AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



than alive. The water was very cold, and the 

 poor thing was completely exhausted, being un- 

 able to stand when placed on the ground. We 

 carried him up to the house, and turned him over 

 to the tender mercies of Hortense, who took him 

 at once into the laundry and opening his bill gave 

 him a few drops of whiskey diluted with water, 

 and then left him to warm up in his box before 

 the fire. Within an hour he was apparently as 

 well as ever, and the next time he was liber- 

 ated, he ran off into the woods with the speed 

 of a race-horse, showing no disposition what- 

 ever to fly. The following year I got three 

 hens and a cock, and this time I opened the 

 box in the bird-house, and left them there for 

 an hour or so to stretch themselves and regain 

 their equanimity. Then the door was quietly 

 opened, and the birds hopped out, one after 

 another, and looked about. Now the old cock 

 from the year before was one of the biggest 

 birds I ever saw, and in full plumage he seemed 

 to be fully a yard in length, while the new cock 

 was rather less than the average size and weight. 

 These new birds had scarcely gotten out of the 

 house, when the old cock gave his hoarse crow 

 from the edge of the woods near-by, and im- 



IIO 



