THE STORY OF NAN 



story and took off the box cover, one of them in- 

 stantly cried, 



"Are you actually going to let a blue jay live?" 



"Well, he 's so little and so cunning, perhaps just 

 for a few days." 



The chauffeur in his cockney dialect remarked: "It 

 looks like a Henglish sparrow, ma'am." But we de- 

 murred to that; a blue jay was bad enough, but surely 

 this wee thing which took so kindly to us and our 

 ways, this could not be one of that detested breed, the 

 English sparrow! 



Before we reached home, at a quarter before seven, 

 the birdling was sound asleep and he never peeped 

 again that night. It had been a strenuous day for him, 

 and he needed a long rest. Think of the tenacity of 

 life in the little creature! For on top of his fall of 

 twenty-five feet he had cried two hours without cessa- 

 tion; yet after a short night of rest he seemed 

 a perfectly normal bird, devoting his entire time to 

 eating and sleeping as a birdling should, and growing 

 more cunning each passing hour. 



iS9 



