"O my darlings," said their mamma, now fluttering home, "cannot I ever teach you to live in love?"
"It"s all Tip-Top"s fault," screamed the other birds in a flutter.
"My fault? Of course, everything in this nest that goes wrong is laid to me," said Tip-Top; "and I"ll leave it to anybody, now, if I crowd anybody. I"ve been sitting outside, on the very edge of the nest, and there"s Speckle has got my place."
"Who wants your place?" said Speckle. "I"m sure you can come in, if you please."
"My dear boy," said the mother, "do go into the nest and be a good little bird, and then you will be happy."
"That"s always the talk," said Tip-Top. "I"m too big for the nest, and I want to see the world. It"s full of beautiful things, I know.
Now there"s the most lovely creature, with bright eyes, that comes under the tree every day, and wants me to come down in the gra.s.s and play with her."
"My son, my son, beware!" said the frightened mother; "that lovely- seeming creature is our dreadful enemy, the cat,--a horrid monster, with teeth and claws."
At this, all the little birds shuddered and cuddled deeper in the nest; only Tip-Top in his heart disbelieved it. "I"m too old a bird," said he to himself, "to believe THAT story; mother is chaffing me. But I"ll show her that I can take care of myself."
So the next morning, after the father and mother were gone, Tip-Top got on the edge of the nest again, and looked over and saw lovely Miss p.u.s.s.y washing her face among the daisies under the tree, and her hair was sleek and white as the daisies, and her eyes were yellow and beautiful to behold, and she looked up to the tree bewitchingly, and said, "Little birds, little birds, come down; p.u.s.s.y wants to play with you."
"Only look at her!" said Tip-Top; "her eyes are like gold."
"No, don"t look," said Singer and Speckle. "She will bewitch you, and then eat you up."
"I"d like to see her try to eat me up," said Tip-Top, again balancing his short tail over the nest. "Just as if she would. She"s just the nicest, most innocent creature going, and only wants us to have fun.
We never do have any fun in this old nest!"
Then the yellow eyes below shot a bewildering light into Tip-Top"s eyes, and a voice sounded sweet as silver: "Little birds, little birds, come down; p.u.s.s.y wants to play with you."
"Her paws are as white as velvet," said Tip-Top, "and so soft! I don"t believe she has any claws."
"Don"t go, brother, don"t!" screamed both sisters.
All we know about it is, that a moment after a direful scream was heard from the nursery window. "O mamma, mamma, do come here! Tip- Top"s fallen out of the nest, and the cat has got him!"
Away ran p.u.s.s.y with foolish little Tip-Top in her mouth, and he squeaked dolefully when he felt her sharp teeth. Wicked Miss p.u.s.s.y had no mind to eat him at once; she meant just as she said, to "play with him." So she ran off to a private place among the currant- bushes, while all the little curly heads were scattered up and down looking for her.
Did you ever see a cat play with a bird or a mouse? She sets it down, and seems to go off and leave it; but the moment it makes the first movement to get away,--pounce! she springs on it, and shakes it in her mouth; and so she teases and tantalizes it, till she gets ready to kill and eat it. I can"t say why she does it, except that it is a cat"s nature; and it is a very bad nature for foolish young robins to get acquainted with.
"Oh, where is he? where is he? Do find my poor Tip-Top," said Jamie, crying as loud as he could scream. "I"ll kill that horrid cat,--I"ll kill her!"
Mr. and Mrs. Robin, who had come home meantime, joined their plaintive chirping to the general confusion; and Mrs. Robin"s bright eyes soon discovered her poor little son, where p.u.s.s.y was patting and rolling him from one paw to the other under the currant-bushes; and settling on the bush above, she called the little folks to the spot by her cries.
Jamie plunged under the bush, and caught the cat with luckless Tip- Top in her mouth; and, with one or two good thumps, he obliged her to let him go. Tip-Top was not dead, but in a sadly draggled and torn state. Some of his feathers were torn out, and one of his wings was broken, and hung down in a melancholy way.
"Oh, what SHALL we do for him? He will die. Poor Tip-Top!" said the children.
"Let"s put him back into the nest, children," said mamma. "His mother will know best what to do with him."
So a ladder was got, and papa climbed up and put poor Tip-Top safely into the nest. The cat had shaken all the nonsense well out of him; he was a dreadfully humbled young robin.
The time came at last when all the other birds in the nest learned to fly, and fluttered and flew about everywhere; but poor melancholy Tip-Top was still confined to the nest with a broken wing. Finally, AS it became evident that it would be long before he could fly, Jamie took him out of the nest, and made a nice little cage for him, and used to feed him every day, and he would hop about and seem tolerably contented; but it was evident that he would be a lame-winged robin all his days.
