“The noise we made, however, had one good effect, for it brought our parents, who were just then hovering over their late peaceful abode, in order, if possible, to regain their lost family. They were much distressed at finding us in captivity; but as our present wants were on that account the more urgent, they tried to comfort us with the assurance that they would speedily return with food, and then left us, not forgetting to take our little sister with them. “They soon returned, and when the calls of hunger were satisfied, we made some enquiries about our two brothers, whom we had neither seen nor heard. They informed us, that they had conveyed them to a place of safety soon after day-break, and had then returned, in the hope of finding our sister and us. I will not detail the whole of our conversation, nor weary you with the relation of our complaints, and the consolations offered by our parents; but proceed to inform you, that their visits were constant, and our wants always supplied. At length, however, the weather became very hot, and we began to suffer much from thirst; for though the food our parents brought us was generally moist, it was by no means sufficiently so to supply the want of water, which, had we been at liberty, we could have procured abundantly for ourselves. Our friend the gardener did not perceive our uneasiness, though he took us in every night, till one morning he found my poor brother just expiring, and me apparently very ill. He then tried to recover us by giving us water. With me his efforts succeeded, but my poor brother was too far gone, and, though he revived for a short time, died that day. “I now felt my condition so forlorn, that confinement was doubly painful to me, and grief for the loss of my beloved companion was nearly effecting what pain had not accomplished, when the gardener observing that I did not thrive, resolved to set me free. Accordingly, he one day opened my prison door, and I, who did not want much persuasion to depart, immediately flew out. My first sensation was exquisite delight at finding myself at liberty. I hopped from bough to bough, on the first tree I came to, and exerted the little voice I then had, in strains of rapture. “When my ecstasy had somewhat subsided, I remembered my parents, and anticipated the pleasure I should have in ranging at large with them; but it being about noon, and not expecting them till the evening, I purposed hovering near the spot till the interval (which never before appeared so long) should elapse. The gardener, however, was again destined to be the destroyer of my hopes, for some time after he came into the garden, and though I thought myself quite secure from observation, he soon perceived me. He called to me, and I, seized with terror, lest, repenting his late precious gift, he had come to reclaim it and convey me back to my prison, immediately flew away.