150 
OUR BIRDS IN WINTER. 
now late in the afternoon. They had hardly 
arrived when the party was joined by the 
Crossbill that Grosbeak spoke of in the morn- 
ing. After giving him the warmest of wel- 
comes, tliey begged he would give an account 
of his imprisonment and escape, and, glad to 
please them, he soon commenced. 
— ♦ — 
CHAPTER YL 
The story that I am about to tell you,’’ began 
Crossbill, is of so strange a nature, that I 
have no doubt but you will think, before I am 
half through with it, that I am drawing exten- 
sively on my imagination ; but I mean to nar- 
rate the simple truth. You remember when I 
was captured, that the weather was excessively 
cold. Well, I was carried in a small box, 
that had an aperture in the top, for several 
miles, and the cold air coming in upon me, 
and my cramped position that I was forced 
to take, produced upon me such an effect that, 
when I was taken from my confinement and 
placed in a large cage, I could not, for a long 
