Origin of our oivn Canaria. 



11 



was past all endurance, so we left word that if it was 

 not completed and brought home by the next day, we 

 should give the order to some one else, which at once 

 produced the desired result. The wire arrived late one 

 night, and I was fain to buckle to, and put it up at 

 once, for until this was done the children, I soon saw, 

 would let me have no peace. 



Although abhorring all manual labour from my 

 youth, and seldom taking a tool in my hands, lest, as 

 they say of the monkeys and their talking, I should be 

 made to work, I accordingly commenced my task. 

 Though a seemingly simple operation, it took me longer 

 than I expected, so that the children had to be sent off 

 to bed in the middle of the work; and it was nearly 

 twelve o'clock before I had brought my labours to an 

 end. Two shelves of wood, little more than a foot wide, 

 and four feet six inches long, placed against the wall 

 between the chimney corner and a large bay window 

 opening to the morning sun, formed the floor and roof 

 of our miniature aviary ; four narrow iron stanchions 

 placed at equal distances apart, form so many supports 

 for the latter, and at the same time tend to strengthen 

 the wirework to which they are bound ; ^nd thus the 

 whole thing is complete for the trifling sum of twelve 

 shillings. 



On coming down stairs the next morning, the children 

 were enchanted at the sight. The long-wished-for desire 

 of their hearts was no longer an airy vision of the ima- 

 gination, like the castles and palaces of some fairy tale, 

 but a great reality. Aladdin himself could not have 

 been more deliohted with the view of his enchanted 



