handsome, fresh-looking
+plant, with bright green leaves. I never thought of eating any of them,
+but I happened to take a little nip out of this one. It didn't taste
+very good, but the leaves were tender and crisp, like lettuce, and I
+liked to snap out bits of it. It made me think of summer. I didn't mean
+to take all the leaves off. I worked real fast and it was good fun,
+but when I saw it stand there all bare, not a leaf left, I began to be
+frightened. When I heard grandma coming, I hid in the big geranium. I
+kept very still, and she didn't find me for ever so long.
+
+When she spied the plant with all the leaves gone, I heard her say
+"O-h!" She called and called me, "Where are you, naughty little
+fellow?" I heard her say, but I never stirred.
+
+My heart beat so loud I was afraid she would hear it. By that time I
+was so sorry and ashamed I most hoped she never would find me. She
+looked on the top of the windows and under the chairs; then she stooped
+down and looked in among the plants, and before I knew it, her hand was
+over me and I was caught.
+
+As she put me in the cage and shut the door, she said, "Bad birdie; you
+must be punished for this. I cannot let you take tea with me to-night,
+nor let you out again for a good many days."
+
+Oh, how I felt when I saw her supper brought in, I watched Angelina
+while she drew out the little round table, and put a pretty buff cloth
+on it, and set it out with china dishes all covered with pink flowers
+and butterflies, and then brought cunning little biscuit and cold meat,
+and preserves and cake—frosted cake too. Then she brought the little
+silver tea-pot smoking hot, and supper was all ready and I couldn't
+come to it. Oh, dear! If I only hadn't done it!
+
+I've often wondered when I saw Bob doing naughty things why he did them
+when he knew he'd have to suffer for it in some way, and here I had
+been acting just like him. I stood right at the corner where I could
+see best and leaned my head out and watched grandma while she ate. How
+I did want to get on to that table! When she was through, she gave me a
+bit of cake, but I don't think I deserved it. I made up my mind never
+to be naughty again, though.
+
+I could have been quite happy that winter, if we had not missed Rose
+so much. My heart was so heavy. Sometimes it was hard to sing a merry
+song. I asked grandma again and again to tell me about her. Once I
+heard her say, "Since Rosie died." I thought she must be somewhere, for
+grandma said one night when she sat in her arm chair by the fire, "Dear
+little Rosie, I shall go to her, but she shall not return to me."
+
+[Illustration: SINCE ROSIE DIED.]
+
+Spring began to come again. I could see from my window that a soft
+green carpet was spread all over the earth. The trees blossomed out,
+some in pink, and some in white, and the warm air filled the room from
+open doors and windows. It was all so pretty and pleasant.
+
+But now my door was never left open a minute, Angeline snapped it shut
+when she did up my room, as quick as wink. I felt as if it was rather
+hard to be such a prisoner when I was not used to it, and I began to
+get gloomy and discouraged again. When I saw other birds hopping about
+so gay and free, I used to tell grandma if she would only let me out a
+few minutes, just to sit in that lovely little cherry-tree and taste
+the blossoms, I would come right back. But she never paid any attention
+to such talk. She did hang my cage outside her window, though, and the
+branches of the elm drooped all about it. I had a good many visitors
+there, and some of them were very pleasant.
+
+[Illustration: WHEN I SAW OTHER BIRDS.]
+
+Little Mrs. Bluebird slipped over often. She told me how she and Mr.
+Bluebird worked for weeks making a lovely nest, lined with wool; and
+she had four little speckled eggs, and had commenced sitting on them
+when some bad boys tore down the nest and carried it off, eggs and all.
+
+[Illustration: MAKING A LOVELY NEST.]
+
+I wondered if it was Bob. She said she was discouraged, and she
+believed she would like to live in a little house like mine and be
+taken care of. After I had told her my troubles, she thought that
+perhaps she was as well off as anybody.
+
+And I, too, found that my lot was not the hardest there was. Robin
+Redbreast told me that they all had passed through sad times that
+spring. They came North too early; the whole family froze their feet,
+and often went hungry to bed because not a crumb nor a bug was to
+be found on the snow-covered ground. And if it had not been for our
+grandma, they would certainly have starved. She put crumbs on the
+piazza roof for them every morning. He thought he would be perfectly
+happy in my home, with such a grandma. Then, besides, they had been
+obliged to move their nest three times that spring, and every one that
+visited me had complaints to make about the sparrows; they are a bad,
+quarrelsome set. It seems they were invited here from Europe, and now
+they act as if they owned all this country. I think they must be a
+very low family. I don't see why they should put on such airs. They
+are common enough looking birds with their dusty gray coats. Why! A
+sparrow looks like a mouse by the side of some that used to come to
+the elm—great, splendid creatures with scarlet vests and black velvet
+coats, looking as if they belonged to the royal family. They were kind,
+and polite, and modest, and they didn't come from Europe either. But
+there! Grandma says it is wrong to say ill-natured things of people.
+
+Every morning at four o'clock all the birds in our neighborhood held
+a concert. They invited me to join it. They thought my voice would be
+a great addition, they said. They wanted Mr. Bobolink and me to sing
+a duet together. Then they put me down for a solo and all would join
+in the chorus. I wanted to attend very much, but I was ashamed to find
+that every morning by the time I got outside, the concert was over and
+my friends had gone different ways to attend to the business of the
+day. They were hard at work building nests, and they seemed so busy
+and happy, hopping about among the boughs, or going long journeys and
+coming back with twigs and bits of thread in their mouths.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Every night they had a sort of party just before bedtime and such a
+chattering as they kept up! Sometimes they held it in the elm-tree and
+I put in a little word now and then. But the favorite meeting place was
+in a grove across the street. Oh! How I longed to be out with them; my
+life seemed so hum-drum by the side of theirs.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+[Illustration] SOMETHING happened when the summer was almost gone. One
+day grandma shut the window and let me out in the room a few minutes,
+so that my cage might have an extra cleaning. When Angeline brought it
+back, she put me in it in a great hurry and hung it out in the usual
+place. Hi! What did I see when she had left me? The door of my cage was
+open! I looked at grandma; she was bending over her sewing and did not
+see me.
+
+"I'll just go out for a few minutes," I said to myself, "to get the
+air, then I'll come back. I won't run away, not a bit."
+
+I spread my wings and away I went, up, up, up. Was there ever anything
+so nice as flying! I steered for a tall maple, and, there I sat and
+rocked myself back and forth, and looked down on the whole world. Away
+down ever so far I could see grandma at her window sewing. She had not
+missed me yet. I could see Bob down on the lawn.
+
+The dog was there too. How glad I was that I was up so high. Pretty
+soon grandma got up and got a cherry, and came back to put it in my
+cage. Poor grandma! How astonished and frightened she looked. She put
+out her head and looked all about. Then she called, "Bob, see if you
+can find Birdie. He is gone!"
+
+Bob ran up and down, and shouted, and didn't seem to look anywhere but
+right up in the sky. Then everybody in the house came out, and looked
+in the hedge, and under the lilac, and in the evergreen. It was fun to
+watch them.
+
+Then somebody said, "There he is in the top of that tall maple."
+
+Yes, there I was looking at them. I was ahead for once, and they
+couldn't do a thing but stand and look at me.
+
+"Let's send Tab up to scare her down," said Bob. "Come Tabby, Tabby,"
+he called, and that dreadful old cat came walking out of the kitchen.
+
+I didn't wait to see what would be done next. I spread my wings for a
+long high fly out of reach of all cats and dogs and boys.
+
+If you never flew, I can't begin to tell you how nice flying is. When
+I was sure I was far enough away, I rested myself in a grove. I fell
+asleep there, and had a nice long nap. When I awoke, I couldn't think
+for a minute where I was. I was very hungry. I found a berry or two,
+but they were almost gone. I thought I ought to go back now. I would
+have liked to try to find the little brown house, but I was afraid if
+I stayed any longer, grandma would be troubled about me, so I started
+home, as I thought. On and on I went, but I could not find a big gray
+house. Where was it? And where was I? I began to feel very tired, and
+had to stop every few minutes to rest.
+
+[Illustration: I HEARD A GREAT LONG M-E-O-W.]
+
+It was growing dark, and I began to be afraid I should never find
+grandma's house again. I flew wildly about till I was too tired to
+move. It was dark, and I was lost! It's all very well to be free while
+the sun shines, but when the dark night comes down, it's better for
+a poor little bird like me to be in his own little house. Oh dear! I
+thought, if only I hadn't gone out. I never meant to get so far away.
+Grandma did know best, after all, and it seems one can't do the least
+little wrong thing without suffering for it. I knew it was naughty to
+go out, and now I was being punished for it.
+
+These were my thoughts as I sat sad, and hungry, and wretched. I did
+not dare to sleep up in a high tree. I was so tired I was afraid I
+would fall and break my neck, so I curled up in a little low bush and
+was just falling asleep when I heard a great long m-e-o-w. A cat! It
+made my heart stand still. As soon as I could get strength I flew up in
+a big tree. The wind blew so hard I was afraid it would blow the tree
+down. The cat went off after a while, and I was just dropping off to
+sleep again when a loud shrill voice said, "Tu-whoo, tu-whoo," and just
+a little ways from me I saw two big eyes that looked like fire-balls. I
+thought it must be some great monster come to swallow me up. I did not
+dare to make a bit of noise. I hid behind some big leaves and shut my
+eyes tight so that he couldn't see me, and I sat and trembled.
+
+How I thought then of my pretty cage hanging empty in grandma's room,
+and wished, oh! so much, that I was only in it. There was very little
+sleep for me that night.
+
+I was glad when the sky began to get red in the east. Then soon after I
+heard a stir and twitter from some other birds. This cheered me up; I
+ventured to peep out. The big eyes were gone, and the first rays of the
+sun were peeping into my tree. The great drops of dew lay all about me.
+I was so glad, for I had been thirsty all night, and there is no sweet
+good drink like dew. The next thing was to go out and hunt up some
+breakfast. I didn't know which way to turn to find something. I went
+toward the place where I heard the voices of other birds. I made sure
+first that they were not those saucy blue-jays, or cross sparrows, then
+I flew right down among them. I was glad to find that they belonged to
+the same families with whom I was acquainted. I guess they were cousins.
+
+[Illustration: I GUESS THEY WERE COUSINS.]
