Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/103

Rh One day the sun shone very hot and the birds tried to get out of the cage. They wanted to fly in the trees and bushes.

The farmer's boy knew what they wanted and hung their cage in the tree.

He said to himself, "I think my birds will like this. They can get acquainted with other birds. I know birds should go with birds. That is their happiness."

Then the wood larks sang loud and long, for they were glad to be in the trees.

An old hen was sitting on some eggs near by, and her little ones were just beginning to come out of the shells.

The singing of the birds made her angry and she said to them, "Will you stop that noise for a time so that I may hear my little ones call? I can not hear a word my children say. That is not a pretty song, anyway. When other birds sing, their songs are sweet; but your noise hurts my ears. Why do you sing all the time? No one likes to hear you.

"That foolish boy did not know much about birds, or he would not have caught you. There are plenty of other birds in the mountain. The thrush and the kind-birds are good, with fine voices and clean and beautiful feathers.

"Why could not that foolish boy catch them? They are the birds I like. They are kind to chickens and like