SPINNETTE, THE FAIEY. 
133 
as he called it, and said he would have been 
more sensible if he had wrung the bird’s neck. 
Oscar, knowing the disposition of Henry, felt 
that his words were unreasonable, and, al- 
though he did not fully know their cause, 
supposed that they were the effect of jealousy 
of his brother for his pet. He, therefore, 
answered him a little warmly, and told him 
to attend to his own affairs, and he would do 
the same. 
Henry, in a rage, with a threatening ges- 
ture, struck the cage with his hand. Spin- 
nette, who had been attentively listening to 
the words of tlie brother, observed the gesture, 
and, as he struck the cage, she caused a splin- 
ter to fly up and pierce his hand, inflicting 
another painful wound. 
Henry, like all jealous and unreasonable 
persons, ascribed his misfortune to the object 
of his anger; and although the pain from the 
kick he gave the bird in the morning, and 
the blow at noon, were owing to nothing but 
his ill nature, he laid it to the bird, and, 
enraged beyond measure, he vowed to kill the 
Greenfinch at the first opportunity. 