+
+They all gathered around me as if I were a great sight. They were very
+kind to me, and said they would show me where to get some breakfast,
+but when I saw what it was—bugs and worms—I turned away. I had to
+tell them that I couldn't eat such as that if I starved. Some of them
+laughed at me then, and said I was putting on airs.
+
+Then old mother Robin spoke up and said, "Children, don't be rude. This
+little stranger has not been used to eating such food. Come with me, my
+child, and I will show you where you can find some seeds."
+
+So she took me to a large, lovely garden, and showed me how to get the
+seeds out of some little balls that were growing there. They were very
+sweet and good.
+
+I stayed with these birds a long time, for after a few days I gave
+up trying to find either of my homes. I saw in my journeys a good
+many little brown houses and tall gray ones, but they were never the
+right ones. So I settled myself down to an outdoor life, and was quite
+content. I helped the other birds. I brought bits of things that I
+found to them, and went out with them to hunt bugs for their little
+ones; it was great fun to do that. I went with the robins just before
+dark often to get worms. They would stamp on the ground, then the worms
+that live way down under ground would come and poke their heads up to
+see who was knocking at their door, and the robins would snatch them up
+in their bills and be off.
+
+[Illustration: EVERYTHING LOOKS FRESH AND CLEAN.]
+
+We had grand concerts. The first one was always at four o'clock in the
+morning. The world is very beautiful then. Everything looks fresh and
+clean. It is a wonderful sight to see the sun get up. There is a great
+glory in the sky just before he comes. The little pink-edged clouds lie
+all around, and the dewdrops sparkle like thousands of diamonds. Only
+birds enjoy it, though. People stay in their beds and sleep, just when
+the world is the very prettiest. I have often wondered why all little
+boys and girls did not go to bed when birds do, and get up when they
+do, and not miss the best of everything. The four o'clock concert is
+given by the birds on purpose to make folks wake up to enjoy things.
+But they will not—only just a few; the others scold. They turn over and
+say, "I wish those little scamps would stop that noise." I've heard
+them many a time.
+
+[Illustration: MY FRIENDS TOOK LONG JOURNEYS.]
+
+My friends took long journeys, and I often went with them. But I could
+not stand it to fly as fast or as long as they did, and often stopped
+by the way and rested till they returned. One day I stopped in a grove
+and had a nice sleep. Then I waited a long time for them, but they
+didn't come. And they never came; I never saw them again! It grieved me
+very much. I thought they might at least have said "good-by" to me. I
+remembered that they had told me they always went South every fall and
+stayed until spring. And now they were gone, and I was sad and lonely.
+
+There were no birds left very soon, except swallows and sparrows, and
+I never had been sociable with them. The nights grew very cold. I had
+to get in the evergreen-tree and tuck my feet under me, or they would
+have been frozen. The seeds were all gone out of the garden. I lived on
+crumbs that people threw out in their dooryards. One day a few little
+flakes of snow came down. That frightened me. What if great heaps of it
+were to come and cover up all the crumbs!
+
+Oh, how dreary the pretty world begun to look! The leaves all gone
+from the trees, the branches bare, and the green hills turned to dingy
+brown; the rain drip, dripping all day long. I sat on the fence for
+long hours, and watched and looked at every little girl to see if it
+were not Rita or Dody. I went to all the tall houses to try to find
+grandma's window. I thought how she sat in the twilight by the fire,
+humming her sad little songs, and wondering where I was. Oh, dear
+grandma! If she would only come out to look for me, I would fly right
+into her arms. Day after day I sat and mourned. I grew thin, and my
+feathers fell out, and I felt sick. Where were all my friends?
+
+[Illustration: HOW DREARY THE PRETTY WORLD BEGAN TO LOOK.]
+
+One morning I sat on a bush not far from a house. A cold rain was
+drizzling down, and I was cold and hungry. Just then a woman came
+along, and before I knew what she was about she threw a handkerchief
+over my head and caught me. I struggled hard to get away, for I did
+not like the looks of the woman. I thought I would rather stay out and
+starve than to live with her. She had a rough, red face, and her dress
+was soiled and torn. Her shoes wouldn't stay on, and her hair straggled
+over her face. She held me tight and took me into the house. A pack of
+ragged children ran to meet her.
+
+How shall I begin to tell you what I felt when I looked around that
+house? It was bare and dreadful looking. There was no carpet or
+curtains, and nothing but a broken stove and table, a chair or two,
+and some ragged beds on the floor in one end of the room. The children
+had dirty faces and tangled hair and ragged clothes. To think of my
+Rose and Dody looking like that! Every one of them wanted to take me
+the same minute, and they snatched me about from one to another, and
+squeezed me up as if they thought I was made of paper.
+
+Pretty soon the woman brought a small box, and said in a loud voice
+that made me shudder, "Give him to me this minute!"
+
+She lifted the cover, plumped me in and shut it quick. There I was, in
+the dark. After a while she fixed it so that a little ray of light came
+in, and I could see a cup of water and a piece of bread. But though
+I was almost starved my heart was too heavy to eat. To think that I
+should ever have come to this—a prisoner in such a place. How could I
+ever have been unhappy in that sweet dear home that I first ran away
+from. I tell you, it's thinking what might have been, and that it is
+our own fault that it doesn't be, that is the hardest part to bear when
+you get into trouble.
+
+I tried to resign myself to the thought that I was to stay in that dark
+place forever. But after a long time, they took me out and put me in
+a little rough cage made of splintery sticks nailed together. And now
+began the very hardest part of my life. The father came home, and he
+was a great big shaggy man, with fierce eyes and a red nose. He scolded
+and knocked the children about, and drank all the time from a big black
+bottle, and smoked till I was almost choked, and said bad words, and
+got worse and worse till he fell asleep. Day after day he went through
+that.
+
+Bob's tormentings were nothing to what I had to suffer now. Bill and
+Sam and Betty and Sal quarreled over me, and pulled me about from
+morning till night. It is a wonder I did not die. Still, my feathers
+grew in again, and I began to feel stronger, but I did not sing. I went
+over some sad little chirrupings that meant, O, dear Rose! O, grandma!
+O, Dody! Won't some of you come to help me? What a dismal, wretched
+home it was. Nothing but cuffs, and kicks, and scoldings through the
+dreary weeks. I am only a little bird, but I would like to speak out
+and tell all boys and girls that they ought to be very happy if they
+have enough to eat and wear, a kind father and mother, and a pleasant
+home.
+
+One night I saw that big fierce man looking sharp and long at me. I
+thought it meant something, and it did. For early the next morning,
+before it was scarcely light, while all the rest were asleep, he
+slipped softly up to me, took down my cage, hid it under his coat and
+went out.
+
+I shivered when I felt the frosty air, both with cold and fear. I
+didn't know what this bad man would do to me. Perhaps he was going to
+kill me! He walked on and on a long ways. We did not pass many houses
+at first. At last he went through a long street, and another, till he
+came to the edge of the village and stopped before a house where a man
+was mending his gate. He asked him if he wanted to buy a bird.
+
+"No," said the man, and went on with his hammering without looking at
+me.
+
+I peeped out at him and his pretty home. Oh I how I wished I could
+speak and beg him to take me. Then the bad man said he wanted to sell
+him very much; that he was a poor man and had no money to buy breakfast
+for his family. Then the nice man laid down his hammer, and came close
+and took a good look at me.
+
+"Where did you get this bird?" he asked. And when he had been told, he
+said, right away, "I'll take him!"
+
+And he pulled out some money and handed it over, and took me and went
+up the walk to the house as fast as he could.
+
+"Could this be the little brown house?" I thought.
+
+No, this was a white house, with green blinds. But there was the porch,
+and the apple-tree and the broad stones just the same. And was that
+leafless bush the lilac? And who was the chubby little girl in a long
+nightgown that bounded into the room as soon as I was inside? My dear
+Dody? It was, it was surely Dody.
+
+She shouted and clapped her hands and cried, "Papa, is that Puff? O,
+where did you get him?"
+
+"Look and see if it is Puff," he said.
+
+She bent over me just a minute, then she said, "Yes, it's my dear
+Puffy. It's his hind toe; it is, it is! Don't you know, papa, the nail
+was crooked and shorter than the others, and there's the topknot on his
+head. Oh, I must have him in my hand just a minute, the dear darling!"
+
+And she took me in her warm, soft hands, and laid me to her cheek and I
+was happy, and Dody looked as if she were.
+
+Then she took me into the little bedroom that I remembered so well, and
+there lay Rita still fast asleep. Dody put my bill close to her cheek,
+and I kissed her.
+
+Then she sat up quick, and said, "Why! Why! Where am I?"
+
+And Dody laughed till she cried. Then father and mother came in, too,
+and they all talked and wondered together about me.
+
+When breakfast was ready, they let me come and eat with them. I cannot
+tell you if I try, what a happy, happy time it was when I sat and sung
+again at morning prayers, in the pretty little sitting-room with the
+sun shining straight into my cage.
+
+I am at last perfectly happy and contented. I have tried everything I
+thought I wanted, and it wasn't what I thought it was, and now I am
+back in the old place, and here was what I wanted all the time and I
+didn't know it. Silly Puff!
+
+It is out of fashion to put a moral after a story, but I am going to
+have one to mine.
+
+
+   MORAL.—If you should be thrown into bad company, don't take their
+advice.
+
+   It takes only one little minute to do something that may cause months
+of sorrow.
