crossbill’s story. 
157 
ill-treatment of that man. He seemed deter- 
mined to try all the most hateful and cruel 
experiments upon me possible, and gave me 
all manner of unnatural food, to see which I 
]>referred, and how much of each I would eat 
in a day. Put me in the cage with jays and 
other quarrelsome and ferocious birds to see 
if I had a spirit of my own. Gave me filthy 
drugs, to ascertain if he could procure a 
change of the color of my plumage ; and tried 
upon me the effect of various preparations 
made for the purpose of getting one to sleep. 
One day he placed in my cage a sponge filled 
with a liquid, that, as fast as it was evapo- 
rated, gave me a deadly faintness, until, at 
last, I fell to the floor of my cage senseless. 
All these things did he practise upon me, and 
I suffered all that any one bird could suffer. 
But a day of deliverance arrived.” 
Oh, I am so glad ! ” compassionately yet 
joyfully exclaimed old Mrs. Chick, who had 
been listening with the greatest attention to 
the story. Poor fellow ! how much we pity 
you ! ” 
