Page:Story of the robins.djvu/202

186 sparrow which was flying in the. air above the aviary, he hit himself against the wires of the dome, and would have fallen to the bottom, but that he was stopped by one of the perches. As soon as he recovered,—

"Why cannot I soar as I see other birds do?" said he.

"Alas!" cried the mother, "we are in a place of confinement, we are shut up, and can never get out; but here is food in abundance, and every other necessary." "Never get out!" exclaimed the whole brood; "then adieu to happiness!" She attempted to soothe them, but in vain.

The little redbreasts rejoiced in their liberty, and Dicky gave up the desire of living in the aviary, and wished to be gone. "Stop," said the father, "let us first hear what those canary birds are saying."

The canary birds had almost completed their nest.

"How fortunate is our lot," said the hen bird, "in being placed in this aviary! How preferable is it to the small cage we built in last year!"

"Yes," replied her mate; "yet how comfortable was that in comparison with the still smaller ones in which we were once separately confined! For