+
+   Be content.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77391 ***
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+<head>
+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>
+      The Story of Puff, by Mrs. C. M. Livingston │ Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77391 ***</div>
+
+<p>Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image001" style="max-width: 33.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image001.jpg" alt="image001">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image002" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image002">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image002.jpg" alt="image002"></a>
+</figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>DODY.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h1>THE STORY OF PUFF</h1>
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+BY<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t1">
+MRS. C. M. LIVINGSTON<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image003" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image003.jpg" alt="image003"></figure>
+
+<p><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+BOSTON<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+FRANKLIN STREET<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+COPYRIGHT, 1883.<br>
+<br>
+D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3b">
+CONTENTS.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_1">CHAPTER I</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_2">CHAPTER II</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_3">CHAPTER III</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_4">CHAPTER IV</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_5">CHAPTER V</a></p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3b">
+ILLUSTRATIONS.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Image002">Dody</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image006">A little Girl came with a Basket</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image004">Rita and Dody</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image011">What a lovely Spot my Home was</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image010">They brought me fresh Chickweed</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image007">They eat Bugs</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image008">On the Bough of a tall Tree</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image012">Making a Breakfast of Cherries</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image013">Fred spread his Wings</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image014">Somebody said "Here he comes"</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image015">Dody cried as if her Heart would break</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image016">Rita</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image017">On the Wing</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image019">A Drink of Water</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image020">Then they had a Dog</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image021">Grandma and Rose</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image022">I saw myself in a Mirror</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image024">Dear Rose lay on a Bed of Flowers</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image025">Since Rosie died</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image026">When I saw other Birds</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image027">Making a lovely Nest</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image028">Such a Chattering as they kept up</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image030">I heard a great long Me-ow</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image031">I guess they were Cousins</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image032">Everything looks fresh and clean</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image033">My Friends took long Journeys</a></p>
+<p><a href="#Image034">How dreary the pretty World began to look</a></p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image004" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image004">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image004.jpg" alt="image004"></a></figure>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t2">
+<b>STORY OF PUFF.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_1">CHAPTER I.</a></h3>
+
+<div class="container">
+<figure id="image005">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image005.jpg" alt="image005">
+</figure>
+<p>
+<br>
+<br>
+I belong to the Canary family, and that is a very good
+old family as everybody very well knows. The first that I can remember
+of anything was the time that I was taken away from my mother and
+brothers and sisters. A little girl came with a basket after me. She
+had on a blue dress and a white sunbonnet, and her name was Rita. I was
+frightened almost to death, and screamed with all my might when she
+took hold of me; my mother screamed too, and spread out her wings and
+scolded, but it did no good. I was hurried into the basket, the cover
+shut down tight, and there I was in the dark. It was dreadful. I could
+hardly breathe.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image006" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image006">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image006.jpg" alt="image006"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>A LITTLE GIRL CAME WITH A BASKET.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>When she got home, she took me out of the basket and put me in a small
+wire cage. I curled up in one corner, and did not dare to look about me
+for a long time. They brought me some supper, but I would not taste it.
+I was only just learning to feed myself; my dear mother used to feed
+me nice bits from her bill; my heart swelled right up in my throat. I
+could not have eaten if I had tried.</p>
+
+<p>When it began to grow dark, I cried as hard as I could: we used to
+cuddle down under mother's wings and go to sleep; I thought my heart
+would break. Towards morning I tucked my bill in my neck, and snugged
+down in a heap with one foot under me and got a little sleep.</p>
+
+<p>I was wakened next morning by the sun shining right into my cage. I was
+glad of it, for I had been quite cold. My feathers were not so very
+thick yet. Pretty soon two little girls, Rita and her sister Dody, came
+and talked to me. Dody was a little bit of a round-faced girl, with
+bright blue eyes and red cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>I loved her right away. She said "Poor birdie!" and her voice was as
+sweet as my little sister's voice when she said "peep" to me in the
+mornings. They stood and looked at me a long time, and talked about me.
+"How bright his eyes are!" they said, and, "What funny little feet!"
+"How pretty he will be when he gets all his feathers." Then their
+mother called, "Children, come to breakfast," and they ran off.</p>
+
+<p>I ate a very few seeds for my breakfast, and drank a little water. Then
+I tried to dress my feathers just as I had seen my dear mother do hers,
+but mine would not lie down smoothly. After breakfast they came back
+and talked to me again, but I never gave a single chirp in answer. It
+was a long, sad day, and I was glad when night came again.</p>
+
+<p>Just as I was going to bed, Dody came to the cage with her hands full
+of little fixings. I wondered what she was going to do. I flew up on
+the top perch and watched her. She opened the door, and in one corner
+of my floor she put a piece of cotton, soft stuff like thistledown.
+Then she spread some pieces of white flannel on it, and covered it with
+a piece of pink stuff. Then what did she do but catch me and try to put
+me in the little bed she had made.</p>
+
+<p>I tried my best to make her know that birds didn't sleep in beds, but
+she kept saying, "Poor Puffy was tired! Shall have a nice bed, so he
+shall."</p>
+
+<p>So she put me on the soft little bed, and spread the blanket and the
+pink thing over me; then she took her hand off and I flew right back to
+my perch.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Puffy!" she said. "You musn't do so."</p>
+
+<p>Then we had another hard time. Her little hand chased me about the cage
+till I was ready to drop, but she got me. She put me in the bed again
+and held me down. She tucked the blanket around me, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Puff, it's a very cold night; little birdies will freeze if they
+don't cover up. Dody wants you to learn to sleep in a bed, just as she
+does. That's no way to rest; get way up on a perch, and stand on one
+foot, and stick your head in your feathers way behind you. I'll just
+tell you, Puffy, we ain't going to have any such uncomfortable works in
+this house. Now be still, and I'll sing you to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>I wish I could tell you just how she looked while she sat there singing
+her sweet little hymn:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<br>
+"Hush my dear, lie still and slumber,<br>
+&nbsp;Holy angels guard thy bed."<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Her singing was so sweet, and she looked so loving! If anybody could
+make me sleep in a bed she could, but I wasn't going to do it not even
+for her. I thought I should smother, bundled up there, and I knew I
+was right, for my mother began to teach us to sleep on a perch. I kept
+still, though. It was no use to flutter; she only squeezed me the
+harder. Pretty soon she thought I was asleep. She softly raised her
+hand, and I popped up quick as wink and was back on my top perch in no
+time. Then poor Dody cried. I felt sorry for her, but I couldn't help
+it. Her mother came in then, and explained it all out nice to her and
+she felt better.</p>
+
+<p>They all sat around then, looking at me and talking about me. They
+tried to find a name for me. One said "Billy," and another said "Dick."
+"Call him 'Goldy,' he is so yellow," Rita said. But their mother said,
+"Better call him Puff; he looks just like a little puff ball." They
+clapped their hands and cried out, "So we will; that's a sweet little
+name." I never forgot my name from that day to this. I couldn't, I
+heard it so much.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pretty little home that I had come to. There was no fine
+furniture in it, but it was snug and warm, the fire was always bright
+and everybody looked sunshiny. Even when the wind blew and the snow
+flew, it always seemed as if the sun shone in that room. I think
+one reason was because everything went on smoothly, and there was a
+good deal of singing. Rita and Dody sang all their little songs, and
+evenings and Sundays their father and mother sang with them.</p>
+
+<p>I never shall forget the day I began to sing myself. I didn't know I
+could. I remember the very first song—Rita and Dody were singing it. It
+was "Blooming May makes all gay."</p>
+
+<p>It made the girls almost wild with joy when I piped out a few little
+notes, no louder than a katydid's. They said, "He's going to be a
+singer! Isn't that nice?"</p>
+
+<p>And they ran and told their mother, and she came and stood looking at
+me a long time. But I didn't sing a word while she was there. Somehow
+I couldn't when they were all watching me so. They told all the
+neighbors, too, and when their father came from his work, they ran to
+meet him the first thing. I never could see why they made such an ado
+over it. I thought birds were made on purpose to sing, and of course
+they all did. But now that I come to think of it, my dear mother did
+not sing. My father did all the singing in our family. She chirped a
+little, but it was sweeter than any singing to me.</p>
+
+<p>The cold winter went away and spring came. My cage was hung out of
+doors under the apple-tree every day now, and here was a beautiful new
+world, made of soft blue and pretty green and white blossoms. What a
+lovely spot my home was! A little brown house, with tall old trees
+around it, standing on a green hill sloping down on one side to a
+little brook that rattled and hurried over the stones. The trees were
+covered with pink and white blossoms, and the air was soft and sweet.</p>
+
+<p>There was a wide porch where everybody came to get cool, so I had
+plenty of company. There were other birds, too, who came often to the
+apple-tree. I was afraid of them at first, but I soon got over that.
+One by the name of Jenny Wren, built a nest just in the corner, at the
+top of the porch. I enjoyed her society very much.</p>
+
+<p>I grew very fast, and could sing almost as well as the birds that came
+in the trees and sang in the mornings. I began to be very happy, too,
+and to like my new home. Rita and Dody loved me so much, and I loved
+them. They always ran to me the first thing when they came from school.
+They brought me fresh chickweed and lumps of sugar, and sometimes a bit
+of orange or apple, and I ate it right from their fingers. It was good,
+too.</p>
+
+<p>There is one thing that I never could understand, and that is why they
+do not give us oranges to eat all the time when we like them better and
+they are so much easier to eat than seeds. I do get very tired getting
+the shells off from my seeds. I would have much more time to sing, if
+I did not have to keep pecking away at those hard old things all the
+time. It is a very hard way to earn one's living, I think. And yet it
+is not so bad as it might be, for my friends in the apple-tree tell me
+that nobody brings them anything at all, that they pick up their eating
+just where they can. Sometimes they get plenty, and sometimes not. They
+eat bugs and worms and all such vile things. Pah! I am sure I should
+not like that. But then it must be nice to spread one's wings and fly
+away up into the blue, and sit and swing on a bough of a tall tree.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image007" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image007">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image007.jpg" alt="image007"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>THEY EAT BUGS.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>One morning the little girls brought me some news. They told me that a
+rich lady who lived down in the village, was going away with all her
+family for a month, and that she was going to pay them for taking care
+of her bird while she was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"So you see you are going to have company, Puffy," Rita said. "I'm
+going to bring him home to-night, and you must be sure to have your
+feathers all smoothed down nicely, and your best manners on, for he's
+very stylish, Puffy, and he lives in a great, grand house ten times as
+big as ours."</p>
+
+<p>That day seemed very long to me, and I dressed my feathers a great many
+times, and tried to look my best. I grew very restless as it drew near
+to four o'clock, and hopped up and down stairs till I was all tired
+out; for you must know my little house is three stories high. There is
+the first floor, then the first perch, where I stand to reach my seeds
+and water, and the second one where I sleep nights, and that makes
+three stories, besides the attic where my swing is.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image008" style="max-width: 30.3125em;"><a id="Image008">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image008.jpg" alt="image008"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>ON THE BOUGH OF A TALL TREE.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Pretty soon I heard the gate click. I peeped through the leaves. Yes!
