10 The Ci^mj. 



stowed a^yay in tlieir bedroom, and all the other boxes 

 should be put into drawers at once, if I would only 

 consent. Well, I thought, the thing is feasible, and 

 will please me almost as much as the children. So we 

 set to work with a hearty good will ; the things were 

 soon stowed away and the bookshelves put up else- 

 where, leaving two of the latter to form the floor and 

 top of our proposed aviary. I then ordered a piece of 

 nicely- tinned wirework, four feet ten inches long by 

 two and a half feet deep, to be made, having three 

 sliding doors, so placed as that one should be in the 

 centre near the bottom, and one near the top at either 

 end, so that the birds might be readily cleaned and fed, 

 and their nest-boxes be changed when required. And 

 now we were all impatience to begin. The wire was 

 faithfully promised by the end of the week ; but, alas ! 

 Saturday arrived, and yet no appearance of any wire. 

 Oft' we set the first thing on Monday morning, to know 

 the reason why, when again it was faithfully promised 

 the next day. That day came, and another, and another, 

 but still no wire. A second Saturday night, and we 

 felt sure it would come. Every footstep that passed by 

 the street-door was listened to with bated breath, and 

 every rap sent the hearts of the children, who were now 

 Avound up to the highest pitch of excitement, straight 

 into their mouth ; but still all ended in disappointment, 

 and they were again obliged to go to bed without that 

 long-expected wire. A second Monday sees us at the 

 rascally wire-maker's door, who Ave now discover to 

 have been all along paying his devotions to his favourite 

 god Bacchus, and too fuddled Avith drink to Avork. This 



