44 The Story of Scragg/es 



it was only a picture of myself. So, as 

 I looked at myself quite often, I '11 tell 

 you just how I did appear when I was 

 three months old. My baby bill was 

 gone and I looked more like a full-grown 

 bird, but my feathers were still as scrag- 

 gedy and raggedy as ever. My body 

 and tail were a mousey-brown, with the 

 wing feathers white and tipped with 

 brown. My neck and breast were par- 

 tially covered with soft, beautiful down 

 of mouse color, and my head feathers 

 were brown, with just one half-white 

 feather in the centre which looked like a 

 tiny crest. I was the smallest little bird 

 ever seen, I guess, I mean a sparrow, 

 and no more like the big, healthy, pert, 

 and bouncing street sparrows than a 

 delicate terrier is like a big bull-dog. 

 I was going to tell you about the way 