+There he was coming, sure enough—the grand company bird. My heart
+fluttered so I could hardly breathe, but I flew up-stairs with all
+speed, curled down on my feet, puffed out my feathers, and tried to
+look as if I didn't care.</p>
+
+<p>"Here he is, Puff," Rita said, as she came up the steps of the porch
+with a pretty cage in her hand. "This is Fred, Puffy; why don't you
+make a bow to him?"</p>
+
+<p>I straightened myself up then and looked at him, and he looked at me,
+but neither of us spoke. I forgot all about manners. Rita hung his cage
+very near mine, and went away, and we went on staring at each other. He
+was a handsome fellow, large, and yellow as buttercups. I thought he
+looked proud, he stood up so tall and stiff, and snapped his black eyes
+at me, just as if he were poking fun at something. Then he went up to
+his highest perch and sat and looked and looked.</p>
+
+<p>I had always thought my cage was a cosey little home until his great
+gilt one was put by the side of it. Then I began to feel ashamed of my
+little house, so very small and plain. I remembered just then what Rita
+said about manners; so I chirped a few times to him in a friendly way,
+to let him know he was welcome. He never answered my chirps at all, but
+just kept on staring, and I could feel that he was looking me over from
+head to foot, as if he were measuring every feather I had on. Of course
+I could not make as good an appearance as he did; I hadn't had so much
+time to grow in.</p>
+
+<p>All at once he jumped up on the highest perch he had and began to sing
+with all his might. He trilled and warbled and went up and down the
+scale, in and out and every way, and when he came to the high notes,
+he opened his mouth as wide as he could and screamed. He certainly had
+a very powerful voice, but not a sweet one. When he went up so high it
+was just yelling, and that's all you can call it.</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished, he cocked his head on one side and looked at me
+out of the corner of his eye, as much as to say, "There! Did you ever
+hear anything like that?"</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_2">CHAPTER II.</a></h3>
+
+<div class="container">
+<figure id="image009">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image009.jpg" alt="image009">
+</figure>
+<p>
+<br>
+<br>
+I WENT on cracking seeds as if I didn't hear him, but
+after he had performed two or three times like that, I thought I would
+show him I could sing a little, too. I knew I could, for people often
+stopped at the gate as they passed, and said to each other, "What a
+sweet singer that bird is!"<br>
+<br>
+I had heard the wild birds sing so much that I had caught many of their
+airs; so while he was taking his supper, I tuned up. I did my very
+best. I was surprised at myself.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Fred was surprised, too. He dropped the seed he was biting in two,
+and glared fiercely at me. Then his wings began to drop down, and
+he looked very mad. Then he spread his wings till he looked like a
+great bat, and flew at the side of his cage as if he would dash right
+through it, and fly at me. I sung away, and he chattered and scolded
+and tried his best to get out. I was glad he couldn't. I should not
+have liked him to come to my cage as mad as he was then.</p>
+
+<p>When I got to the end of my song, I stopped and gave him a little piece
+of my mind. I don't know how I dared to speak so to a stranger, but I
+guess I was a little out of patience myself.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image010" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image010">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image010.jpg" alt="image010"></a></figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>I think Fred was all worn out, for he went to bed soon after. I did not
+go to sleep right away, though I went to my chamber. Somehow I didn't
+feel so happy as I usually did. I knew I had not been polite or kind to
+Fred, and I had been jealous and vain. I did not sleep well. I had bad
+dreams. When I woke in the night, I was afraid. I heard cats walking
+round I thought. I thought I would try to be a very good little bird
+to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>When I woke again, the sun was shining, and Fred was already stirring.
+He seemed to have forgotten how cross he had been. He said "Good
+morning," and chirped away quite pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>After we had eaten breakfast, and taken a bath and dressed ourselves,
+we sung. We sung together, just as loud and high as we could yell.
+My throat was almost split, but I wasn't going to let him beat me.
+For the first few days we did not get along very well. Fred was very
+quick-tempered. He would spread his wings and open his mouth as if to
+swallow me, if I said the least thing to provoke him.</p>
+
+<p>Some days we had very good times. Our cages hung so near that we could
+talk together all we pleased. Fred told me about his life when he was
+at home; how he hung between lace curtains in a pretty window of a
+large, fine house, and watched people pass all day long. And there were
+a great many visitors, and they all said, "What a beautiful bird!" and
+"What a wonderful singer!" And he had cake and candy, just as much as
+he wanted, and oranges and bananas, and they had a piano, and when
+they played, he sang with it, and people said it was as good as a
+concert. He said it was very dull in that little old brown house, and
+he wondered I didn't die.</p>
+
+<p>And one day when he felt very good-natured, he told me that I was very
+handsome, and that I had a wonderful voice, and that I ought to be out
+in the world where people would admire me. He said, too, that it was
+a shame to give me nothing but seeds and water to eat; that they were
+mean, stingy people to treat me so. I did not like to hear him talk in
+that way about my dear Rita and Dody, who were always so kind to me.
+But when I came to think it over, it did seem as if I had been treated
+badly, and I felt cross when Dody filled my seed-cup. I wouldn't touch
+one for quite a while.</p>
+
+<p>I sat and pouted half the morning, and Dody thought I was sick. She
+went and told her mother how I acted. Her mother was looking over
+lettuce for dinner; beautiful green leaves they were—oh! How I wanted
+to get my bill into it.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother said, "Poor Puffy, he needs something fresh and green. Give
+him a leaf of lettuce."</p>
+
+<p>So she did—a lovely curly, tender leaf. I was going at it at once, but
+I waited to see what Fred would do with his leaf. I was afraid he might
+laugh at me if I ate lettuce. But when I saw him eat his as if he liked
+it very much, I began on mine. It was so good. In a few days after that
+the cherries were ripe, and we each had a fresh one every morning. I
+felt ashamed of being so bad and talking as I had, when a great red
+juicy cherry was given me every day.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image011" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image011">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image011.jpg" alt="image011"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>WHAT A LOVELY SPOT MY HOME WAS.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you what it is," said Fred one morning, as he was nibbling
+a big cherry, "it must be a very nice thing to get just as many of
+these as you want. Think of our sleeping up in that big tree, all
+tucked in among the leaves, then in the morning making a breakfast of
+cherries, and away we'd go sailing off just where we please! No cage
+for us any more! See here, Puff," and Fred came to the side of his
+cage, and poked his head away out through the wires and spoke low,
+"let's you and me run away!"</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image012" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image012">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image012.jpg" alt="image012"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>MAKING A BREAKFAST OF CHERRIES.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>The idea of such a thing almost took my breath away. I looked up in
+the blue sky. The white clouds were floating along softly. What if we
+could escape and fly away up, up, and stand on that soft cloud, and
+sail along, sail along, through the blue forever! It would be lovely.
+Just then Rita and Dody came to bring us chickweed, and we had not time
+to talk about it. But when the time came for our evening song, instead
+of singing a low, soft hymn, we talked again about running away. Fred
+talked so much and so fast, that before I knew it I had promised to try
+to escape. We made up our minds that we would go in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>"The sooner we are off the better," Fred said, "for this is the
+grandest time in the year. Everything is ripe—cherries and berries, and
+we shall find hosts of friends as soon as we get out. I was talking
+with Mr. Wren only yesterday, and he promised to help us in any way he
+could."</p>
+
+<p>We sat up very late that night laying our plans. We decided to slip out
+when the cage doors were opened to change the water in our bath-tubs.</p>
+
+<p>"Be quick as a wink when the time comes," Fred said. "Whoever gets
+out first will wait on the top of that tall lilac for the other.
+Good-night! We must be off to sleep now, so as to be ready for morning.
+And don't you go and back out. Have some spirit about you; as if a
+creature with wings ought to live in a cage, like a poor little mean
+mouse!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Fred stretched himself up tall, and looked very proud. He bounded
+into his swing in high spirits, and soon swung himself to sleep. But I
+couldn't sleep. It seemed dreadful to be going out into the great wide
+world all alone. Perhaps the cats would get us, or a bad boy shoot us.
+I could hear the dogs barking, and everything seemed dark and gloomy. I
+wished I hadn't promised to go. Dody told me once that God took care of
+little birds, but I couldn't feel sure about it that night. I started
+at every noise I heard. I was very unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long night, but morning came at last. Dody was up bright and
+early. She brought Fred and me each a beautiful fresh clover blossom
+the first thing she did. Much as I loved clover, I couldn't bear to
+taste it, I felt so bad, thinking of what we meant to do. I couldn't
+eat much breakfast, for when I heard the little breakfast bell tinkle,
+I knew it would be time to start in a little while. I always had
+sung at prayers, but I couldn't that morning. Dody sat in her little
+rocking-chair and sung from her hymnbook as hard as she could. It was
+a sweet hymn, and a tune I liked. But I could not sing a note, and she
+kept looking at me as if she wanted to know why. Fred sang louder than
+anybody.</p>
+
+<p>It was but a few minutes afterwards that the girls came to attend to
+us. They carried our cages out on the back porch, and brought the
+seed-box and fresh water. Rita tended to me that morning, and Dody
+took Fred. Dody turned her back just a minute to get the seeds. Fred's
+door was open a little bit, and he stood down close by it waiting his
+chance. He slipped out as swift as a butterfly! Dody gave a scream, but
+Fred spread his wings and went way, way up. How beautifully he soared
+along. I wished I was with him. I had no chance to get out myself, for
+Rita shut my door tight and went off trying to catch Fred.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image013" style="max-width: 28.3125em;"><a id="Image013">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image013.jpg" alt="image013"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>FRED SPREAD HIS WINGS.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Everybody shouted and ran here and there. The neighbors all came over,
+and one said, "I see him!" and another cried, "There he is!" and at
+last somebody said, "Here he comes on top of the lilac. Hand me his
+cage and I'll get up on the fence and hold it towards him. Maybe he'll
+go in!"</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image014" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image014">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image014.jpg" alt="image014"></a></figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Maybe he didn't! Naughty Fred flew up in the tip-top branch of the
+maple, and swung gayly back and forth, just as if he greatly enjoyed
+seeing a woman on the fence with a red face turned up to the sky, and
+an empty bird-cage in her hand. He only stayed a minute, then he flew
+far away and was never seen again.</p>
+
+<p>Dody cried as if her heart would break. When I saw how badly everybody
+felt about Fred's getting away, I couldn't make up my mind to try to
+go that day. I couldn't go if I had tried, for Rita opened and shut my
+door in a flash when she waited upon me. I suppose Fred was vexed at me
+because I didn't come. Rita and Dody and their mother spent nearly all
+that day out doors looking for him, and they kept his cage hanging out
+for him a good many days, but he did not come.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image015" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image015">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image015.jpg" alt="image015"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>DODY CRIED AS IF HER HEART WOULD BREAK.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>I missed Fred very much, and felt discontented and unhappy. I did not
+enjoy life as I did before he came. I was all the time wishing and
+longing to be somewhere else, and to have things I had not. I did not
+sing any more. I moped. I thought if I could live in a big, handsome
+house, such as Fred told me about, and have a golden cage and all those
+new things to eat, and see people passing back and forth all day, then
+I should be happy. How could I be expected to content myself always in
+this back place, seeing nothing all day long but trees and birds and
+two or three people?</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image016" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image016">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image016.jpg" alt="image016"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>RITA.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Sometimes I thought about following Fred, but I felt a little afraid to
+go alone. I heard them say that perhaps the cats or dogs had killed him
+by this time: But I kept thinking of all he had told me, and I made up
+my mind at last that I would not be a prisoner any more. I would get
+out and see the world. So now I spent all my time in planning how it
+should be done. It would not be an easy thing to do. Rita and Dody were
+so very careful they never left my door open a second. You may wonder
+how it was that I could make up my mind to leave my dear friends, but
+when one begins to go wrong, I guess nothing is of any account but the
+thing they want to do. So night and day I thought and contrived how to
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>One pleasant afternoon when the little girls got home from school, they
+came to pet me. They brought a great treat they thought. It was a piece
+of banana. I wanted to taste it and see what it was like, but I sat
+sulkily in one corner, and never touched it. They talked to me, but I
+wouldn't answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear," said Dody, "he's sick, I know he is."</p>
+
+<p>Her little hot face looked so tired after her long walk, I ought to
+have been ashamed of myself for acting so.</p>
+
+<p>"Shut the windows and let him out for a little while," her mother said.
