24 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



cold wind and rain, and, seeking a more sheltered roost- 

 ing place on the ground, had been caught and carried 

 into its den and devoured by a rat. 



I experienced a second and greater grief at his miser- 

 able end — a feeling so poignant that the memory has 

 endured till now. For he was my loved cardinal — my 

 first caged bird. And he was also my last. I could 

 have no other, the lesson he had taught me having sunk 

 into my heart — the knowledge that to a bird too the 

 world is very beautiful and liberty very sweet. I could 

 even rejoice, when time had softened my first keen 

 sorrow, that my cardinal had succeeded in making his 

 escape, since at the last he had experienced those 

 miraculous months of joyous existence, living the true 

 bird-life for which nature had fashioned and fitted him. 

 In all the years of his captivity he could never have 

 known such a happiness, nor can any caged bird know 

 it, however loudly and sweetly he may sing to win a 

 lump of sugar or a sprig of groundsel from his tender- 

 hearted keeper and delude him with the idea that it is 

 well with his prisoner — that no injustice has been done. 



