The Rescue Of The Canary Bird

: Daddy's Bedtime Bird Stories

"I am going to tell you a really true story," said daddy, "something

which happened to-day. I was walking along a rather poor part of the

city when I saw a number of children gathered in a group in a little

side yard of a tenement house. The children were screaming to one boy:

'Oh, catch him! Don't let the awful cat get him!'"



"Oh, was it a bird?" asked Jack eagerly.



"Yes," replied daddy; "i
was a bird, but not just the usual kind of

bird that is seen around city streets, for only the sparrows like the

noise of a city. Most birds like the woods and the country, where they

can have homes in the trees and can sing all day long.



"But this was a tame yellow canary who had flown out of an open window

to pick up some goodies he saw on the ground, and a cat was after him."



"Did they get him from the cat?" asked Evelyn eagerly, for she was

devoted to animals and perhaps especially to birds.



"Yes," answered daddy; "the little boy succeeded in rescuing him, but

the poor canary had been so frightened that his little heart was

beating, oh, so fast, and the children were afraid he was not going to

live.



"They all followed the little boy who had caught the canary just in

time into the tenement house. The cat had knocked several feathers

from the bird's tail.



"Another child told me the canary belonged to a little girl who lived in

the tenement. He asked me to follow, too, for he said that the little

girl had trouble with her back and had to lie flat all the time. She

loved visitors, for so much of the time she was lonely. Her mother was

poor and out all day sewing, so the little girl's only companion was the

canary, who would sing for hours and hours. He seemed to know he must

keep her cheered up.



"So along I went too. We climbed some stairs until we came to a dingy

room where on a cot by the window lay a little girl about eight years

old. She had big dark eyes, and when I saw her her cheeks were bright

red from all the excitement.



"All her friends had gathered around, each giving her a special

description of how the bird had been rescued. She was smiling with joy

and watching the bird, who was now busily engaged nibbling at a little

piece of apple which had been given him. Before long he began to sing,

oh, so joyously, for he knew he was once more back in his happy home,

where he would take good care to stay in the future.



"I told the little girl of my Jack and Evelyn, and she said she wanted

to see you both. Shall we all go to see her and her little bird some

day?"



"We'd love to!" cried Jack and Evelyn delightedly.



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