Followers of Saint Francis 



moreover, I received a hurry call from town to 

 make ready for an inmate, this time a woimded 

 pigeon. To me a roomy box upon the porch 

 seemed the largess of hospitality. But once my 

 brother saw a desperate agate eye fixed on him 

 from this prison gloom and a sleek silver breast 

 pressed rounding through the bars, the free hab- 

 itat of his own bureau top came as his natural 

 suggestion. Its usual adornments were not 

 among the real importances of Ufe. Its narrow 

 glossy surface was adapted to quick cleanliness. 

 Newspapers might be spread, a bowl of water 

 might be placed, grain for delectation might be 

 scattered here and there, and lest the coral feet 

 might weary with long standing, there might be 

 sprinkled a soft cool covering of dirt. Suppose 

 the kernels of round com did whisk upon the 

 floor, or that dust was lifted in a cloud by stretch- 

 ing wings, or water slopped in a long creeping 

 puddle. Was this not after all my brother's 

 room? To share it was small price to pay for 

 the bestowal of emancipation. Not once did it 

 occur to him that such as looked within might 

 find as matter for their mirth, the squatting fig- 



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