Birds and All Nature, Vol. 6, No. 1, June 1899: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and All Nature, Vol. 6, No. 1, June 1899: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
One day he had had his one hemp seed, and teased for more, but I said
"no" and he went flying about the room having a fine time. Soon he
flew back on the table, hopped over to the cup, gave it two or three
taps to make it ring, then hopped on to the top, reached down and
helped himself to two seeds. Tricksey is a very vain little bird and
likes nothing better than to go over on my dressing table, walk back
and forth in front of the mirror or sit on my pin cushion and admire
himself.
Tricksey came to me one afternoon and Taffy knew nothing about his
arrival until the next morning. When he came upstairs and saw a little
yellow bird in a house of gold, he was like the little girl's Bunnie,
who "was not a bit afraid, but awfully much surprised," when she heard
firecrackers for the first time. His eyes were like balls of fire,
while his mouth opened and shut making a hissing sound, and his tail
going at the rate of a mile a minute. He walked into my room like a
wild tiger, with an air as much as to say, "If this is Little Billie
come back dressed in yellow, die he must," and sprang at the cage. I
took him firmly by the paws, looked straight into his big angry eyes
and said in a soft, firm voice, "Taffy, this is Tricksey, and he is
not to be eaten or hurt any more than my Little Billie who went away."
I let go of his paws, he walked out of my room and downstairs without
looking back. In about an hour I looked out into the hall, and there
sat my dear old Taffy on the top step looking very meek and wishful. I
spoke kindly to him and asked him to come in and see his new brother
Tricksey. After a few moments he came in very slowly and went behind my
bed. Soon he came from under the valance, (the cage sat on a chair and
I in front of it) never looked at the cage, jumped into my lap, put his
paws about my neck and began loving me. I took him to bed with me and
he never moved until Tricksey began to sing in a most delightful way,
then he looked at him and listened very intently. I talked to him, and
"smoothed his feathers," and soon he snuggled down in my arms and went
to sleep. When he got out of bed he never glanced at the cage, but went
directly downstairs, and I felt I had made a good beginning. Everyone
said I could never teach Taffy not to catch Tricksey, and the reason
his catship did not kill Little Billie was because he was afraid of
him, and so carefully watched. I knew there was not a place in the
house I could hang the cage where Taffy could not get at it if he made
up his mind to do so. Of course for days and weeks I felt anxious, and
did not mean to leave them alone together. I never turned Taffy out
of my room. If he went up to the cage and put up his paw I would say
"Taffy, you must _not_ put your paw on the cage," and as he always
minds he would take it right down, sit by the cage, and I would talk to
him kindly. Fortunately Tricksey was not at all afraid of Taffy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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