THE STORY OF NAN 



never really liked them nor went near them of her own 

 volition. 



Her days were short but very full. It was not long 

 before she lost her querulous, sharp call and developed, 

 especially at twilight, a gentle rather plaintive note like 

 a sleepy child who does n't want to go to bed. And 

 this was exactly the case, for she hated the pretty cage 

 into which we put her every night and never willingly 

 went there to sleep. In fact she became an adept at 

 finding new hiding-places to avoid this bedtime capture, 

 keeping so still, never moving a feather at our call, 

 that it was almost impossible to find her; but when dis- 

 covered she would enter the cage peaceably as if that 

 was part of the game. Once she wriggled herself into 

 so snug a space behind a candlestick that her tail 

 did n't come out of kink for a week. Often she would 

 get down on the wire behind a large picture; and when 

 we called "Nan, Nan," up would bob her head only 

 to jump back again at our approach. Hiding in the 

 farthest corner on the lambrequin pole, she would re- 

 main perfectly quiet until discovered, when she would 



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