Produced by Katherine Ward, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) WHAT THE BLACKBIRD SAID. A Story _IN FOUR CHIRPS_. BY MRS. FREDERICK LOCKER. _ILLUSTRATED BY RANDOLPH CALDECOTT._ LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL NEW YORK: 416 BROOME STREET 1881 LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL, E.C. TO MY DEAR CHILDREN, GODFREY AND DOROTHY, THIS LITTLE STORY IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THEIR MOTHER. CONTENTS. PAGE CHIRP THE FIRST--WINTER 1 CHIRP THE SECOND--SPRING 22 CHIRP THE THIRD--SUMMER 47 CHIRP THE FOURTH--AUTUMN 69 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE THE BLACKBIRD ON A SMALL WHITE HILLOCK. 4 THE ROBIN'S NEST. 38 THE ROOK. 62 THE THREE FRIENDS--THE ROBIN, THE ROOK, AND THE BLACKBIRD. 84 CHIRP THE FIRST. The winter of 1878 was certainly an unusually dreary one, and so thought a remarkably fine young Blackbird, as he perched one morning on the bare bough of a spreading lime-tree, whose last brown leaf had fallen to the ground some weeks before. With the exception of the Scotch firs and other fortunate evergreens, there was nothing to be seen on all sides but leafless branches standing out sharply against the cold, grey sky. The ground was frozen, and entirely covered with snow, for there had been a heavy fall during the night. The way-marks of field and road were obliterated, all was one sheet of dazzling whiteness. Here and there a little mound marked the spot where a flower-bed lay buried, and there was one narrow path where the snow was thickly piled on either side, for it had been partially swept from the centre, which showed traces of the bright brown gravel below. The Blackbird was contemplating this landscape in a discontented and unhappy frame of mind. He was, as we have just said, a remarkably fine young bird. His plumage was of a glossy blackness, with which not even a raven's could vie; his bright eyes looked even brighter as they gleamed from the deep yellow rims which surrounded them, and his bill resembled the polished shaft of an early crocus.