+"That will rest him."</p>
+
+<p>So she took my cage into the dining-room, and opened the door. I flew
+right out and alighted on the window-sill. I went straight to the
+window, because, I knew something that I guess Dody had forgotten.
+There was a hole in one of the dining-room windows, just a little one,
+no bigger than Dody's hand.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image017" style="max-width: 30.3125em;"><a id="Image017">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image017.jpg" alt="image017"></a></figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"You stay here, Puffy," Dody said, "and I'll get you some nice cold
+water, and you'll feel better, birdie dear. I always do when I take a
+bath."</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had she shut the door than I rushed up to the broken window,
+and out I went! I was free—free as the wind!</p>
+
+<p>I waited just a minute on the rose bush, and peeped in to see Dody
+hunting under chairs and tables, and calling, "Where are you, Puffy!"</p>
+
+<p>Then I said softly, "Good-by, dear Dody," and I spread my wings and
+away, away. I thought I never would stop till I got up into the
+beautiful blue and sat on one of those soft, white clouds.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_3">CHAPTER III.</a></h3>
+
+<div class="container">
+<figure id="image018">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image018.jpg" alt="image018">
+</figure>
+<p>
+<br>
+<br>
+I DID stop, though, very soon, to rest me. I didn't
+think when I saw the other birds skim through the air that flying would
+tire me so. I kept going on toward the blue, but the white clouds
+seemed just as far off as when I started.<br>
+<br>
+I came to a lovely garden and stood on a honeysuckle vine a few minutes
+to rest myself. The vine clambered over a porch, and I heard voices
+talking and laughing. I was enjoying myself very much snuffing the
+sweet air from the honeysuckle, when a hand came softly down over me
+and drew me in through the vines.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was so sudden I had no time to get away, and my heart fluttered
+with fear. The hand was soft and white, and I found when I dared to look
+up that the owner of it was a beautiful young lady. She was dressed in
+gauzy white stuff, and was such a pretty creature that I thought I should
+like to stay with her always.</p>
+
+<p>"Do see what I have found," she said to another lady. "A darling little
+canary."</p>
+
+<p>Then there gathered about me ever so many ladies dressed in silks and
+jewels. They talked to me and called me a beauty, and wondered if I
+could sing.</p>
+
+<p>One lady called a girl, and said, "Angeline, go up in the attic and
+bring down that old bird-cage."</p>
+
+<p>Then they put me in it and the lady said, "Hang it in the dining-room."</p>
+
+<p>It was near a window that I was placed, and not long after I saw the
+pretty young lady who caught me, get in a carriage and go away.</p>
+
+<p>I heard them say, "Better take your bird home with you."</p>
+
+<p>But she said, "No, if nobody comes to claim him, he shall belong to
+Rose."</p>
+
+<p>And who was Rose? I did not find out that night for I soon went to
+sleep, tired out with my journey. I had time in the morning to look
+about me before the rest got up. Here I was at last in a large fine
+house such as Fred told me about. I could see through into the parlor,
+and there were the lace curtains and pictures, and ever so many pretty
+things. It was better than being free to live in such a place. I was
+almost wild with joy. I sung at the top of my voice, and swelled out
+my feathers till I was three times as big as usual. I should never
+have any more trouble; everybody would praise me, and I should have
+everything I wanted. I thought there was only one thing lacking to make
+me perfectly happy. I wanted a big gold cage like Fred's.</p>
+
+<p>While I was watching them set out the table in a scarlet and white
+cloth, and china and silver, just wonderful to see, a little girl
+danced into the room and came toward me.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, little birdie," she said. "What's your name? My name's
+Rose."</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was low and sweet, and she looked like one of the little
+pinkish-white roses that clamber over the porch at Dody's house. Her
+eyes were blue, like the sky, and her gold hair hung on her shoulders
+in pretty waves. I was glad I belonged to Rose. I was just thinking
+what a nice place I had come to, when I heard a great noise and a boy
+burst into the room with a whoop and a yell. I trembled when I saw him,
+for I had heard about boys. He was short and chubby, with very black
+eyes and hardly no hair on his head—I guess his feathers hadn't grown
+out.</p>
+
+<p>"Hulloa!" he said. "Who's this?"</p>
+
+<p>Then he poked his fingers through the wires and hooted at me, and kept
+me flurrying about from side to side, frightened almost to death.</p>
+
+<p>Rose said, "Please, Rob, don't tease him. See, he's afraid, poor
+birdie!"</p>
+
+<p>He paid no attention to her, though, and I was glad when the breakfast
+bell called him away. After breakfast both he and Rose went off to
+school.</p>
+
+<p>It was pretty quiet all day. The dining-room was darkened to keep out
+the flies, and nobody brought me any nice little bit to eat. I had
+nothing but seeds and water. I missed my cuttle-bone and my chickweed.
+I began to be lonely, and to wish I could see Dody. Then I sat and
+thought just how the little room looked with the roses peeping in at
+the window. I could see my empty cage hanging there, and dear Dody sad
+and lonely. A little whisper from somewhere asked me whether I did
+right to run away, and if, after all, I was going to like my new home
+so very much better than the old. But I hushed it up with a very loud
+song.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days something happened. Angeline cane walking in with a great
+beautiful gilt cage in her hand, larger and handsomer than Fred's even.
+She opened its door, then she opened my door and put the open doors
+close together. I stood and looked at it in great astonishment and
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>Then Angeline said, "Why don't you go in, you little goose?"</p>
+
+<p>I didn't like being called a goose, nor did I think it was a polite
+way to invite me. But I stepped in, and she shut the door and carried
+the old cage away. Then she took the new cage into the back parlor,
+and fastened it on a pretty gilt chain that hung down from the ceiling
+between the lace curtains of the window. There! Now I had everything
+just as I wanted it. Was it I, or somebody else, in that great bright
+cage among the lace curtains, looking out on the gay street? I danced
+up-stairs and down, and strutted about and tried to look like Fred.
+I nibbled the cuttle-bone, and took a seed and a drink of water, and
+tried to sing a little to express my feelings. But, somehow, it seemed
+as if my throat was all swelled up. I couldn't sound a note.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image019" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image019">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image019.jpg" alt="image019"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>A DRINK OF WATER.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>You would think that then, surely, I was perfectly happy, with
+everything so nice and a dear little mistress who loved me. But, oh,
+that boy! I knew as soon as I saw him that my troubles had begun. He
+seemed to have a great many names. Most of the time it was "Bob,"
+but Rose called him "Rob." When he was going to bed his mother said,
+"Good-night, Robbie," and his father said "Robert!" when he was
+naughty, and that was most of the time. Saturdays he nearly tortured
+the life out of me. He would catch me, and squeeze me till I was almost
+choked. He would poke at my eyes, and open my mouth and try to get hold
+of my tongue. I tried to get away from him. If I could, I would have
+gone out of the window and left everything, and never have come back.
+Schools ought not to have Saturdays. Rose was in school all the week,
+and Saturdays she often went to visit her cousins, so nobody knew how
+the naughty boy tormented me.</p>
+
+<p>I began to find out that Fred had told only the bright side of things.
+As the weeks passed away, I got tired of the life I led. It was fun at
+first to watch the people pass, but at last I got very tired watching
+them come and go, come and go all day long. Some of them looked cross,
+and some looked sad, and nobody looked very happy. It wasn't half so
+nice, after all, as hanging under the apple-tree and having calls from
+the other birds that flew about. Here no birds came to see me, except
+one ill-natured old sparrow, and he came to pick a quarrel with me. He
+would dart at my cage when the window was open, his mouth stretched
+and his eyes fierce as cat's eyes, I learned how to manage him after
+a while. I would just get back in the further corner of my cage, keep
+perfectly still, and look at him. So he got ashamed of himself and left
+me in peace. That was one of my troubles. I had others.</p>
+
+<p>Some days I nearly starved. Everybody would go off and forget me. Not
+a drop of fresh water, not a seed in my cup, I thought many a day I
+should die before night. I would get so weak I couldn't sing, and I sat
+sad and cross and remembered how Rita and Dody never forgot me once.
