wife's father gave a singing party, and how strongly it tempted me to stay — but I feared to stir up your anxieties, so I came."

Those words, at such a time and in such circumstances as we have seen, were the poor thing's ill fortune. All at once September felt her heart beating fast between her ribs, warning and cautioning, and fear swept over her, and she resolved to run no risk after this. She stretched out her hand and seized the little bird, who felt not a shadow of doubt: she was caressing him as usual, and he loves the warmth of her gentle hand, and knows that she delights in the feel of the quick beats of his heart in the hollow of her palms. But how great was his astonish-ment when she carried him to the cage and, in the twinkling of an eye, made him a prisoner — so that he did not know what to do. At last, when he had recovered his breath and hopped onto the porcelain perch, he asked her:

"What kind of joke is this?!"

She answered: "There is no joke; I only wanted to protect you from my mother's cats, which are prowling about here tonight."

He said: "I do not know why the Queen keeps all these cats!"

"They are of an excellent breed, with blue eyes, and their tails are spotted, and they belong to the royal family — if you understand what I mean."

"Quite. But why did you not tell me that before putting me in here? I do not think this is the place I like."

She said: "I could not have closed my eyes tonight had I not made sure you were safe."

"Very well, this once — so long as you let me out in the morning."

Then he took his food and began to sing.. but he felt a lump in his throat that kept him from going on with his singing, and he said:

"I do not know what has come over me! I have no mind to sing tonight."

"Sleep, then," the Princess said to him.

And upon that he twisted his head under his wings and passed into a quiet doze, and September followed him into it likewise. But she awoke in the early morning to the bird's voice calling her at the top of his voice:

"Get up.. get up and open the cage door for me. I want to fly while the dew still clings to the flowers and the morning moisture wets the earth. Come, get up!"

"You are quite well off here in this beautiful cage, made by the most skillful craftsman in my father's kingdom... and so great was my father's delight in it that he cut off that craftsman's head, so that he should make no other."

"Let me out. Let me out.."

But she said to him: "My maids of honor will feed you three times every day, and you shall be free of every care, and you may sing whatever you please to your heart's content."

"Let me out. I will not."

And he tried in vain to pass through the bars of the cage and to open the door with his wings.

And when the princesses came and saw him, they were pleased that September had acted on their advice, and they told her that he would grow used to his cage and would forget, within a few days, that he had once upon a time been free. The bird listened to them, silent and still, and no sooner had they gone out than he returned to his entreaties and begged her to open for him. She answered, her patience exhausted:

"Do not be a fool. I only put you in the cage because I am so very fond of you, and I know better than you what is good for you. Sing me a little and I will give you

a piece of brown sugar." But the little bird stood in a corner of the cage, staring at the blue sky, and did not sing a single passage all day long. September reproached him, saying:

"What is the use of sulking.. why do you not sing and forget your cares?"

"How can I sing! I must see the trees and the lake and the green rice growing in the fields."

"If that is what you want, I will take you out for a stroll. And I will take you out every day, because I love you and want your happiness." And she carried the cage and walked with it toward the lake around which the cypress trees grow, and stood with it at the edge of the field that stretches on without end, till the eye turns back from it wearied.. He said to her, and in his tone there was a moan:

"It is not the same thing; the fields and the lake and the trees do not look beautiful from behind the bars of a cage!"

And it troubled her that he refused food that

day, so she consulted her sisters; but they warned her, saying: "You must be firm."

"But if he does not eat, he will die."

They said: "That would truly be shocking ingratitude on his part. He must know that you are thinking only of his good

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