There were once some nice little birds who lived together in a great
big cage. This cage was not at all like the bird-cages we generally
see. It was called an aviary, and it was as large as a room. It had
small trees and bushes growing in it, so that the birds could fly
about among the green leaves and settle on the branches. There were
little houses where the birds might make their nests and bring up
their young ones, and there was everything else that the people who
owned this big cage thought their little birds would want. It had
wires all around it to keep the birds from flying away.
One of the tamest and prettiest of the birds who lived in this place
was called little Tweet, because, whenever she saw any of the family
coming near the cage she would fly up close to the wires and say,
"Tweet! Tweet!" which meant "Good-morning! how do you do?" But they
thought it was only her pretty way of asking for something to eat; and
as she said "Tweet" so much, they gave her that for a name.
One day there was a boy who came to visit the family who owned the
birds, and very soon he went to see the big cage. He had never seen
anything like it before. He had never been so close to birds that were
sitting on trees or hopping about among the branches. If the birds
at home were as tame as these, he could knock over lots of them, he
thought.
There was one that seemed tamer than any of the rest. It came up close
to him and said: "Tweet! Tweet!"
The boy got a little stick and pushed it through the wires at little
Tweet, and struck her. Poor little Tweet was frightened and hurt. She
flew up to a branch of the tree and sat there, feeling very badly.
When the boy found he could not reach her any more with his stick, he
went away.
Tweet sat on the branch a long time. The other birds saw she was sick,
and came and asked how she felt. Some of them carried nice seeds to
her in their bills. But little Tweet could not eat anything. She ached
all over, and sat very quietly with her head down on her breast.
[Illustration: "THE OTHER BIRDS BRING SEEDS TO POOR TWEET."]
She sat on that branch nearly all day. She had a little baby-bird, who
was in a nest in one of the small houses, but the other birds said she
need not go and feed it if she did not wish to move about. They would
take it something to eat.
But, toward night, she heard her baby cry, and then she thought she
must go to it. So she slowly flew over to her house; and her baby, who
was in a little nest against the wall, was very glad to see her.
In the morning, two of the birds came to the house to see how little
Tweet was, and found her lying on the floor, dead. The little
baby-bird was looking out of its nest, wondering what it all meant.
How sorry those two birds were when they found that their good little
friend Tweet was really dead!
"Poor Tweet!" said one of them, "She was the gentlest and best of us
all. And that poor little dear in the nest there, what will become of
it?"
"Become of it!" replied the other bird, who was sitting by poor Tweet,
"Become of it! Why, it shall never want for anything. I shall take it
for my own, and I will be a kind mother to it, for the sake of poor
little Tweet."
Now, do you not think that there were good, kind birds in that big
cage? But what do you think of the boy?
[Illustration: "I WILL BE A KIND MOTHER TO IT, FOR THE SAKE OF POOR
LITTLE TWEET."]
[Illustration]