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she looked out at the sunshine on the new grass, and
the lilacs all in blossom, she said: "Well, dear, it is a
nice day. I've been so busy, I had n't noticed. I tell
you, Dolly, I'll go along with you to make sure you
don't get your feet wet." She seemed to have for-
gotten all about her lace curtains, half on and half
off the drying-frames, and we none of us said a
word about them as we hurried along after
Pete, down Elm Street toward the tennis-
courts. It is quite a walk, and we almost
caught up with Pete before we were near
enough to the courts to see that a big negro
man was dragging a roller about.

As we came along, he stopped working and leaned on the handle of the roller to stare at the

crowd. Remember, there was Pete, and Sallie, and

Nora, and the baby in the go-cart, and Mrs. Albright,
and Dolly, and me. That's a bigger crowd than gen-
erally walks around together on the streets of our town, espe-
cially at that hour of the afternoon, when most people are sup-
posed to be busy tending to things at home.

"Wheah you-all gwine?" called the negro, and then we saw that it was 'Rastus Smith, who always beats our carpets for us at house-cleaning time. Pete called to him, "Why, my little canary-bird, Dickie-you know Dickie-he got out of his cage, and flew down to Mrs. Albright's and up in her lilac-bush, and then around the corner this way. Did you-"

But 'Rastus was already down on the walk with us, his eyes rolling so the whites showed, and he was pointing toward the place where Elm Street turns north. "Right dere, honey," he said; "right dere, Mister Pete. Not more 'n half a instanter ago, I see yo' little yaller bu'd, flying 'long des es chipper as though he had business to see to. He went 'Queet! queet!' like dat." "Oh, that 's Dickie!" said Pete, Sallie, Dolly and Nora. "That 's just the way he goes!" "Well, foller me, folks," said 'Rastus, and we all went along down the road. It 's rather a long way, and the children had time to get big bunches of dandelions. It was too early for buttercups, so we tried with dandelions to see if the baby liked butter, but he ducked down his fat little chin, and giggled so, it was hard to see.

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At the turn of the road,

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'Rastus gave a start, and cried out: "Dey he! dey he! Right dere by dat patch of brambleberry bushes!"

"Oh, I see him! I see him!" the children said, and began to run. Mrs. Albright and Nora and the baby and I came along after, but when we caught up with them, as we did in a few minutes, there was no Dickie to be seen.

"Where is he?" asked Mrs. Albright, very much interested. A pretty pink had come up in her cheeks from hurrying so in the fresh air.

"He flew that way!" Sallie said. We were now almost out in the country, standing by a field that a farmer was plowing, with some hens pecking around after him in the fresh furrows.

"No, it was that way!" said Pete positively. "'T was n't ary one of them ways," said 'Rastus. "He went over to'des that there ho'se-chestnut-tree. Der ain't no question 'bout dat."

"Let 's ask the farmer," said Mrs. Albright. So she did, explaining that it was a pet bird of the little boy's, and that he was very fond of it, and all.

The farmer leaned on the handles of his plow and looked down at Pete. "Well now, that 's too bad," he said. "I've got a little fellow 'bout your age. He ain't got a canary, but he 's got a lame hen that he sets great store by. I know he 'd feel awful bad if she ran away from home."

"But did you see my Dickie?" said Pete; "a little yellow bird about-"

"Well, I don't know but what I did, come to think of it," said the farmer, looking around. "Yes, sir, I remember now. I saw him flying along close to the ground. He went into the woods yonder."

Pete looked pretty sober. "Oh, we'll never catch him there!" he said, with a tremble in his voice and a little quiver of his lips.

The farmer took up his lines again and clucked to his horses. "Never you fear," he said; "he was flying real slow, as though he was tired. We'll find him in one of the first trees. Now,

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"How good it smells!" said Mrs. Albright. "It must be nice to live in the country."

The children were laughing over the antics of the hens. The minute the plow started up, they ran to get the best position behind it, and as fast as one fat angleworm after another was turned up, they gobbled him down. Sallie grew interested in one thin, little pullet who never could get

OF HIS PLOW AND LOOKED DOWN AT PETE."

anywhere fast enough to have her share. Some big, greedy hen with her crop already just bursting open would pounce down on the worm and

snatch it away from her. Finally, Sallie could n't stand it any longer, and catching hold of a long, fat fellow with her own fingers, she held it out to the little pullet. She was so set on seeing fair play, that she forgot entirely that usually she 's as afraid as can be of angleworms.

Nora began to wipe her eyes. "It 'minds me of home-the purty field and all," she said. "It 's the happiest hour I 've seen in th' new country."

