tight hold of his paws, and kissing his 

 eyes. I have told all of these things 

 about Taffy so my readers will appre- 

 ciate what I have been able to do with 

 him. It is needless to say that when 

 Little Billie went away, Taffy was the 

 happiest cat in town. His devotion in- 

 creased daily to me and he lived in my 

 room, only going down to get some- 

 thing to eat. 



I think by this time you are very 

 well acquainted with Mr. Taffy, and I 

 will present Tricksey to you. Of all 

 the canary birds I have ever seen 

 Tricksey is the prettiest, daintiest little 

 bird you can possibly imagine. His 

 color is light yellow with a much 

 deeper shade between his wings, shad- 

 ing into almost an orange. His wings 

 and tail are white with just a line of 

 yellow on some of the feathers. His 

 eyes are unusually large and bright, 

 and his little legs and claws are very 

 pink, and so slender they do not look 

 strong enough to support his finely 

 shaped body. Tricksey came from 

 George H. Holden's, New York, so 

 you will all know he is a very superior 

 bird and sings like an angel. 



Tricksey had never been out of his 

 cage when he came to me, but before I 

 had had him a week, he came out, 

 perched on my finger, took things from 

 my finger or mouth, would kiss me, 

 and go all about my room on my 

 finger, and very soon went all about 

 the house with me. He was very fond 

 of sweet apple, but I never let him 

 have it inside his cage, but made him 

 come to me for it. I kept a piece in a 

 little dish on my table and he soon 

 found out where it was and would help 

 himself on the sly. I also kept on my 

 table in a little china cup, some hemp 

 seed which I gave to Tricksey as a 

 great treat. Every time I would tap 

 on the cup and make it ring, Tricksey 

 would come out of his cage, down 

 from a picture frame, or wherever he 

 was, for a seed. 



One day he had had his one hemp 

 seed, and teased for more, but I said 

 " no " and he went flying about the 

 room having a fine time. Soon he flew 

 back on the table, hopped over to the 

 cup, gave it two or three taps to make 

 it ring, then hopped on to the top, 



reached down and helped himself to 

 two seeds. Tricksey is a very vain 

 little bird and likes nothing better 

 than to go over on my dressing table, 

 walk back and forth in front of the 

 mirror or sit on my pin cushion and 

 admire himself. 



Tricksey came to me one afternoon 

 and Taffy knew nothing about his ar- 

 rival until the next morning. When 

 he came upstairs and saw a little 

 yellow bird in a house of gold, he was 

 like the little girl's Bunnie, who " was 

 not a bit afraid, but awfully much sur- 

 prised," when she heard firecrackers 

 for the first time. His eyes were like 

 balls of fire, while his mouth opened 

 and shut making a hissing sound, and 

 his tail going at the rate of a mile a 

 minute. He walked into my room like 

 a wild tiger, with an air as much as to 

 say, " If this is Little Billie come back 

 dressed in yellow, die he must," and 

 sprang at the cage. I took him firmly 

 by the paws, looked straight into his 

 big angry eyes and said in a soft, firm 

 voice, "Taffy, this is Tricksey, and he 

 is not to be eaten or hurt any more 

 than my Little Billie who went away." 

 I let go of his paws, he walked out of 

 my room and downstairs without look- 

 ing back. In about an hour I looked 

 out into the hall, and there sat my 

 dear old Taffy on the top step looking 

 very meek and wishful. I spoke kindly 

 to him and asked him to come in and 

 see his new brother Tricksey. After a 

 few moments he came in very slowly 

 and went behind my bed. Soon he 

 came from under the valance, (the 

 cage sat on a chair and I in front of it) 

 never looked at the cage, jumped into 

 my lap, put his paws about my neck 

 and began loving me. I took him to 

 bed with me and he never moved until 

 Tricksey began to sing in a most de- 

 lightful wa)^ then he looked at him 

 and listened very intently. I talked 

 to him, and "smoothed his feathers," and 

 soon he snuggled down in my arms 

 and went to sleep. When he got out 

 of bed he never glanced at the cage, 

 but went directly downstairs, and I 

 felt I had made a good beginning. 

 Everyone said I could never teach 

 Taffy not to catch Tricksey, and the 

 reason his catship did not kill Little 



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