+Rose would have seen to me if her mother had allowed her to, but I
+was left to the care of servants, and Rose went to school very early
+and did not know how badly I was treated. There were days, though,
+when I had everything and more too; sugar and orange and berries and
+cake. Then I often made myself sick. I would rather have had something
+steady, even if it was plain.</p>
+
+<p>I was very lonely, too. Nobody seemed to have time to give me a kind
+word. Once when I had sung one of my best songs and did the high notes
+beautifully, a young man sitting in the room reading a newspaper, said,
+"What a horrid screecher that bird is. He ought to have his neck wrung!"</p>
+
+<p>Think of that when I had been doing my best to please him! I didn't
+sing any more for a good many days. I just stood on my highest perch,
+and looked into the street to see if I couldn't see Rita and Dody
+coming to take me home. Day after day I tired myself all out watching,
+but they never came. It was dusty in that window, too. My eyes and nose
+were full of it. I thought of the pure air in my other home; how sweet
+the roses smelled in the porch; and Rita and Dody were there and I was
+not. Oh! If I had only been content in the dear little place. Now I
+never should see it again. They were better folks, too, in the little
+house. They never spoke angry words to each other. But in this house I
+heard a great many; besides there were no prayers and hymns there.</p>
+
+<p>I had worse enemies, too, than Bob, I found out after awhile. One day,
+when Angeline took me into the kitchen to clean my cage, she left me
+standing on the kitchen table while she talked with another girl that
+put her head over the back fence. I was looking about the room, when to
+my horror I saw stretched out behind the stove a great long gray cat. I
+kept as still as a mouse—hardly breathed. It was dreadful! What if she
+should wake up? I had heard awful stories about cats.</p>
+
+<p>I never took my eyes from her. Sure enough she did wake up just then.
+She stretched herself and washed her face, and then got up and walked
+about. I kept still. I didn't dare to scream as long as she had not
+seen me. All of a sudden she turned her head and saw me. Oh, what
+frightful big yellow eyes she had! She gave one great bound and sprang
+up on the table. Then I screamed loud and sharp, and Angeline rushed
+in, just as that dreadful monster had her paw raised all ready to
+strike at me.</p>
+
+<p>Angeline took a broom and sent that cat out of the door pretty fast.
+Then she talked real nice to me, and comforted me, and I thought more
+of her than I ever did before.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image020" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image020">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image020.jpg" alt="image020"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>THEN THEY HAD A DOG.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Then they had a dog, too. He was another trouble. He was white as snow,
+and had little curls all over him, and wore a blue ribbon around his
+neck. His name was Beauty. He didn't act very beautiful. He tormented
+me too. He would jump up towards me, and bark furiously whenever he
+came into the parlor. I did not really think he could catch me, but it
+made me nervous.</p>
+
+<p>The only happy moments I ever had was when I was alone with dear Rose.
+She was so gentle, and seemed to love me so much. She would put her
+face to mine and say low, sweet words. She called me "Tina," after the
+pretty young lady. Her name was Christina. Sometimes Rose took me to
+her room. Then she would open my cage door and tell me to fly. She shut
+all the windows first, or I think I should have run away again to get
+rid of my tormentors. But I did have good times in her room. I flew all
+about and it rested me. I sat on her pretty white bed, and on the tops
+of chairs, and walked all over the bureau and saw myself in the mirror.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image021" style="max-width: 30.3125em;"><a id="Image021">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image021.jpg" alt="image021"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>GRANDMA AND ROSE.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>I thought at first that I was meeting a stranger. I said to myself,
+"That's a good-looking little fellow; wonder who he is?" Then I bowed
+and talked to him, and he, impertinent fellow, just mimicked me for
+everything I did and said. Then I scolded at him, and he scolded back.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image022" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image022">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image022.jpg" alt="image022"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>SAW MYSELF IN A MIRROR.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>I began to feel cross, and I was just getting ready to fight him when
+Rose said, "Why, Tina, that's yourself!" And grandma who sat in the
+room said, "He's as foolish as some touchy boys and girls are; ready to
+quarrel with their own shadows." Then I can tell you I felt ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>Grandma was another good friend of mine. She always made Bob let me
+alone when she happened to be in the room with us, and she began to
+look after me every day, and see if I had some nice little bit to eat.
+Whenever she ate an orange, she always gave a piece to me. She was
+a pretty old lady. Her hair was white as snow. She wore black silk
+dresses and white lace caps, and her face looked as if everything was
+just as she liked to have it.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3>
+
+<div class="container">
+<figure id="image023">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image023.jpg" alt="image023">
+</figure>
+<p>
+<br>
+<br>
+WHEN I was alone with grandma or Rose, I enjoyed myself.
+Rose taught me to come out when she called me, perch on her finger
+and eat sugar from her lips. I knew one or two tunes that she played
+on the piano, and I would sit on her shoulder and sing them while she
+played. I learned to kiss her good-night too. When there was company,
+she always showed me off. Sometimes she would let me stay out all the
+afternoon when we were in her room. I loved to watch her. She used to
+look so pretty in her white dress and blue ribbons, flitting round
+like a butterfly. I sung a good many songs all to her, telling her how
+pretty and good she was, and how much I loved her.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was only once in a while on Saturdays that I had such good times.
+All the rest of the week I hung in that window and heard wagons rattle
+by, and wished so much that I could hear the brook gurgling over the
+stones by the little brown house, and smell the flowers, and see Dody.</p>
+
+<p>One Saturday Rose's cousin came after her to spend the day. I watched
+her getting ready with a sad heart, for I knew Bob would tease me as
+soon as she was gone. And sure enough, no sooner was she gone than
+he began to poke a stick through the wires at me. I was patient for
+a while, and kept out of the reach of it by lively work. Then I got
+cross, I opened my mouth wide at him, and dropped my wings and scolded.
+He only laughed at that. Then he caught me. I slipped away from him
+ever so many times at first, and bumped my head and bruised my sides.
+But at last I was fast, and he squeezed me tight and tried to bend my
+legs the wrong way, and put his little black fingers in my mouth. I bit
+him then, so he pulled out one of my longest, brightest feathers, to
+pay me off, he said. That hurt me, and I screamed so that grandma came
+to see what was the matter. I was trembling like a leaf.</p>
+
+<p>She sent Bob off, then she took me in her own hands, talked low to
+me, and cuddled me up in her soft neck and smoothed my feathers down
+gently, and took the mad all out of me. Little girls are nice and
+pretty, and so are young ladies, but grandmas are best when you get
+into trouble. This grandma always seemed to be around when I was
+frightened almost to death. I loved her dearly.</p>
+
+<p>One day I sat gazing idly into the street, and who should I see but
+Rita and Dody walking along! My heart jumped with joy! Were they
+coming after me? I leaned over and looked down. No! They passed on. I
+called and screamed to them, but the window was shut, and they did not
+hear. They went on. I was almost sick the rest of that day, I was so
+disappointed.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image024" style="max-width: 30.3125em;"><a id="Image024">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image024.jpg" alt="image024"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>DEAR ROSE LAY ON A BED OF FLOWERS.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>But, oh me! I didn't know then what other hard thing was coming. For a
+great many days I missed Rose, and wondered where she was. I thought
+everybody looked sad, and everything looked quiet, though a good many
+people were coming and going. One afternoon the folding doors were
+opened, and they trimmed the doorway with pretty green vines, and the
+room was filled with white flowers. Dear Rose lay on a little bed of
+flowers. She was just as white as the lilies that lay all over her
+pillow. It was really Rose, and she lay very still, and the pink was
+all gone out of her face. I was going to pour out a glad little song
+when I saw her, but when I noticed that everybody was crying and I
+saw Rose did not wake up, I gave two or three sad little chirps. Rose
+always used to come to me when she heard them, and say, "What's the
+matter, Tina, dear?" But now she never moved.</p>
+
+<p>Somebody said, "Oh that bird will break my heart."</p>
+
+<p>Then a lady came and carried me away to grandma's room. I did not know
+what happened next; I only know that I never saw my darling Rose again.
+But I am sure God took care of her, for she was kind and loving; and,
+once when she let me hang in her room all night, I saw her kneel down
+and pray just as they used to do in the little brown house.</p>
+
+<p>I stayed in grandma's room always after that. I think she was lonely
+without her little Rose, and wanted me for company. She prayed, too,
+and read a good deal from a big book.</p>
+
+<p>I was very lonely and sometimes, just at dusk, grandma would sing such
+sad tunes that I thought they would break my heart. One was:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<br>
+Silently the shades of evening<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Gather round my lonely door.<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>I never could sing with her when she hummed that, but when she sang:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<br>
+I lay my body down to sleep,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Peace is the pillow for my head.<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>or</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<br>
+Around the throne of God in heaven<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Thousands of children stand.<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>I always sang them, for it seemed as if little Rose was singing too.</p>
+
+<p>I never saw the dog or cat now, and Bob didn't come into the room very
+often, and grandma would not let him tease me. I don't know as he would
+have done it, anyway. He seemed to feel so bad because Rose was gone.
+He didn't do as much mischief as he used to. I felt sorry for him.</p>
+
+<p>When winter came on and it was time to shut the doors and windows,
+I enjoyed myself. Grandma let me stay out of my cage all I pleased.
+I liked flying about the room and sitting up on top of a picture. I
+sat on grandma's head, too, and picked her lace cap; and when she ate
+apples, I sat on the arm of her chair. She would take a piece and then
+give me a bite. I have sat for a long time and watched her put a shiny
+needle in and out a piece of cloth. It was very funny work. I played
+with her spools, and her spectacles when she took them off. I think a
+bird would look very funny with little spectacles on.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes grandma's tea was sent up to her. Then I took tea with her. I
+took nibbles right out of the bread on the plate, and dipped my bill in
+the butter. I always noticed that people ate bread and butter together.
