Tandem: 
A Bit of a Pickle. 
(2 04) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
Care of the Babies. 
Sometimes the Goldfinch, when 
the little babies are first hatched, 
can’t resist lifting them out of the 
nest by their scraggy necks, and 
throwing them to the bottom of the 
cage. But “ Puck ” wouldn’t have 
thought of such a thing, he was not 
that kind of fellow at all. If he had 
been, you wouldn’t have been reading 
this story, for he would have been a 
real, fozd'-naughty boy, wouldn’t he? 
You would not have liked to hear about 
it, and I should not have liked to 
tell you. 
“Tandem,” and “ Biddy's ” Baby. 
No, I don’t know what the reason 
was, but it was not until late in the 
summer that at length a dear little bird 
was hatched, and successfully reared. 
In about a fortnight there.was a good 
deal of squeaking and fuss, and the 
baby (explaining that he was no longer 
a baby) jumped out of the nursery, 
came downstairs in a great hurry, and 
chased his daddy about, asking to be 
fed. His father and mother were de¬ 
lighted, and kept saying to each other, 
“ At length we have a child; at length 
we have a dear little boy.” And that was 
what made my sister think of naming 
him “ Tandem,” which is a Latin word 
meaning “at length.” It was at this 
time that the spoiling began, which, I 
fear, helped to make him such a 
naughty boy. He was rather greedy, 
and if daddy said to him, “ No more, 
* Tandem,’ you have had enough,” he 
would run crying to his “ mummy,” and 
she never said “ No,” so he had his own 
way in everything. 
A Boy with a Temper. 
When quite old enough to take care 
of himself, the little bird was given to 
me. He had a nice large cage, and he 
used to be outside the window when¬ 
ever it was warm enough. He grew up 
a very handsome bird, and a splendid 
singer, but oh! such a temper! He 
lived in my room, and whenever I was 
there I would open the cage door and 
let him out. Then he set himself to 
do all the mischief he could, pulling the 
flowers out of the vases, trying to make 
holes in the muslin curtains, and so on. 
He was very active, and would fly and 
snatch a hempseed from between my 
lips without perching on my finger at 
all. When I was sitting quietly read¬ 
ing he would stand on my shoulder, ex¬ 
pecting me to turn to him instantly with 
a hempseed between my lips. If I took 
no notice of him he would nip my ear 
so severely that he really hurt me very 
much. He had no fear, and if I drove 
him angrily away he was back the next 
minute. 
“ Tandem ” "was Obstinate. 
“Tandem’s” obstinacy was some¬ 
thing wonderful. He had a foolish way 
of standing on the ledge of my book¬ 
case, so that he could see his reflection 
in the glass. It was all right for a few 
minutes, but it always ended in his 
fighting what he thought was an enemy 
in the glass. If I drove him away six 
or seven times, he would return and 
stand exactly on the same spot in 
exactly the same position. And if I 
said, “ Come away at once, ‘ Tandem,’ 
when I tell you,” he would look at me 
over his shoulder, and say, “No, no, 
no,” in a quiet determined voice. I 
am afraid he was rather a bad-naughty 
boy then, for he was dreadfully dis¬ 
obedient. 
Like a Bantam Cock. 
I am almost ashamed to say so, but 
I was really quite frightened of him 
sometimes; he was like a Bantam cock. 
When I let him out of his cage before 
I got up in the morning, he would fly 
to me at once as I lay on my back, perch 
on my chair, and take a hempseed from 
my lips. But I soon found out that 
some hempseeds, though they look all 
right, are empty, and rotten inside. I 
couldn’t see any difference outwardly, 
but “ Tandem ” could, or perhaps he 
could smell that it was bad. On one 
occasion I remembered I held one in 
my lips for him. He would not touch 
it, and thought I was insulting him on 
purpose. He pecked my nose furiously, 
