FALLACIES AND FACTS. 203 



table, whereupon I recognized it as an unfledged 

 greenfinch, by no means fledged; its neck and 

 crop were completely bare, the corners of its beak 

 yellow, its wings nothing more than little blue 

 quills, and its legs not yet strong enough to bear 

 its weight. 



We at once went out to look, in the large 

 evergreen oak and laurels above Nep's house, if 

 we could find the nest from which it must have 

 fallen, but in vain, so we returned to finish our 

 luncheon. No sooner were we seated, than the 

 poor little bird crawled directly up to a dish upon 

 which there was a joint of cold lamb, and, seeming 

 to look me full in the face, stretched up his feather- 

 less neck with widely open beak, and craved for 

 food. Upon seeing this we minced some of the 

 lean meat very finely, added to it some crumbs of 

 bread softened in water, and the little stranger ate 

 of this mixture so heartily, and '' asked so often for 

 more," that we immediately christened it '' Oliver 

 Twist," and it still bears the name of that well- 

 known hero now fashioned into '^ Twistie." We 

 had no nest for the accommodation of our poor 

 little foundling, but we got a small shallow basket, 

 into which we put it ; but as the sides of the basket 



