40 The Canary, 



could not wait till his return, and so I reluctantly left 

 the bird behind, not daring to say anything about his 

 purchase until I knew his price. 



I carried the newshonie, however, which immediately 

 created the intensest excitement amongst the children. 

 It would never do to let such an opportunity pass by, 

 without attempting to buy him. Judy urged that im- 

 mediate steps should be taken in the matter, lest some 

 one else should stej) in, and deprive us of our much- 

 coveted prize. This we thought not at all unlikely, 

 and so decided to return immediately after dinner, for 

 the purpose of seeing, at all events, whether he was 

 within the reach of our pockets, if we did not actually 

 buy. Dinner, as might have been expected, now 

 became of little consequence in their eyes, the meal 

 was soon despatched, and Judy and I started upon the 

 exciting errand. Though it was a dark sombre after- 

 noon, and more than two miles and a half off, we started 

 very willingly in a thick drizzling rain to purchase this 

 much-desired and lovely specimen of canaria. Before 

 we arrived at our journey's end the wind blew quite a 

 hurricane, and the rain poured down, whilst many were 

 the misgivings we had by the way, lest, after all, our 

 labour should be lost, and the bird be gone. With as 

 much joy as feels the tempest-tossed mariner who sees 

 the friendly port, and descries the haven where he 

 would be, we at last reached our destination, and found 

 the birds were still there. Judy was enchanted, the 

 price moderate, the opportunity favorable, so we were 

 not long in securing the great object of our search. 

 We chose the more regularly marked bird of the three 



