Tales of the birdsFowler, W. Warde (William Warde)
General
Tales of the birds
Fowler, W. Warde (William Warde)
Birds; Birds -- Juvenile literature
Then Pipi told how he had suddenly come upon the light, and then lost
all his senses as suddenly; how, when he came to himself, he was in a
horrible cage, with nothing fit to eat, even if he could have eaten it;
how the Professor had taken him in his hand and stroked him softly, and
then had bound up his leg without hurting him a bit; how he had told
Peter’s wife to keep Pipi warm, and to get some insects off the trees
for him if he got any better. And then how he felt the warmth slowly
reviving the life within him, and how he began to flutter a little
about the room, and was very nearly caught by the cat, and then put into
the cage out of her reach; how Peter brought a great piece of
willow-bough, as the Professor had told him, on which Pipi had contrived
to find a few insects; and how, as strength returned, a great desire
grew within him to get away to the meadow and the brook, and he
fluttered so much that his feathers began to fall out, and he could take
no more food. And lastly, how Peter’s good wife had taken the cage into
the garden and opened the door, and how he had made his way, slowly and
wearily, to the old summer home.
“And now you know all about it,” he said, and sang one strain with
something like the old force. “Let us go and find old Blossom,” said he,
“and see if his _tale_ is equal to mine. And Twinkle too--poor grumpy
Twinkle; I shall never be able to hold up my head before him any more,
and he will be more unpleasant than ever. But after all,” he went on
after a moment, “Twinkle was my only companion that dreadful night, and
he is not such a bad bird after all, and is sure to be glad to see me.
And let me tell you,” he added, in a serious voice, “that I intend to
visit that kind lighthouse-woman again, and the Professor too, if I can
find him; for I have found out one thing in the lighthouse, and that is,
that though men are often cruel to us birds, they are not all so; and
though they must, most of them, know very little about us, there are a
few at least who understand our ways.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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