FROM THE " SPEC T A TOR." 2 1 3 



to leave the door of the pigeons' house open, 

 that Lucky might have the run of it ; and 

 the next morning, side by side with the 

 puppy, was found a baby pigeon, looking 

 quite bright and at home, but hungry, and 

 poor Lucky, proud of the addition it had 

 made to its family, was looking more con- 

 tented than it had done since the loss of its 

 puppies. The pigeon must have fallen from 

 its nest, some distance from the ground, and 

 Lucky, while on the look-out for rats, must 

 have found it, and carefully carried it to her 

 kennel, with the vague feeling, perhaps, that 

 it was one of her own lost little ones "de- 

 veloping" a little curiously. Unfortunately 

 che arrangement could not be a permanent 

 one, and the famished little pigeon was put 

 back into its own nest, to be found again the 

 next morning in Lucky's bed, but this time 

 dead. The old birds seem to have deserted 

 it, and it had died of starvation. If Lucky 

 could give this account herself, it might be 

 much more interesting, for it was thought 

 not at all improbable that she had actually 

 rescued from a rat the bird she was so 



