Mr. Chickadee 115 



shallow cigar box, tacked on the window sill, was 

 kept a supply of fine-cut suet, hemp seed, and 

 sliced peanut; a well-balanced ration, but not bal- 

 anced for long as the peanut would disappear like 

 snow in summer, leaving only the hemp seed and 

 the suet. All accepted the inevitable with a fair 

 amount of Christian patience and resignation, 

 with the exception of Mr. Impudence, who never 

 failed to be outraged and ready to voice his 

 wrongs to the world at large, and to the head 

 waiter, grinning at him out of the window, in 

 particular. I am not going to admit that he 

 actually swore at me, but the way he would droop 

 his wings and hurl expletives at me that were 

 neither necessary nor ornamental, made me feel 

 just as if I had been sworn at. When I supplied 

 his needs, he blessed me with the unction of a 

 bishop offering forgiveness to a penitent sinner. 

 Indeed, he knew who it was that put the food in 

 the box and when having made an exhibition of 

 himself, if I had not compared him to a bishop, 

 I would tell you that he would actually do penance 

 himself by taking a hemp seed and flying to a 

 nearby tree, hold the seed against a limb with his 

 middle toe, pick out the heart, and devour the 

 kernel as though it had become to him a means of 

 grace. My daughter had a Chick that she called 

 "Mother Mary," of so devout a look and gracious 

 a mien that she insisted that the old masters had 



