BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 139 



Nature's cruelty, keeps a few captive birds in 

 cages, and is accustomed to say of them, ''These, 

 at any rate, are safe, rescued from subjection to 

 ruthless conditions, sheltered from the inclement 

 weather and from enemies, and all their small 

 wants abundantly satisfied;" who once or twice 

 every day looks at his little captives, presents them 

 with a lump of sugar, whistles and chuckles to 

 provoke them to sing, then goes about his busi- 

 ness, flattering himself that he is a lover of birds, 

 a being of a sweet and kindly nature. It is all a 

 delusion — a distortion and inversion of the truth 

 — so absurd that it would be laughable were it 

 not so sad, and the cause of so much unconscious 

 cruelty. The truth is, that if birds be capable of 

 misery, it is only in the unnatural conditions of a 

 caged life that they experience it; and that if they 

 are capable of happiness in a cage, such happiness 

 or contentment is but a poor, pale emotion com- 

 pared with the wild exuberant gladness they 

 have in freedom, where all their instincts have 

 full play, and where the perils that surround them 

 do but brighten their many splendid faculties. 

 The little bird twitters and sings in its cage, and 

 among ourselves the blind man and the cripple 



