Why, actually the goldfinches had removed! He hurried to the tree indicated, and once again, “Little bride!” he whispered.
A faint cry answered, and next moment his sweetheart appeared.
“I was waiting for you,” she cried.
Ah! these were happy moments that made up for all their sufferings. He told her all his adventures; she told him how her faith in him had never faltered. They woke the parents, who warmly welcomed the returned prodigal.
“Just think,” said the mother, “those odious chaffinches positively forced us to leave the neighbourhood. Life was become unbearable; morning, noon, and night it was nothing but insulting remarks. But now you are come back again! So these spiteful folks will be finely confounded.”
Another old hen-goldfinch was there, who was gazing at him with wet eyes and wings all a-tremble.
“Ah!” cried our hero, “why, it is mamma, my poor mother I had forgotten so long!”
Yes, it was his mother indeed: his little bride, after his disappearance, had never wearied till she found her, telling herself that, with her for company, there would be two of them to wait for his return.
Their happiness was complete.
Two days after, but soberly this time, without drum or trumpet, the wedding was solemnised.