ALT. ABOUT SOME CANARY BIRDS. 



SPARTACUS died. No one knew what 

 his ailment was. He had been well 

 fed, watered and bathed. Plenty of gravel 

 always lay on the bottom of his pretty fancy 

 cage, and some greenery made him glad 

 at proper intervals. Also a rusty nail dis- 

 colored the water in his cup whenever it 

 was necessary. He was young, he w^as 

 handsome, he was an entrancing singer. 

 Yet he drooped for several days, and in 

 spite of efforts to relieve him, he rolled 

 upon his glossy back one morning, kicked 

 his slender toes feebly once or twice, gasped 

 and died. Georgianna's papa said it must 

 be the name. Georgianna's papa had not 

 exactly approved of the name from the first. 

 He used to make pretended mistakes in 

 pronouncing it, the most common one being 

 " 'Sparagus." 



Georgianna was only two years old at 

 that time, and she was a touching little 

 mourner, as she carried the dead bird, 

 wrapped in cloth, to its grave dug in a flower 

 bed. She cried and said, " Don't hurt 

 Spar'tus. Spar'tus seepy, I dess!" 



A stick was set up to mark the place, 

 and the bird cage was hung in the garret, 

 where it at once set about catching all the 

 stray particles of dust that floated near it. 



This was in August. The next May, one 

 warm day, when papa came home from the 

 store, he brought an odd something that 

 looked like a clumsy paper toy house, with 

 a ring on top. He set it carefully down on 

 the floor and unwound the paper. There 

 was a cage, with a lively young canary 

 inside, just two months old. Quite as 

 handsome as Spartacus. He was yellow, 

 with a dark star on the back of his neck, 

 and papa christened him " Zip." The cage 

 was brought from the garret once more, 

 made clean and ready, its door was opened 

 and set against the opened door of the bor- 

 rowed cage, and Zip was induced to hop 



into his new quarters. The discarded hook 

 was again screwed into the window casing, 

 and Georgianna was made the happy owner 

 of the songster. 



Zip grew and prospered. He was tame 

 and yet warlike. He would hop on any 

 family linger, thrust beween the wires, and 

 peck it fiercely. Sometimes he would chal- 

 lenge the passer to a fight by sounding a 

 queer little note and sticking his head as 

 far outside the cage as he could reach. He 

 learned to be musical all by himself, unless 

 some bird teacher came at night and taught 

 him, when all the bipeds without feathers 

 were soundly sleeping. And how he did sing! 



For more than a year Zip's life was un- 

 eventful. He knew no want and seemed 

 to feel no discontent. But one morning, 

 after being cleaned and hung on the side 

 veranda for fresh air, suddenly a pair of 

 catches snapped back, his cage floor dropped, 

 and with one wild flutter Zip was free. 



" O, my lovely bird!" screamed Georgi- 

 anna, with loud weeping, and all the house- 

 hold was dismayed, as they rushed outside 

 and saw the bewildered bird sitting on a 

 branch of the corner maple tree. Could 

 they ever get him again? 



Only a wee-bit canary! Yet every heart 

 beat high with resolve to capture the truant. 

 Surely it could be done, since he was out 

 of his cage for the first time in his life. 

 Alas for hope! Zip would answer their 

 calls by chirps, and would turn his slender 

 head one side and look down with a bright, 

 black eye. But he would not come down. 

 And he soon began to try his wings. Let 

 those say who will that the caged bird can- 

 not fly. From branch to branch, from tree 

 to tree, from tree to roof Zip flew, lightly 

 and readily. And from morning until noon, 

 grandma, mamma, Nora and Georgianna fol- 

 lowed him about. Mamma offered a good 

 reward to any boy who would climb a tree 



