6 Birds I Have Kept. 



other questions were poured forth with childish volubility, and 

 answered, seriatim, with much patience, if a little bantering, 

 by Marie; who was, as I have said, our gardener, according 

 to the custom then in vogue in that part of the world, where 

 the women did all the work of the garden and farm, even to 

 ploughing and shoeing horses, haymaking and threshing com 

 on the bare ground with wooden flails. 



I would put it in Jacco's (the Jay) wooden cage; but the 

 little thing hopped out between the bars as easily as if no 

 impediment whatever had been in its way; so it, too, was 

 temporarily placed in a basket, until further arrangements for 

 its accommodation could be made. 



When my mother appeared on the scene, which she soon 

 afterwards did, she greatly shocked my youthful sense of the 

 fitness of things by advising the immediate destruction of the 

 poor suffering bird; "putting it out of its pain," she said: 

 but I cried lustily, and leave was given me to keep it, if I 

 could. 



I had not the least doubt that I could, and successfully 

 too, and at once ran off to the nursery with my prize, in 

 order to show it to Victoire, the nursemaid, who had had a 

 good deal of experience in similar matters, and, as soon as she 

 had seen it, authoritatively pronounced that the bird would 

 do very well. ""Where was I to put it?" ""Why, in the 

 alcove bed, of course." Said alcove bed being a recess in the 

 wall, opposite the window, where I used to play sometimes, 

 for with us it was never put to the use intended for it by 

 the ancient builders of the house. 



What a good idea! it could not fly out of that, and would 

 have plenty of light, and room to run about: so seed and 

 water were given to it, and crumbs of bread, and I was told 

 to "leave it alone for the present." 



When my father had finished his breakfast, he went up to 

 the nursery to look at the captive, and with a sharp penknife 

 cut off the broken pinion of its wing, which only hung on 