The farmer was now at the end of his furrow, and we were at the edge of the woods. He tied his horses to an oak-tree and helped us climb the fence. "Here, I'll carry the baby, cart and all," he said, and so we set off.

It was lovely in the woods-all the spring flowers were out, and a brook ran full over clean pebbles.

"Now, let's see," said the farmer. "Where 'd he be likely to go?"

And just then Pete pulled my skirt and pointed to two men who sat in a corner of the fence, with a pack of greasy cards in front of them. They were such rough-looking tramps that I was very glad the farmer and 'Rastus were with us. When the farmer saw them, he asked them about Dick, and began to describe him.

They did not look up from their cards. "No, we ain't see' a yellow bird, nor any other kind,” one said crossly, and dealt out another hand.

We went on, and 'Rastus began to chuckle. "Dey ain' seen Dickie 'cause dey ain' look'!" he said. "Dey said dey ain' seen him nor no other bu'd, and dat presact minute dere was a highhole buildin' his nes' in de tree dey had dere backs up against, and fo' meadow-larks wuz a-sittin' on de top fence rail, singin' fit to bu'st deyse'ves!"

And really the trouble in the woods was to pick Dickie out from among all the other birds who were flying and singing around. I had n't any idea that there were so many birds in the whole world as the farmer pointed out to us that afterHe knew them, every one, and told us

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noon.

ever so many things about how they built their nests, and what color their nests were, and all, and whether they were good-natured or quarreled with their neighbors. He grew more and more observant himself, and was almost as pleased as the children when he showed them a little bunch of leaves, and after making them guess what it was, pointed out an opening on one side, and, inside, four speckled eggs, as yellow as cream. It was an oven-bird's nest, he told them, the bird who called, "Teacher, teacher, TEACHER!" all the time. He said he guessed he 'd have to bring his own little boy out and show it to him.

"I declare," he said, "I ain't been out in the woods in springtime before in I don't know when! There's always such a lot of farm-work to do then."

Finally they did catch sight of Dickie again; then they kept seeing him fly from one tree to another, very slowly they said. It was plain he was tired. Poor Dickie, why should n't he be?

It was the first time he 'd done more than to fly across the room and back.

At last he settled in the tiptop of an ash-tree that was ever so straight and tall. "Now," said the farmer, "I tell you what. We could n't catch him now if we should climb up there. But I'll mark the tree so, with my knife, and early, early to-morrow morning, just before daybreak (you know birds are so dead asleep then they can't move), I 'll come out and get him, and bring him into town. Will that do?"

I said it would do very well, and that we ought to be getting home, for it must be late. Pete and Sallie and Dolly suddenly remembered that they were empty down to their toes-"just starved!"

The farmer looked at his watch, and told me it was five o'clock. Then he said: "Now, we 've come clear through the woods to the other side, and my house is just over that next field. You go along and have a drink of milk all around, and

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they were so good, and it took us so long that the farmer was at the house before we were.

There were a lot of cups of cool milk and a plate of cookies set out on a tray on the porch, and the farmer called to us from the barn where he was hitching up, that his wife had put them

there for us. We sat down on the steps, and drank the milk and ate the cookies, and we agreed that never in all our lives had we tasted anything so good. Then we wet our handkerchiefs in the watering-trough and put them around the big bouquets of wild flowers we had picked in the woods, and then the farmer came rattling out of the barn.

He had hitched up to a hay-wagon with a deep layer of straw, just the kind you read about, and he lifted us all in pell-mell, laughing and squealing. All 'cept the baby. We laid him down on Nora's apron, turned clean side out (you see it was a good thing we had that along) in a nest

of the straw; and he went sound asleep that very minute, and never woke up all the way in.

It was a Won

der, too, for we

made a lot of noise. A straw-ride, we found out, is just as much fun as they say it is. The children sang some songs they 'd learned at school, and then 'Rastus began. We none of us ever dreamed he had such a lovely voice. We are going to get him to sing for us at our next school entertainment. He sang one lovely old negro song after another, some funny and some sad, and we applauded after each one as though we were at a concert. It was like a concert, he sang so well. When we got back to the tennis-court, he climbed down and went to rolling again. "I hopes you gets yo' bu'd all right," he called after "I'm much obliged fo' takin' me 'long!"

us.

At the Albrights's we dropped Dolly and her mother. "I've had a lovely time!" said Mrs. Albright, holding up the big bunch of white violets. "Do let me know about it when you get Dickie back."

When the hay-wagon drove up to our house, we all began to shout at the tops of our voices to make Bridget (Nora's aunt and our cook) come out and see us. We were dying to surprise her! She's a very good cook, and nice when the children are sick, but she 's a cross old thing who

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