Page:The Cloud Bird.djvu/21

Rh "Why don't you do it then, instead of staying in this hot room?"

"I couldn't, of course; I haven't any wings."

"Why, I never thought of that. It’s too bad."

"Yes, isn't it? And you have such beauties."

Dorothy Ann looked enviously at his great white wings. She could see from the way he bent his long neck to look at himself that he was pleased with her admiration.

"I know what I might do," he said. "Mine are so big, I'm sure I have enough for both. You could sit on my back right between them. There is plenty of room for you, you are such a little thing."

Dorothy Ann drew herself up straight so as to look as big as possible. "I've grown a whole inch in the last five months," she said, reproachfully, for she was very sensitive about being small for her age.

"Isn't it lucky you didn't grow any more?" said the Bird; "because if you had, I might not be able to take you."

"Yes, isn't it? I never thought of that."

"I'll hold myself sidewise by the window like this and then you can step out upon my back as if I were a white fur rug in an automobile."