Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/241

Rh. ’Tis a good thing the blade is sharp and enduring!”

“Yes, but even so,” demurred Jacqueline, “what are we going to do when the bars are  loosed? To be as free as the birds, as thou sayest, we must have wings, for we are fully  twenty feet from the ground!”

“There are many ways to get out of a window, Jacqueline, as thou wouldst know if thou hadst climbed in and out of one as many  times as I have! But that too will all come in good season, and meanwhile we must work  away at the bars.” Hope,—even vague and  indefinite hope,—lends wings to the soul and  zest to the brain and hands. This faint glimmer that had been cast across the blackness of the two children’s prospects so filled  their hearts with its brightness that they  were almost gay, as they sawed away on the  stout iron bars. They would have shouted and sung, had not that performance surely  encouraged unwelcome attention in their direction.