+I ate a little cake and some peaches, and walked all over the table and
+she never said "stop," once.</p>
+
+<p>Grandma had some nice plants, and I had fine times with them. Sometimes
+I stayed all day among them. I enjoyed picking in the earth, and I
+played that I lived out doors, and that I had great, beautiful grounds,
+all my own, and that the high plants were my tall trees, and the little
+ones my rose bushes and lilacs. There was one big geranium that was my
+very tallest tree. When I felt tired, I played it was night and flew
+into my big tree and hid among the sweet-scented leaves and went to
+sleep. It was just beautiful. Sometimes I played that I had a great
+many brothers and sisters, or that each one of the pots was the house
+of one of my friends, and I would go out calling and have long talks
+with them; or they would come to visit me. I couldn't help thinking at
+times how nice it would be if Fred were there too. I suppose we would
+have quarreled if he had, for Fred always wanted his own way, and that
+shows me that I must have wanted my own way too, or there wouldn't have
+been anything to quarrel about. Grandma says that one can't quarrel
+alone. I heard her tell Bob so.</p>
+
+<p>Once I did something very bad. Grandma went out and stayed a long time,
+and I got into great mischief. She had one handsome, fresh-looking
+plant, with bright green leaves. I never thought of eating any of them,
+but I happened to take a little nip out of this one. It didn't taste
+very good, but the leaves were tender and crisp, like lettuce, and I
+liked to snap out bits of it. It made me think of summer. I didn't mean
+to take all the leaves off. I worked real fast and it was good fun,
+but when I saw it stand there all bare, not a leaf left, I began to be
+frightened. When I heard grandma coming, I hid in the big geranium. I
+kept very still, and she didn't find me for ever so long.</p>
+
+<p>When she spied the plant with all the leaves gone, I heard her say
+"O-h!" She called and called me, "Where are you, naughty little
+fellow?" I heard her say, but I never stirred.</p>
+
+<p>My heart beat so loud I was afraid she would hear it. By that time I
+was so sorry and ashamed I most hoped she never would find me. She
+looked on the top of the windows and under the chairs; then she stooped
+down and looked in among the plants, and before I knew it, her hand was
+over me and I was caught.</p>
+
+<p>As she put me in the cage and shut the door, she said, "Bad birdie; you
+must be punished for this. I cannot let you take tea with me to-night,
+nor let you out again for a good many days."</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how I felt when I saw her supper brought in, I watched Angelina
+while she drew out the little round table, and put a pretty buff cloth
+on it, and set it out with china dishes all covered with pink flowers
+and butterflies, and then brought cunning little biscuit and cold meat,
+and preserves and cake—frosted cake too. Then she brought the little
+silver tea-pot smoking hot, and supper was all ready and I couldn't
+come to it. Oh, dear! If I only hadn't done it!</p>
+
+<p>I've often wondered when I saw Bob doing naughty things why he did them
+when he knew he'd have to suffer for it in some way, and here I had
+been acting just like him. I stood right at the corner where I could
+see best and leaned my head out and watched grandma while she ate. How
+I did want to get on to that table! When she was through, she gave me a
+bit of cake, but I don't think I deserved it. I made up my mind never
+to be naughty again, though.</p>
+
+<p>I could have been quite happy that winter, if we had not missed Rose
+so much. My heart was so heavy. Sometimes it was hard to sing a merry
+song. I asked grandma again and again to tell me about her. Once I
+heard her say, "Since Rosie died." I thought she must be somewhere, for
+grandma said one night when she sat in her arm chair by the fire, "Dear
+little Rosie, I shall go to her, but she shall not return to me."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image025" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image025">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image025.jpg" alt="image025"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>SINCE ROSIE DIED.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Spring began to come again. I could see from my window that a soft
+green carpet was spread all over the earth. The trees blossomed out,
+some in pink, and some in white, and the warm air filled the room from
+open doors and windows. It was all so pretty and pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>But now my door was never left open a minute, Angeline snapped it shut
+when she did up my room, as quick as wink. I felt as if it was rather
+hard to be such a prisoner when I was not used to it, and I began to
+get gloomy and discouraged again. When I saw other birds hopping about
+so gay and free, I used to tell grandma if she would only let me out a
+few minutes, just to sit in that lovely little cherry-tree and taste
+the blossoms, I would come right back. But she never paid any attention
+to such talk. She did hang my cage outside her window, though, and the
+branches of the elm drooped all about it. I had a good many visitors
+there, and some of them were very pleasant.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image026" style="max-width: 30.3125em;"><a id="Image026">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image026.jpg" alt="image026"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>WHEN I SAW OTHER BIRDS.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Little Mrs. Bluebird slipped over often. She told me how she and Mr.
+Bluebird worked for weeks making a lovely nest, lined with wool; and
+she had four little speckled eggs, and had commenced sitting on them
+when some bad boys tore down the nest and carried it off, eggs and all.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image027" style="max-width: 30.3125em;"><a id="Image027">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image027.jpg" alt="image027"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>MAKING A LOVELY NEST.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>I wondered if it was Bob. She said she was discouraged, and she
+believed she would like to live in a little house like mine and be
+taken care of. After I had told her my troubles, she thought that
+perhaps she was as well off as anybody.</p>
+
+<p>And I, too, found that my lot was not the hardest there was. Robin
+Redbreast told me that they all had passed through sad times that
+spring. They came North too early; the whole family froze their feet,
+and often went hungry to bed because not a crumb nor a bug was to
+be found on the snow-covered ground. And if it had not been for our
+grandma, they would certainly have starved. She put crumbs on the
+piazza roof for them every morning. He thought he would be perfectly
+happy in my home, with such a grandma. Then, besides, they had been
+obliged to move their nest three times that spring, and every one that
+visited me had complaints to make about the sparrows; they are a bad,
+quarrelsome set. It seems they were invited here from Europe, and now
+they act as if they owned all this country. I think they must be a
+very low family. I don't see why they should put on such airs. They
+are common enough looking birds with their dusty gray coats. Why! A
+sparrow looks like a mouse by the side of some that used to come to
+the elm—great, splendid creatures with scarlet vests and black velvet
+coats, looking as if they belonged to the royal family. They were kind,
+and polite, and modest, and they didn't come from Europe either. But
+there! Grandma says it is wrong to say ill-natured things of people.</p>
+
+<p>Every morning at four o'clock all the birds in our neighborhood held
+a concert. They invited me to join it. They thought my voice would be
+a great addition, they said. They wanted Mr. Bobolink and me to sing
+a duet together. Then they put me down for a solo and all would join
+in the chorus. I wanted to attend very much, but I was ashamed to find
+that every morning by the time I got outside, the concert was over and
+my friends had gone different ways to attend to the business of the
+day. They were hard at work building nests, and they seemed so busy
+and happy, hopping about among the boughs, or going long journeys and
+coming back with twigs and bits of thread in their mouths.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image028" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image028">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image028.jpg" alt="image028"></a></figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Every night they had a sort of party just before bedtime and such a
+chattering as they kept up! Sometimes they held it in the elm-tree and
+I put in a little word now and then. But the favorite meeting place was
+in a grove across the street. Oh! How I longed to be out with them; my
+life seemed so hum-drum by the side of theirs.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_5">CHAPTER V.</a></h3>
+
+<div class="container">
+<figure id="image029">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image029.jpg" alt="image029">
+</figure>
+<p>
+<br>
+<br>
+SOMETHING happened when the summer was almost gone. One
+day grandma shut the window and let me out in the room a few minutes,
+so that my cage might have an extra cleaning. When Angeline brought it
+back, she put me in it in a great hurry and hung it out in the usual
+place. Hi! What did I see when she had left me? The door of my cage was
+open! I looked at grandma; she was bending over her sewing and did not
+see me.<br>
+<br>
+"I'll just go out for a few minutes," I said to myself, "to get the
+air, then I'll come back. I won't run away, not a bit."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I spread my wings and away I went, up, up, up. Was there ever anything
+so nice as flying! I steered for a tall maple, and, there I sat and
+rocked myself back and forth, and looked down on the whole world. Away
+down ever so far I could see grandma at her window sewing. She had not
+missed me yet. I could see Bob down on the lawn.</p>
+
+<p>The dog was there too. How glad I was that I was up so high. Pretty
+soon grandma got up and got a cherry, and came back to put it in my
+cage. Poor grandma! How astonished and frightened she looked. She put
+out her head and looked all about. Then she called, "Bob, see if you
+can find Birdie. He is gone!"</p>
+
+<p>Bob ran up and down, and shouted, and didn't seem to look anywhere but
+right up in the sky. Then everybody in the house came out, and looked
+in the hedge, and under the lilac, and in the evergreen. It was fun to
+watch them.</p>
+
+<p>Then somebody said, "There he is in the top of that tall maple."</p>
+
+<p>Yes, there I was looking at them. I was ahead for once, and they
+couldn't do a thing but stand and look at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's send Tab up to scare her down," said Bob. "Come Tabby, Tabby,"
+he called, and that dreadful old cat came walking out of the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>I didn't wait to see what would be done next. I spread my wings for a
+long high fly out of reach of all cats and dogs and boys.</p>
+
+<p>If you never flew, I can't begin to tell you how nice flying is. When
+I was sure I was far enough away, I rested myself in a grove. I fell
+asleep there, and had a nice long nap. When I awoke, I couldn't think
+for a minute where I was. I was very hungry. I found a berry or two,
+but they were almost gone. I thought I ought to go back now. I would
+have liked to try to find the little brown house, but I was afraid if
+I stayed any longer, grandma would be troubled about me, so I started
+home, as I thought. On and on I went, but I could not find a big gray
+house. Where was it? And where was I? I began to feel very tired, and
+had to stop every few minutes to rest.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image030" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image030">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image030.jpg" alt="image030"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>I HEARD A GREAT LONG M-E-O-W.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>It was growing dark, and I began to be afraid I should never find
+grandma's house again. I flew wildly about till I was too tired to
+move. It was dark, and I was lost! It's all very well to be free while
+the sun shines, but when the dark night comes down, it's better for
+a poor little bird like me to be in his own little house. Oh dear! I
+thought, if only I hadn't gone out. I never meant to get so far away.
+Grandma did know best, after all, and it seems one can't do the least
+little wrong thing without suffering for it. I knew it was naughty to
+go out, and now I was being punished for it.</p>
+
+<p>These were my thoughts as I sat sad, and hungry, and wretched. I did
+not dare to sleep up in a high tree. I was so tired I was afraid I
+would fall and break my neck, so I curled up in a little low bush and
+was just falling asleep when I heard a great long m-e-o-w. A cat! It
+made my heart stand still. As soon as I could get strength I flew up in
+a big tree. The wind blew so hard I was afraid it would blow the tree
+down. The cat went off after a while, and I was just dropping off to
+sleep again when a loud shrill voice said, "Tu-whoo, tu-whoo," and just
+a little ways from me I saw two big eyes that looked like fire-balls. I
+thought it must be some great monster come to swallow me up. I did not
+dare to make a bit of noise. I hid behind some big leaves and shut my
+eyes tight so that he couldn't see me, and I sat and trembled.</p>
+
+<p>How I thought then of my pretty cage hanging empty in grandma's room,
+and wished, oh! so much, that I was only in it. There was very little
+sleep for me that night.</p>
+
+<p>I was glad when the sky began to get red in the east. Then soon after I
+heard a stir and twitter from some other birds. This cheered me up; I
+ventured to peep out. The big eyes were gone, and the first rays of the
+sun were peeping into my tree. The great drops of dew lay all about me.
