Live Toys; Or Anecdotes of Our Four-Legged and Other Pets Read online

  THE TWO BIRDS, GOLDIE AND BROWNIE.

  "Would you like to buy a bird, Sir?" said a poor woman to me one daywhen we were just setting out for our walk. She held in her hand asmall cage with a beautiful goldfinch.

  "I have one shilling and sixpence," I said, "will you give it to me forthat?"

  "I hoped to be able to sell it for half-a-crown," the woman said, "forI am very poor; I am leaving this place and want money for my journey,or I should not part with my bird."

  "But I have a shilling," said my sister, "and that added to your moneywill make half-a-crown, and so we can buy it between us and it willbelong to us both."

  We gave our money to the poor woman, and she put the cage into my hand.The little bird was quite a beauty, his colours so bright, his plumageso glossy and thick, and his chirp so merry. After displaying him toMamma, and to every body we met, we carried him to the nursery, andplaced him on the broad window-seat; Mamma said she was afraid weshould soon get tired of him, and neglect to feed him and to clean hiscage. This, we thought, was quite unlikely. However, we promised veryfaithfully; and we commenced with feeding and petting him so much thathe soon became extremely tame, would take seeds and crumbs from ourfingers, chirp to us when we came near his cage, and sing without theleast sign of fear.

  One day we had carried him into the drawing-room; and, on opening thedoor of the cage to put in some sugar, he darted out. "Oh dear! ohdear! Goldie is out," we exclaimed; "what shall we do? We shall losehim." But Mamma quickly got up, and shut both the windows and begged usto be quiet, and not to frighten him by rushing after him andattempting to seize him. "If you leave him alone," said Mamma, "he willperhaps allow you quietly to take him in your hand when he has flownabout as much as he wishes; but he will lose all his tameness if youterrify him." So we sat down to watch the little fellow, he dartedabout the room for some time, and presently alighted on the table,where the breakfast things remained. First he pecked at the bread, thentried the sugar, peeped into the cups, and seemed highly amused at thedifferent articles which he was now examining for the first time. Thenhe flew on the top of the picture frames that hung on the wall, then onthe curtain rods, and at last perched on Mamma's head, peeped at herhair, and looked as proud and happy as possible. And after he hadlooked at every thing in the room and well stretched his wings, hequietly returned to his cage, chirping at us, as if to say, "I haveseen enough for one day, I'll come out again to-morrow." So afterwardswe used to give him a fly every morning, taking care to shut all thewindows before his door was opened. We paid so much attention to ourbird; that he did not seem to find his life at all dull, but heobtained a companion in an unexpected manner.

  Our nursery window was standing open, Goldie was in his cage on thetable, and we were playing on the floor; suddenly my sister exclaimed,pointing to the window, "Goldie is out! Goldie is out!" and thereindeed, perched on the window-sill, was a little bird, which for amoment we believed to be our own little pet. We gently approached thewindow. "Oh that is a brown bird," said I, "and look! Goldie is safe inhis cage." Nurse now advised us to draw back from the window, for thatif not frightened, the little stranger might possibly be attracted bythe bird in the cage, and might come inside the window; so we retreatedto the opposite side of the room, and watched the little fellow. In hehopped very cautiously, now and then making a little chirrup, andtwisting his head in all directions, as if to discover with his sharpblack eyes, whether there was anything or anybody likely to hurt him;now he came on a chair-back, and then becoming bolder, ventured on thetable. When Goldie saw him, he left his seed box at which he had beenvery busy, and hopping about his cage in a most excited mannere beganto chirrup as loudly as he could, and shaking his tails up and down, heseemed to express his great joy at the sight of the little brownvisitor. Nurse quietly passed round the room and shut the window, "Nowwe have him safe," we cried, dancing about. "Pray be still, my dears,"said nurse, "until we get him into the cage." So we again becameimmoveable, and there was the brown stranger peeping at Goldie throughthe bars, perhaps wishing to partake of the seed and sugar, and freshgroundsel that Goldie had been enjoying. He was a delicately shapedthin little bird, all his feathers of a pretty dark brown, he did notappear to be much frightened when nurse approached, nor did he leavethe table when she opened the door of the cage; but on the contrary, hepeeped in, and receiving a very civil chirp of invitation from Goldie,he actually hopped in to our extreme delight.

  We ran to display our treasure to Mamma. She was quite amused at ourhaving caught him in so strange a manner, and said that she thought hewas a linnet, or some such kind of bird. He was evidently a tame birdthat had been much petted. He soon accommodated himself to all Goldie'shabits, came regularly to breakfast, and took his fly afterwards, allabout the room, resting occasionally on our heads or shoulders. Browniewould now hop on our fingers, when we wished to take him up from thefloor; and this we had never been able to teach to Goldie.

  The two birds were very good friends, excepting when an unusually nicebit of groundsel or plantain excited a quarrel between them; then theyscolded, fluttered, and pecked at each other in a very savage manner.We had a sliding partition made to the cage, and when they began todispute, we punished them by sliding in this partition and separatingthem for a short time. They used to look quite unhappy, moping in theirsolitude, until we made them happy again, by withdrawing the partition.

  These little birds went many journeys with us, even crossed to England,and back again to Ireland, and lived with us for a long time; and Isuppose we became rather careless about open windows and doors, knowingthat the birds were so very tame, and had no wish to fly away.

  We were the following summer in another place. There our rooms wereconfined and small; so we used to allow the birds to fly about on thestaircase every morning, in order to give them a larger range for usingtheir wings.

  One bright summer morning, Goldie flew out on the landing; and as hehad invariably come back again to his cage, we were not noticing himmuch, and never perceived that the servant had gone down stairs,leaving open the door at the bottom of the flight, just outside ofwhich door, was an open window. Presently we went to see for him, andit was some moments before we spied him sitting on the ledge of thisopen window. If we had made no exclamation, and placed the cage on thestairs, most probably he would have returned; but perhaps we startledhim by running down the stairs towards him. Out he went so rapidly andyet so gently, in the bright fresh air, as if he would say, "Libertyand sunshine, and freedom of flight in the summer sky, is toodelightful to refuse, even for you, my dear little master andmistress." He perched on a high tree and looked at us for a while. Invain we strewed crumbs about the window, and called and whistled. Invain we set his cage on the ledge with his deserted companion in it,hoping that hearing Brownie's chirp would entice him to return. Henever came back again, and Brownie occupied the cage for many months;our care of him being greater than ever, since we lost our otherfavourite.

  But Brownie's end was much more tragic. We were going away on a visitfor some weeks; and it was decided that Brownie was not to go, but thathe should live in the kitchen until we returned. There was a huge catliving in the barracks. We always had been in dread of her, and hadtried to make her afraid of entering our door; but whilst we were away,she one day found all the doors open, and peeping into the kitchen, andseeing no protecting servant there, she seized our dear little pet, andsoon destroyed him. When we returned home, there was nothing but theempty cage.