A yellowhammer answered him in a cross voice— “Third tree to the left in the next orchard!” Why, actually the goldfinches had removed! He hurried to the tree indicated, and once again, “Little bride!” he whispered. A faint cry answered, and next moment his sweetheart appeared. “I was waiting for you,” she cried. Ah! these were happy moments that made up for all their sufferings. He told her all his adventures; she told him how her faith in him had never faltered. They woke the parents, who warmly welcomed the returned prodigal. “Just think,” said the mother, “those odious chaffinches positively forced us to leave the neighbourhood. Life was become unbearable; morning, noon, and night it was nothing but insulting remarks. But now you are come back again! So these spiteful folks will be finely confounded.” Another old hen-goldfinch was there, who was gazing at him with wet eyes and wings all a-tremble. “Ah!” cried our hero, “why, it is mamma, my poor mother I had forgotten so long!” Yes, it was his mother indeed: his little bride, after his disappearance, had never wearied till she found her, telling herself that, with her for company, there would be two of them to wait for his return. Their happiness was complete. Two days after, but soberly this time, without drum or trumpet, the wedding was solemnised. The story has its moral, as every story should. It was the goldfinch’s father-in-law who undertook to draw it for his young friend’s benefit. “Son-in-law,” he said, “I hope you will teach your little ones two lessons. The first is—never forget your mother; the second—beware of traps in the hedgerows.” [Illustration: STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A LITTLE WHITE RABBIT] Strange Adventures of a Little White Rabbit Four little rabbits had seen the light in a hutch snugly stuffed with straw, where they lived cosy and warm by their mother’s side. They were pretty, plump little things, all four as fat as butter, and just as well-liking one as the other; but while three of them had white bellies and dappled backs, one was white all over from head to foot, and his mother was mighty proud of his beauty, you may be sure. You could not have found so exquisite a rabbit, no, not for three leagues round, and every day he grew handsomer and handsomer, like a king’s son. Two great rubies glittered in his fine eyes, and his teeth were just like the edge of a saw; yes, and he had a moustache—three hairs, which made him, oh! so conceited. Mother Rabbit loved them all tenderly; but she loved Jannot, her firstborn, best of all.