HOW VO IBREAK THE SPELL 221 
once, at once!» Break the spell of the demon, that 
spell that is so real and so cruel, that spell that kills 
the soul. ‘Thaw the poor frozen heart, thaw it with 
your own warm one, with your lips, with your soft 
hands and arms. Thaw it with the tears in your eyes, 
as they look up, thaw it with the words that you 
say, ““ Mother, do not kill parents, and make chil- 
dren starve! Mother, do not wear ‘ospreys!’ Oh, 
mother, promise, promise !”’ 
So, now, we have saved the White Egrets, as well as 
all those other birds that I have been telling you of, 
and that your mother has promised about. But does 
that save all the beautiful birds in the world? Oh 
no, for there are ever so many more than I have been 
able to say anything about, in a little book like this, 
more—oh, a great many more—than all the Birds of 
Paradise, and all the Humming-birds, and all the other 
ones in the other chapters—for, you know, there are 
not many—put together. And though the Hum- 
ming-birds and the Birds of Paradise and the White 
Kerets and the others are, now, quite safe, yet, if your 
mother does not promise about the rest, people will 
go on killing them, till there are no more of them 
left in the world. Think what that would mean! 
Why, besides hundreds and hundreds of beautiful 
foreign birds, it would mean all the kingfishers—the 
star-birds (for there has been no promise about them)— 
