One day when I came in, I thought there must have been an army of children in the parlours, by the sight that met my eyes. All the books from the lower shelf of the bookcase were on the floor. They had gotten up on the magazine table and thrown all the magazines on the floor. Sofa pillows were everywhere but where they ought to be. A large corn-cob in the front parlour, and corn-husks here, there, and everywhere, with scraps of paper in every direction, and Dona and Marina fast asleep in the empty scrap-basket, while their mother lay curled up in an easy-chair.
During the day they go outdoors and all over the house, but when the house is lighted, they seem to think up-stairs is the place for them.
We have had great fun catching flies. They come and ask me to help them. I take my handkerchief, and, when I get a fly in it, they come and take it out, and sometimes there is quite a fight to see which gets it.
I was in hopes to have had many interesting things to tell about Dona and Marina, but a friend came for them to-day, and I could not say “No” again, as I had promised them when they were wee babies, but I shall miss them greatly, and I feel very sad and lonely to-night without my baby pets.
CHAPTER IX.
BOBBINETTE AND BOBBY—TWO ORPHANS
Those who have been fortunate enough to have read that charming little story of “Bobby and Bobbinette,” by Mrs. Talbot, will know where I found these names. Instead of being two New York children, they are two Seneca Falls robins, but the names fit as if made to order, as they are just as different as the original Bobby and Bobbinette. Bobbinette rules Bob with a rod of iron, and he meekly does as he is bid.
One bright morning in May, as I came into the yard, I saw Dona Marina sitting on the front piazza charming a nice, plump baby robin, who was perched on a water-pipe not three feet away. She was opening and shutting her mouth, making that hissing sound, and her large green eyes were fairly glued to the robin’s black ones. Just as she was ready to spring, I called out sharply: “Dona Marina, you wicked cat, don’t you dare catch that baby bird.” She turned around in the most leisurely way, and came to meet me with the air of the innocent.
If I had not seen her with my own eyes, I never should have suspected she had the least designs on the bird. The mother bird was calling and screeching with rage in a tree near by. As soon as Dona Marina’s back was turned, the frightened bird hopped down, and went around in the back yard as fast as her baby legs could carry her.
After telling Dona Marina just what I thought of her conduct, I went after the baby, and finally caught her. But, when I brought her back to the street, there was no mother bird anywhere to be seen or heard, and she evidently thought her darling had gone down Dona Marina’s throat.
I then told the little stranger that she was in the hands of the head nurse of “The Bird Hospital,” and would receive the best of care. I at once put her into a nice little cot, and covered her, as it is best to keep wild or strange birds in the dark for at least two days, until they get used to you and their environments.