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had not yet come, lie lived to pass through, many such scenes 

 of painful suffering. 



I had about the same time a Painted Finch. This was 

 the most quarrelsome little rogue in the world, and con- 

 tinually invited Bern to a trial of skill. But Bern refused, 

 with the most decisive manner, to have anything to do with 

 him, and although the Finch was the most tyrannical com- 

 panion, preventing Bern from entering his own cage, driving 

 him from certain parts of the room, and really making him- 

 self intensely disagreeable at times, yet Bern magnanimously 

 refused to become provoked into a quarrel with his petite 

 enemy, and seemed rather to be amused, never even conde- 

 scending to become jealous of the pretty Finch. 



One cold day, the Finch concluded to take a flight among 

 the bare branches of the trees in the garden. The window 

 was down about two inches, and he went out. We had 

 much difficulty in catching the fellow, and only succeeded 

 when he had become numbed with the cold. When we re- 

 turned from our chase after him, what was our consterna- 

 tion at finding that both doors and windows had been left 



open. Bern must be gone he had gone away from W 



on every possible occasion, and the town time after time had 

 been thrown into confusion by the hue and cry, " Bern has 

 escaped! come to the rescue !" 



Had I any hope ? would he be more likely to stay now 

 than when snow was on the ground ? He had gone 1 My 

 eyes were too dim with tears to search for him. I called with 

 fearful voice: "Bern! Bern! where are you, my bird?" A 

 soft chirp, and Bern hopped from the perch he had made, 

 and looked so confidingly at me and kissed me so prettily, 

 that I felt quite assured that he would never leave me. Yet 

 he often after teased me by hiding when I went away, as if 

 he enjoyed, coquettishly, the pain he gave me. 



He now refused to allow anybody to caress him except us, 

 and seemed to imagine that he was sent to be my especial 

 protector. One day, early in the spring, we had been walk- 



