CARDINAL 17 



mother's dearest friend, so that she could hardly 

 speak of her loss without tears. Before going away 

 he distributed his birds among his closest friends. 

 He was anxious that every bird should have an owner 

 who would love it as much as he had loved it himself 

 and tend it as carefully ; and remembering how he 

 had observed me day after day watching the cardinal, 

 he thought that he could not leave it in better hands 

 than mine. And here was the bird in its big cage ! 



The cardinal was mine ! How could I believe it, 

 even when I pulled the shawl off and saw the beautiful 

 creature once more and heard the loud note ! The 

 eift of that bird from the stern ice-cold man who had 

 looked at me as if he hated me, even as I had certainly 

 hated him, now seemed the most wonderful thing which 

 had ever happened in the world. 



It was a blissful time for me during that late winter 

 season, when I lived for the bird ; then, as the days 

 grew longer and brighter with the return of the sun, 

 I was happier every day to see my cardinal's increasing 

 delight in his new surroundings. It was certainly a 

 great and marvellous change for him. The cardinals 

 are taken as fledgelings from the nests in forests on 

 the upper waters of the Plata river, and reared by 

 hand by the natives, then sent down to the bird- 

 dealers in Buenos Ayres ; so that my bird had practi- 

 cally known only a town life, and was now in a world 

 of greenest grass and foliage, wide blue skies, and 

 brightest sunshine for the first time. By day his 

 cage was hung under the grape-vines outside the 

 2 



