CHAPTER II 



cardinal: the story of my first caged bird 



The past recalled by a sound — A caged cardinal — A memory of 

 childhood — The clergyman's cardinal — My first caged bird 

 — History of its escapades and ultimate fate. 



A ONCE familiar but long unheard sound coming 

 unexpectedly to us will sometimes affect the 

 mind as it is occasionally affected through 

 the sense of smell, restoring a past scene and state 

 so vividly that it is less like a memory than a vision. 

 It is indeed more than a vision, seeing that this is 

 an illusion, something apparently beheld with the 

 outer or physical eyes ; the other is a transformation, 

 a return to that state — that forgotten self — which 

 was lost for ever, yet is ours again; and for a glorious 

 moment we are what we were in some distant place, 

 some long-vanished time, in age and freshness of 

 feeling, in the brilliance of our senses, our wonder 

 and delight at this visible world. 



Recently I had an experience of that kind on 

 hearing a loud glad bird-note or call from overhead 

 when walking in a London West-End thoroughfare. 

 It made me start and stand still; when, casting up 

 my eyes, I caught sight of the bird in its cage, hanging 

 outside a first-floor window. It was the beautiful 

 cardinal of many memories. 



