A True Story of a Canary.
Itwas the day after New Year's Day, and we had all gathered at Uncle Jim's house to have a tea-party. When I saywe, I mean Ethel, and Mabel, and Godfrey, and myself. Of course, Ethel's mother was there, as well asheruncle and aunt, and altogether we had a lot of people.
Presently, Ida came.
Now Ida is Ethel's very dear friend, and she lives at the sea-side. She had to comein the train to get to our party.
Uncle Jim has two canaries, and they are such dear little things.
One is called Dicky and the other Fluffy.
Dicky is a beautiful singer and very proud; he is always preening his feathers to make himself look nice. Fluffy cannot sing at all. She sometimes tries to imitate Dicky, and all the sound she makes is a croak. Then she looks quite ashamed of herself.
These two little birds are so tame, they come out of their cages and fly about the room.
They sometimes alight on the table and pick up crumbs, and Fluffy will even hop on to the edge of your plate and steal your dinner. They look very tiny when they hop about the table.
Fluffy is a very greedy bird. She is always eating, and whenever she sees a loaf of bread on the table she cheeps and cheeps until she gets some crumbs.
Now when Ida saw these birds she looked very sad.
"Why, Ida," said Godfrey, "you look quite ready to cry. Whatever is the matter?"
"Well," said Ida, "a mostdreadful thing happened yesterday. A lady asked me to take care of her canary while she went away to do some shopping. I did so, and was teaching it to fly about the room like Fluffy and Dicky.
"It was a very valuable bird, and she prized it greatly.
"In the afternoon I thought I would let it out of its cage. It flew round the room a few times, and then to my horror it went straight into the fire. There was just a little squeak, and it was gone."
The bright fire had attracted this little bird, and now Ida did not know how she wouldtell the owner when she came back for her pet.
So this is a warning to all little boys and girls who have birds to keep—to be sure to put a guard before the fire before letting them out of their cages.
THE END.
Transcriber's Notes1. Typographical errors have been silently corrected.2. Some illustrations have been moved from their position in the original publication.3. Variations of spelling and hyphenation are as seen in the original.
Transcriber's Notes
1. Typographical errors have been silently corrected.
2. Some illustrations have been moved from their position in the original publication.
3. Variations of spelling and hyphenation are as seen in the original.