All AboiU Some Ca7iary Birds. 



281 



and get him. Plenty of boys climbed up, 

 but not one of them earned any money. 



A great many people would stop as they 

 passed, and look and say it was too bad and 

 offer some suggestion. An amazing num- 

 ber told how they had lost — and found — 

 canaries. But none of their methods were 

 successful in getting Zip under shelter. 

 His cage hung empty and open over the 

 veranda with its floor securely fastened. 

 But he was not tempted to enter. 



When grandpa and papa came home the 

 chase was renewed with fresh endeavor, in- 

 terrupted by a hasty dinner, after which 

 grandpa declared he would stay home and 

 help catch. He did help — but not to catch. 

 When night came Zip was yet out in the 

 wide, wide world. 



At early sunrise next morning Georgi- 

 anna's papa rose, confident that he would 

 catch Zip napping and bring him down. 

 Not so! In an elm tree, on the topmost 

 branch, wide awake and hopping about in 

 the morning sunshine, was Zip. He looked 

 hke a live bit of fall sunshine himself, and 

 he sang joyously. 



When the breakfast bell rang he still 

 sang, and papa went toward the house with 

 a disappointed face. As he walked up the 

 steps he glanced at the cage, waiting for its 

 old-time occupant. To his astonishment a 

 canary bird was sitting inside, swinging 

 merrily. Not Zip, but a real canary, with 

 dark feathers and a topknot on its head, 



Papa promptly shut the cage and carried 

 it into the house. "Didn't I say I would 

 bring you a bird?" he said to Georgianna, 

 who screamed with pleasure. There were 

 exclamations of wonder from all, and the 

 welcome stranger was hung on Zip's hook 

 in the dining-room, ate of Zip's feed, pecked 

 at Zip's cuttle-bone, and before breakfast 

 was over gave them so loud and thrilling a 

 song that no one could be heard until it 

 was over. Georgianna was a good deal 

 comforted, though she was not resigned to 

 the loss of Zip. 



"I have a bird anyway," she said, and at 

 once named it, calling it "Stray" at her 

 mother's suggestion. "I shall have two 

 when Zip is caught," she concluded. 



A half dozen people cannot chase two 

 whole days, even for so sweet a pet as Zip. 

 Grandpa went back to business at noon, 

 Nora baked cookies, and mamma shut the 

 outside door, sighing, for a heavy, cold rain 

 began to fall. It continued all the after- 

 noon. They all tried to cheer Georgianna 

 by saying there was plenty of shelter for 

 birds in the big trees. But they all had 

 misgivings, and in her secret heart mamma 

 never expected to see Zip any more. Es- 

 pecially as it grew so chilly when it was 

 near night that they built a light fire. How 

 could the poor, tender bird live? It might 

 survive out of doors in the sunshine, but 

 now! 



Just a half hour before supper the door 

 bell rang. Mamma opened the door and 

 saw a boy in a wet coat, covering the made 

 hollow of one hand with that of the other. 

 " Is this your bird?" asked the boy, show- 

 ing limp, bedraggled Zip, who lay on his 

 side without a motion. 



"Indeed it is!" exclaimed mamma, de- 

 lighted. "Where did you find him?" 



She asked the boy in and took the poor 

 chilled bird into her warm hands, breath- 

 ing softly on it. Grandma heated some 

 cotton, and wrapping him in it, put him on 

 the floor of a dilapidated cage found some- 

 where by Nora. Meanwhile the boy told 

 them how he had seen the bird lying by the 

 roadside, under a great tree from which 

 it had been beaten by the rain, and that 

 another boy had told him where it probably 

 belonged. 



There was great rejoicing. The boy got 

 a dollar out of the general satisfaction, and 

 when papa came home, and saw the little 

 flyaway hopping about the old cage, seem- 

 ing no worse for his adventure, he declared 

 the reward was too small. 



So Georgianna had two birds? Not at 



