174 BIllDS ABOUT THE HOUSE. 



had no fire in it. She called me at once, and I was 

 downstairs in a moment. The fluttering continued. 

 I quickly drew the joints of the pipe apart, and 

 found a young crow blackbird amid the soot on 

 the damper, which w^as just below the elbow and 

 which happened to be turned flat, so that it pre- 

 vented the bird from falling into the stove. My 

 hand grasped the poor thing. It was trembling 

 from fright, and looked appealingly at me. T feared 

 that it had been hurt, but when I went to the door 

 and opened my hand, it darted away like an arrow 

 over the roofs of the houses to the adjacent grove. 



We laughed at the incident, and wondered 

 whether Master Grakle had mistaken himself for a 

 chimney swift. Perhaps he had seen a swift drop 

 lightly into the dark orifice, and thought he could 

 do the same. Experience might prove a dear 

 school even for a blackbird. The adventurous 

 youngster had descended the chimney through two 

 stories and a half, and then had found the stove- 

 pipe leading off from it, and had floundered along, 

 turning two elbows, until his progress had been 

 stopped by the damper. It is doubtful if he ever 

 afterward passed through a darker passage, unless 

 he had a special predilection for dusting out chim- 

 neys and stove-pipes. 



