One cold day in January Kitty Blake had dined with grandma and was on
her way home through the fields. Perhaps you wonder why Kitty should
walk in the fields when the snow was so deep. But there was a hard
crust on the snow and she could skip along over it without breaking
through. It was great fun.
Suddenly she stopped, for there in a slight hollow in the snow lay a
tiny bird.
"Poor little birdie, it must have frozen to death," said Kitty softly,
and a tear stood in her eye, for she has a tender heart for all little
creatures. Then she said "Oh!" and gave a start that sent the tears
tumbling over her muff for just that instant, one of the bird's legs
twitched and the tears would not stay back.
"P'r'aps it's still alive, after all;" she thought, and she picked it
up and tucked it into her muff. Her muff was lined with fur.
She reached home quite breathless, and when she took out the bird and
laid it on mamma's lap, it gave one little "Peep!" stood on its legs,
and then flew up into the ivy that ran all about the south bay window.
"What made it make b'lieve dead?" asked Kitty.
"It didn't make believe," said mamma. "I think it was dizzy. Birds
sometimes are dizzy. But if you had not found it, it would soon have
frozen to death."
Kitty named him "The Tramp," and he lived in the bay window with
mamma's plants. This bay window was shut off from the rest of the room
by glass doors. It was a sunny and fragrant home for the little
chickadee, and a lucky bird he was to have it just then.
For on the first day of February it began to snow and snowed three
days, and when it cleared there were piles and piles of snow.
Great flocks of birds then came about the house searching for food.
"We must feed them or they will die," said mamma. "The snow is so deep
they cannot find food."
So Kitty scattered meal and hemp seed on the snow and tied meaty bones
on the lilac and rose bushes, and there wasn't a moment of the day
when some blue jay, or snow bird, or chickadee, or robin, was not
picking up grain, or pecking at the bones.
"That is the way to have birds in winter!" said Kitty.
The Tramp did not seem to care a fig about his relations till one day
in March when a flock of chickadees flew past, and he fluttered
against the windows and begged to be let out.
[Illustration: THE TRAMP VISITS CHARLEY.]
Mamma opened the window and off he flew! Kitty sighed and said, "That
is the last of him, I suppose." But it wasn't.
One sunny May day Charley was sitting up in bed. Charley is Kitty's
brother. He had been sick and the window was open so he could breathe
the soft spring air. Suddenly a bird dropped upon the window sill and
began to whistle "Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!" so blithely and cock his head
at Charley.
"It's the Tramp!" said Charley; and sure enough it was! After that he
came almost every day. If the window was shut they opened it for him.
Charley used to hide hemp seed and sugar under the edge of the pillows
for the Tramp to find. He always found it. Sometimes he would tie
sugar up in a paper and the Tramp would peck at it until he got it
out.
[Illustration: THE TRAMP'S HOME.]
He would perch on Charley's shoulder and eat seeds from his mouth.
He wanted to build a nest in an old letter box nailed up against a
wall. Ever so many birds, blue birds, wrens and sparrows wanted to
build in that box too.
The Tramp was a brave little fellow and a good fighter; but he never
would have driven the birds off, if Kitty hadn't helped him.
"I love all the birds," said Kitty, "but the Tramp is my very own
bird."
So he and his mate built a nest and raised a family of birds in peace,
and now Kitty and Charley call the old letter-box "The Tramp's Home."
[Illustration: A PAIR OF HORSES.--_From Rosa Bonheur's painting, "The
Horse Fair."_]
[Illustration: CHILDREN OF CHARLES I.--_From the sketch by Verspronck,
in the Louvre._]