THE STORY OF LITTLE BILLEE — ( Continued from page 44). 
window or play about on the floor for 
an hour at a time, and never think of 
flying out of the window or going out 
of the door. 
I have succeeded far beyond my 
expectations with Taffy and Little 
Billee. It hurt me very much to be 
obliged to punish Taffy when he would 
spring at Little Billee, as Taffy and 1 
had been devoted to each other for two 
years; still I did not want him to kill 
my baby bird. One day Little Billee 
was sitting on my knee dressing 
his feathers and going through all 
sorts of antics, while Taffy sat a 
few feet away gazing at him with 
longing eyes. I called to my maid to 
bring Taffy and hold him on her lap, 
and then let Little Billee peck and bite 
his paws, ears, and nose, and a more 
astonished cat I never saw. After we 
let Taffy go he was found sitting on 
the cellar stairs in a most dejected way 
rubbing his nose with his paw. For 
several days we did the same thing 
until Taffy was afraid at sight of Little 
Billee. One morning Taffy came to 
bed with me, and lay on my arm while 
Little Billee sat on my shoulder. Soon 
Taffy put his chin on my chin, and Lit- 
tle Billee came and sat close to my 
cheek. Finally Taffy became so sleepy 
he turned over, went fast asleep, and 
Little Billee hopped down on his back, 
and we lay that way for some time. 
Since then almost every day Taffy will 
lie on my lap, and Little Billee will sit 
on his head, back, or on my knee and 
dress his feathers. One day Little Bil- 
lee had the impertinence, while I had 
them both dh my lap, to reach out and 
peck Taffy in the eye. That was a lit- 
tle more than Taffy could endure, and 
he reached out his paw and struck at 
him. For over a week I could not get 
Little Billee to go near him, but now 
they are very good friends. 
Little Billee enjoys going down 
into the parlors to see visitors, but he 
gives them to understand, the first 
thing, they may look but they must not 
touch. He will entertain them by hop- 
ping all over me, kissing me in the 
mouth and chirping at the top of his 
voice. When it begins to get dark 
Little Billee does not want to be off 
from me a minute. If I have him 
down stairs and put him on the floor he 
will hop and fly after me from room to 
room. The other day I left him in the 
front parlor on a plant jar and went 
into the dining-room and was gone 
some little time. When I came back 
there was no Little Billee to be found. 
I called him by name and peeped to 
him, but I could not get an answer. 
As I went up stairs I called, " Where is 
my Little Billee?" And he said, chirp, 
chirp, chirp; and I found him in my 
room eating his seeds and as happy as 
possible. 
Since then every day when he gets 
tired of the parlors he goes up stairs, 
for he seems to think my room is his 
home. One day I watched him to see 
how he went. He hopped from step 
to step. When he reached the top 
he flew into my room and lighted on 
the top of his cage. 
Little Billee is certainly not color- 
blind, for he notices every little change 
in my dress no matter how slight it is. 
He had seen me for weeks in only my 
robe de nuit, and wrapper. It was piti- 
able to see him the first time he saw 
me gowned in a white skirt and blue 
waist. I had to lie down when I had 
finished dressing and Little Billee came 
over to the bed as usual and asked me 
to take him. I put down my hand, he 
hopped on my finger, but when he 
looked up and saw the blue sleeve 
away he went as if he had been shot 
out of a cannon. He tried several 
times but his courage always failed. 
At last he gave up and went and sat in 
a chair across the room, and it was two 
days before he really liked the change. 
Next I tried a pink waist with the 
white skirt, but that seemed even worse 
to him, which seemed very strange, as 
he had seen me for days in a pink and 
white wrapper. 
My numerous friends will vouch for 
the veracity of the story, as they all 
think Little Billee is the most wonderful 
bird they have ever seen. I only hope 
my little sketch, told just as the things 
have come to me, will give similar 
pleasure to other invalids. 
48 
