A TRIBE OF WEED WARRIORS 239 



"'Fly! fly !' cried the Bird Brothers. 'You have 

 wings — do not look at the earth, lest you grieve to 

 leave it.' 



" Gonda, being obedient, made an effort to fly above 

 the flame, which only tinged some of her feathers red. 

 But Towai, loath to leave the earth, lingered so long 

 that his feathers became all red from the flames, and 

 the soot blackened his face. 



" Though these two birds and their children still be- 

 long to the dull-brown Sparrow family, they have little 

 peace in the forest where they live. Towai wears a 

 splendid red robe and is called the Cardinal, but there 

 is a price upon his head because of his beauty. 



" This is one of the legends that explains why this 

 bird is classed with Sparrows. The Tanager is more 

 fiery red, and the Oriole carries flame on his back ; 

 but there is something strange about the Cardinal — 

 he seems out of place and lonely with us. He should 

 belong to a tropical country and have orchids and 

 palms for companions — but instead, where do we find 

 him ? " 



" Please, Doctor," said Rap, who thought he could 

 answer that question, " the miller's wife has a pair in 

 a cage, but they aren't very pretty, 'cause tliey've 

 scraped most of the feathers off their heads and rum- 

 pled their tails, trying to get out. The miller caught 

 three of them down there last winter, only one died 

 and the other two aren't a bit happy ; the male doesn't 

 sing and the female has a cough. The miller's wife 

 doesn't care much for them ; they're a bother to feed, 

 she says — have to have meal-worms, and rice with the 

 hulls on, and all that." 