Jamie"s mother told him that Tip-Top"s history was an allegory.
"I don"t know what you mean, mamma," said Jamie.
"When something in a bird"s life is like something in a boy"s life, or when a story is similar in its meaning to reality, we call it an allegory. Little boys, when they are about half grown up, sometimes do just as Tip-Top did. They are in a great hurry to get away from home into the great world; and then temptation comes, with bright eyes and smooth velvet paws, and promises them fun; and they go to bad places; they get to smoking, and then to drinking; and, finally, the bad habit gets them in its teeth and claws, and plays with them as a cat does with a mouse. They try to reform, just as your robin tried to get away from the cat; but their bad habits pounce on them and drag them back. And so, when the time comes that they want to begin life, they are miserable, broken-down creatures, like your broken-winged robin.
"So, Jamie, remember, and don"t try to be a man before your time, and let your parents judge for you while you are young; and never believe in any soft white p.u.s.s.y, with golden eyes, that comes and wants to tempt you to come down and play with her. If a big boy offers to teach you to smoke a cigar, that is p.u.s.s.y. If a boy wants you to go into a billiard-saloon, that is p.u.s.s.y. If a boy wants you to learn to drink anything with spirit in it, however sweetened and disguised, remember p.u.s.s.y is there. And p.u.s.s.y"s claws are long, and p.u.s.s.y"s teeth are strong; and if she gives you one shake in your youth, you will be like a broken-winged robin all your days."
MISS KATY-DID AND MISS CRICKET
Miss Katy-did sat on the branch of a flowering azalea, in her best suit of fine green and silver, with wings of point-lace from Mother Nature"s finest web.
Miss Katy was in the very highest possible spirits, because her gallant cousin, Colonel Katy-did, had looked in to make her a morning visit. It was a fine morning, too, which goes for as much among the Katy-dids as among men and women. It was, in fact, a morning that Miss Katy thought must have been made on purpose for her to enjoy herself in. There had been a patter of rain the night before, which had kept the leaves awake talking to each other till nearly morning; but by dawn the small winds had blown brisk little puffs, and whisked the heavens clear and bright with their tiny wings, as you have seen Susan clear away the cobwebs in your mamma"s parlour; and so now there were only left a thousand blinking, burning water-drops, hanging like convex mirrors at the end of each leaf, and Miss Katy admired herself in each one.
"Certainly I am a pretty creature," she said to herself; and when the gallant colonel said something about being dazzled by her beauty, she only tossed her head and took it as quite a matter of course.
"The fact is, my dear colonel," she said, "I am thinking of giving a party, and you must help me to make out the lists."
"My dear, you make me the happiest of Katy-dids."
"Now," said Miss Katy-did, drawing an azalea-leaf towards her, "let us see--whom shall we have? The Fireflies, of course; everybody wants them, they are so brilliant,--a little unsteady, to be sure, but quite in the higher circles."
"Yes, we must have the Fireflies," echoed the colonel.
"Well, then, and the b.u.t.terflies and the Moths. Now, there"s a trouble. There"s such an everlasting tribe of those Moths; and if you invite dull people they"re always sure all to come, every one of them. Still, if you have the b.u.t.terflies, you can"t leave out the Moths."
"Old Mrs. Moth has been laid up lately with a gastric fever, and that may keep two or three of the Misses Moth at home," said the colonel.
"Whatever could give the old lady such a turn?" said Miss Katy. "I thought she never was sick."
"I suspect it"s high living. I understand she and her family ate up a whole ermine cape last month, and it disagreed with them."
"For my part, I can"t conceive how the Moths can live as they do,"
said Miss Katy, with a face of disgust. "Why, I could no more eat worsted and fur, as they do--"
"That is quite evident from the fairy-like delicacy of your appearance," said the colonel. "One can see that nothing so gross or material has ever entered into your system."
"I"m sure," said Miss Katy, "mamma says she don"t know what does keep me alive; half a dewdrop and a little bit of the nicest part of a rose-leaf, I a.s.sure you, often last me for a day. But we are forgetting our list. Let"s see--the Fireflies, b.u.t.terflies, Moths.
The Bees must come, I suppose."
"The Bees are a worthy family," said the colonel.
"Worthy enough, but dreadfully humdrum," said Miss Katy. "They never talk about anything but honey and housekeeping; still, they are a cla.s.s of people one cannot neglect."