Pigeons. 1 1 5 



at a time " visitors from London." 

 A matron looks after them, a village 

 girl comes to sweep and wash ; and 

 they themselves are only too proud 

 to help in the house and the 

 garden such a palace of a house, 

 such a paradise of a garden as it 

 seems to them ! 



I happened to speak to this 

 friend of mine of the boy and his 

 bird that I had seen in St. Paul's 

 Churchyard, and it was not long 

 before she had sought him out, and 

 invited him and his sister down for 

 a fortnight's country air. 



And so it came to pass that I 

 beheld him again, with just the 

 same crippled limbs, in just the 

 same ramshackle little cart, but 

 with a tinge of pink coming faintly 

 on the pallid face, and a look of 

 almost awed delight shining in his 

 eyes. 



They had drawn him along the 

 road to a place where a stream ran 



