BLONDELL
I feel sure that Ned really loved Judy the best, for he spent more time with her than he did with Blondell, but there was something about Blondell that he could not resist, for she simply hypnotized him.
I was ill at the time, so I had plenty of leisure lying in bed to watch them. My nurse often said she was so interested in the birds she could hardly take care of her patient.
Blondell was punished for making so much trouble for Judy, for none of her eggs hatched out. Then Ned’s mistress took Blondell to her house and mated her with her bird, Dick. Blondell was only too delighted to have a new lover, and she soon forgot all about faithless Ned. She raised one lovely green and gold bird like his father. I brought them both home, and named her son “Mike” after one of the most wonderful boy singers the world has ever known or ever will. Mike was always very uneasy, and acted more like a wild bird, and it was almost impossible to keep him in his cage. He was full of all sorts of antics and loved to torment his mother.
I looked forward to having a fine singer, but he was not contented in this small town, so one warm, bright morning in the fall he went abroad to cultivate his voice, and we have never seen him since.
I still have Blondell, and some day I hope she may have another son.
CHAPTER VIII.
DONA MARINA
Dona Marina came to the hospital, not as a patient, but as a destroyer of patients. Since that time she has been a great deal of care with her numerous kittens and a very bad burn on her side and head. I accidentally turned a tea-kettle of boiling water over her. I dried her as quickly as possible, then covered her with talcum powder, and kept her shut up in the hospital all day.
She was a great sufferer, and for hours was in perfect agony. Still, I did not realize for days how badly she was burned until the hair began to come out. For three months she had a scab as large as my hand.
She bore her sufferings very bravely. When the scab began to loosen, she would come to me every day and ask me to cut off the loose edges. She would stand very quietly while I trimmed them with my manicure scissors.