“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]