218 VIRGINIA WAS LONELY. 



He looked interested to see that she avoided 

 him, but after all he did not take it much to 

 heart. This cardinal, like the other, was not 

 yet acclimated if one may call it so to life 

 in a house, and after a week he also took his 

 departure. 



Now Virginia, free again, became at once 

 very gay. She sang all the time; she kept 

 the robin stirring; she bathed ; she waxed fat. 

 But her time was approaching. Spring came 

 on, and with the first warm weather the birds 

 began to disappear from the room. First the 

 tanager expressed a desire to mingle with so- 

 ciety once more, and went his way ; then the 

 orioles were sent to carry on their rough woo- 

 ing in the big world outside; the robin fol- 

 lowed ; and at last Virginia was left with sev- 

 eral big empty cages and only two birds, a re- 

 served and solitude-loving Mexican clarin, and 

 a saucy goldfinch, so long a captive that he had 

 no desire for freedom. Now for the first time 

 Virginia was lonely ; the strange quiet of the 

 once lively room worked upon her temper. She 

 snapped at her little neighbor ; she haunted the 

 window-sill and gazed out ; while nothing hin- 

 dered her passage excepting the weather, our 

 climate being rather cool for her. 



At last July, with its great heat, arrived, and 

 the restless bird was carried by a kind friend, 