+I was so glad, for I had been thirsty all night, and there is no sweet
+good drink like dew. The next thing was to go out and hunt up some
+breakfast. I didn't know which way to turn to find something. I went
+toward the place where I heard the voices of other birds. I made sure
+first that they were not those saucy blue-jays, or cross sparrows, then
+I flew right down among them. I was glad to find that they belonged to
+the same families with whom I was acquainted. I guess they were cousins.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image031" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image031">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image031.jpg" alt="image031"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>I GUESS THEY WERE COUSINS.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>They all gathered around me as if I were a great sight. They were very
+kind to me, and said they would show me where to get some breakfast,
+but when I saw what it was—bugs and worms—I turned away. I had to
+tell them that I couldn't eat such as that if I starved. Some of them
+laughed at me then, and said I was putting on airs.</p>
+
+<p>Then old mother Robin spoke up and said, "Children, don't be rude. This
+little stranger has not been used to eating such food. Come with me, my
+child, and I will show you where you can find some seeds."</p>
+
+<p>So she took me to a large, lovely garden, and showed me how to get the
+seeds out of some little balls that were growing there. They were very
+sweet and good.</p>
+
+<p>I stayed with these birds a long time, for after a few days I gave
+up trying to find either of my homes. I saw in my journeys a good
+many little brown houses and tall gray ones, but they were never the
+right ones. So I settled myself down to an outdoor life, and was quite
+content. I helped the other birds. I brought bits of things that I
+found to them, and went out with them to hunt bugs for their little
+ones; it was great fun to do that. I went with the robins just before
+dark often to get worms. They would stamp on the ground, then the worms
+that live way down under ground would come and poke their heads up to
+see who was knocking at their door, and the robins would snatch them up
+in their bills and be off.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image032" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image032">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image032.jpg" alt="image032"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>EVERYTHING LOOKS FRESH AND CLEAN.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>We had grand concerts. The first one was always at four o'clock in the
+morning. The world is very beautiful then. Everything looks fresh and
+clean. It is a wonderful sight to see the sun get up. There is a great
+glory in the sky just before he comes. The little pink-edged clouds lie
+all around, and the dewdrops sparkle like thousands of diamonds. Only
+birds enjoy it, though. People stay in their beds and sleep, just when
+the world is the very prettiest. I have often wondered why all little
+boys and girls did not go to bed when birds do, and get up when they
+do, and not miss the best of everything. The four o'clock concert is
+given by the birds on purpose to make folks wake up to enjoy things.
+But they will not—only just a few; the others scold. They turn over and
+say, "I wish those little scamps would stop that noise." I've heard
+them many a time.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image033" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"><a id="Image033">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image033.jpg" alt="image033"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>MY FRIENDS TOOK LONG JOURNEYS.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>My friends took long journeys, and I often went with them. But I could
+not stand it to fly as fast or as long as they did, and often stopped
+by the way and rested till they returned. One day I stopped in a grove
+and had a nice sleep. Then I waited a long time for them, but they
+didn't come. And they never came; I never saw them again! It grieved me
+very much. I thought they might at least have said "good-by" to me. I
+remembered that they had told me they always went South every fall and
+stayed until spring. And now they were gone, and I was sad and lonely.</p>
+
+<p>There were no birds left very soon, except swallows and sparrows, and
+I never had been sociable with them. The nights grew very cold. I had
+to get in the evergreen-tree and tuck my feet under me, or they would
+have been frozen. The seeds were all gone out of the garden. I lived on
+crumbs that people threw out in their dooryards. One day a few little
+flakes of snow came down. That frightened me. What if great heaps of it
+were to come and cover up all the crumbs!</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how dreary the pretty world begun to look! The leaves all gone
+from the trees, the branches bare, and the green hills turned to dingy
+brown; the rain drip, dripping all day long. I sat on the fence for
+long hours, and watched and looked at every little girl to see if it
+were not Rita or Dody. I went to all the tall houses to try to find
+grandma's window. I thought how she sat in the twilight by the fire,
+humming her sad little songs, and wondering where I was. Oh, dear
+grandma! If she would only come out to look for me, I would fly right
+into her arms. Day after day I sat and mourned. I grew thin, and my
+feathers fell out, and I felt sick. Where were all my friends?</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image034" style="max-width: 35.3125em;"><a id="Image034">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image034.jpg" alt="image034"></a></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>HOW DREARY THE PRETTY WORLD BEGAN TO LOOK.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>One morning I sat on a bush not far from a house. A cold rain was
+drizzling down, and I was cold and hungry. Just then a woman came
+along, and before I knew what she was about she threw a handkerchief
+over my head and caught me. I struggled hard to get away, for I did
+not like the looks of the woman. I thought I would rather stay out and
+starve than to live with her. She had a rough, red face, and her dress
+was soiled and torn. Her shoes wouldn't stay on, and her hair straggled
+over her face. She held me tight and took me into the house. A pack of
+ragged children ran to meet her.</p>
+
+<p>How shall I begin to tell you what I felt when I looked around that
+house? It was bare and dreadful looking. There was no carpet or
+curtains, and nothing but a broken stove and table, a chair or two,
+and some ragged beds on the floor in one end of the room. The children
+had dirty faces and tangled hair and ragged clothes. To think of my
+Rose and Dody looking like that! Every one of them wanted to take me
+the same minute, and they snatched me about from one to another, and
+squeezed me up as if they thought I was made of paper.</p>
+
+<p>Pretty soon the woman brought a small box, and said in a loud voice
+that made me shudder, "Give him to me this minute!"</p>
+
+<p>She lifted the cover, plumped me in and shut it quick. There I was, in
+the dark. After a while she fixed it so that a little ray of light came
+in, and I could see a cup of water and a piece of bread. But though
+I was almost starved my heart was too heavy to eat. To think that I
+should ever have come to this—a prisoner in such a place. How could I
+ever have been unhappy in that sweet dear home that I first ran away
+from. I tell you, it's thinking what might have been, and that it is
+our own fault that it doesn't be, that is the hardest part to bear when
+you get into trouble.</p>
+
+<p>I tried to resign myself to the thought that I was to stay in that dark
+place forever. But after a long time, they took me out and put me in
+a little rough cage made of splintery sticks nailed together. And now
+began the very hardest part of my life. The father came home, and he
+was a great big shaggy man, with fierce eyes and a red nose. He scolded
+and knocked the children about, and drank all the time from a big black
+bottle, and smoked till I was almost choked, and said bad words, and
+got worse and worse till he fell asleep. Day after day he went through
+that.</p>
+
+<p>Bob's tormentings were nothing to what I had to suffer now. Bill and
+Sam and Betty and Sal quarreled over me, and pulled me about from
+morning till night. It is a wonder I did not die. Still, my feathers
+grew in again, and I began to feel stronger, but I did not sing. I went
+over some sad little chirrupings that meant, O, dear Rose! O, grandma!
+O, Dody! Won't some of you come to help me? What a dismal, wretched
+home it was. Nothing but cuffs, and kicks, and scoldings through the
+dreary weeks. I am only a little bird, but I would like to speak out
+and tell all boys and girls that they ought to be very happy if they
+have enough to eat and wear, a kind father and mother, and a pleasant
+home.</p>
+
+<p>One night I saw that big fierce man looking sharp and long at me. I
+thought it meant something, and it did. For early the next morning,
+before it was scarcely light, while all the rest were asleep, he
+slipped softly up to me, took down my cage, hid it under his coat and
+went out.</p>
+
+<p>I shivered when I felt the frosty air, both with cold and fear. I
+didn't know what this bad man would do to me. Perhaps he was going to
+kill me! He walked on and on a long ways. We did not pass many houses
+at first. At last he went through a long street, and another, till he
+came to the edge of the village and stopped before a house where a man
+was mending his gate. He asked him if he wanted to buy a bird.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the man, and went on with his hammering without looking at
+me.</p>
+
+<p>I peeped out at him and his pretty home. Oh I how I wished I could
+speak and beg him to take me. Then the bad man said he wanted to sell
+him very much; that he was a poor man and had no money to buy breakfast
+for his family. Then the nice man laid down his hammer, and came close
+and took a good look at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get this bird?" he asked. And when he had been told, he
+said, right away, "I'll take him!"</p>
+
+<p>And he pulled out some money and handed it over, and took me and went
+up the walk to the house as fast as he could.</p>
+
+<p>"Could this be the little brown house?" I thought.</p>
+
+<p>No, this was a white house, with green blinds. But there was the porch,
+and the apple-tree and the broad stones just the same. And was that
+leafless bush the lilac? And who was the chubby little girl in a long
+nightgown that bounded into the room as soon as I was inside? My dear
+Dody? It was, it was surely Dody.</p>
+
+<p>She shouted and clapped her hands and cried, "Papa, is that Puff? O,
+where did you get him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look and see if it is Puff," he said.</p>
+
+<p>She bent over me just a minute, then she said, "Yes, it's my dear
+Puffy. It's his hind toe; it is, it is! Don't you know, papa, the nail
+was crooked and shorter than the others, and there's the topknot on his
+head. Oh, I must have him in my hand just a minute, the dear darling!"</p>
+
+<p>And she took me in her warm, soft hands, and laid me to her cheek and I
+was happy, and Dody looked as if she were.</p>
+
+<p>Then she took me into the little bedroom that I remembered so well, and
+there lay Rita still fast asleep. Dody put my bill close to her cheek,
+and I kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>Then she sat up quick, and said, "Why! Why! Where am I?"</p>
+
+<p>And Dody laughed till she cried. Then father and mother came in, too,
+and they all talked and wondered together about me.</p>
+
+<p>When breakfast was ready, they let me come and eat with them. I cannot
+tell you if I try, what a happy, happy time it was when I sat and sung
+again at morning prayers, in the pretty little sitting-room with the
+sun shining straight into my cage.</p>
+
+<p>I am at last perfectly happy and contented. I have tried everything I
+thought I wanted, and it wasn't what I thought it was, and now I am
+back in the old place, and here was what I wanted all the time and I
+didn't know it. Silly Puff!</p>
+
+<p>It is out of fashion to put a moral after a story, but I am going to
+have one to mine.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;MORAL.—If you should be thrown into bad company, don't take their
+advice.<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It takes only one little minute to do something that may cause months
+of sorrow.<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Be content.<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77391 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77391
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77391)