The boy in "Brothers of Pity" is the principal character, and the animals occupy minor positions. Cock-Robin only appears as a corpse on the scene; and Julie did not touch much on bird pets in any of her tales, chiefly because she never kept one, having too much sympathy with their powers and cravings for flight to reconcile herself to putting them in cages. The flight and recapture of Cocky in "Lob" were drawn from life, though the bird did not belong to her, but her descriptions of how he stood on the window-sill "scanning the summer sky with his fierce eyes, and flapping himself in the breeze,... bowed his yellow crest, spread his noble wings, and sailed out into the æther";... and his "dreams of liberty in the tree-tops," all show the light in which she viewed the practice of keeping birds in confinement. Her verses on "Three Little Nest-Birds" and her tale of the Thrush in "An Idyll of the Wood" bear witness to the same feeling. Major Ewing remembers how often she used to wish, when passing bird-shops, that she could "buy the whole collection and set them all free,"—a desire which suggests a quaint vision of her in Seven Dials, with a mixed flock of macaws, canaries, parrots and thrushes shrieking and flying round her head; but the wish was worthy of her in (what Mr. Howells called) "woman's heaven-born ignorance of the insuperable difficulties of doing right."
In this (1877) volume of Aunt Judy's Magazine there is a striking portrait of another kind of animal pet, the "Kit" who is resolved to choose her own "cradle," and not to sleep where she is told. It is needless to say that she gets her own way, since,—
There's a soft persistence about a cat
That even a little kitten can show.
She has, however, the grace to purr when she is pleased, which all kits and cats have not!
I'm happy in ev'ry hair of my fur,
They may keep the hamper and hay themselves.
There are three other sets of verses in the volume, and all of them were originally written to old wood-cuts, but have since been re-illustrated by Mr. André, and published by the S.P.C.K.
"A Sweet Little Dear" is the personification of a selfish girl, and "Master Fritz" of an equally selfish boy; but his sister Katerina is delicious by contrast, as she gives heed to his schemes—
And if you make nice feasts every day for me and Nickel, and never keep us waiting for our food,
And always do everything I want, and attend to everything I say, I'm sure I shall almost always be good.
And if I'm naughty now and then, it'll most likely be your fault: and if it isn't, you mustn't mind;
For even if I seem to be cross, you ought to know that I meant to be kind.
An old-fashioned fairy tale, "The Magician turned Mischief-maker," came out in 1877; and a short domestic tale called "A Bad Habit"; but Julie was unable to supply any long contributions this year, as in April her seven-years home at Aldershot was broken up in consequence of Major Ewing being ordered to Manchester, and her time was occupied by the labour and process of removing.
She took down the motto which she had hung over her hearth to temper her joy in the comfort thereof,—Ut migraturus habita,—and moved the scroll on to her next resting-place. No one knew better than she the depth of Mrs. Hemans' definition,—"What is home,—and where,—but with the loving—" and most truly can it be said that wherever Julie went she carried "Home" with her; freedom, generosity, and loving welcome were always to be found in her house,—even if upholstery and carpets ran short! It was a joke amongst some of her friends that though rose-coloured curtains and bevelled-edged looking-glasses could be counted upon in their bed-rooms, such commonplace necessities as soap might be forgotten, and the glasses be fastened in artistic corners of the rooms, rather than in such lights as were best adapted for shaving by!