MISS JENNY'S FORLORN ADVENT 



on some hard substance, and you will have 

 the effect of the thumping of that poor lit- 

 tle 'heart. I held her close to me while the 

 fright lasted, whenever it was possible to do 

 so. It often happened that both birds 

 needed reassuring at the same time. 



We could only account for Jenny's hav- 

 ing existed under circumstances that would 

 have killed the average bird, by the fact 

 that she apparently lived to eat. The organ 

 of appetite must have been abnormal in her 

 to begin with, and in her prison there had 

 been no scope for higher aspirations. Her 

 table manners were shocking. She ate with 

 the mad haste of a belated traveller at a rail- 

 way restaurant, and I blush to tell it, but 

 candor compels me both feet were often 

 planted in her dish during the shovelling- 

 in-of-food performance. 



When she first came to us we made al- 

 lowances for the ravenous manner in which 

 89 



