As he reached the first door and put his hand on it he heard someone singing the other side of it as sweetly and clearly as a bird, and this is what the voice sang:
“In field and meadow the grasses grow;
The clouds are white and the winds they blow.
Out in the world there is much to see,
If I were but free! If I were but free!
My wings were bright and my wings were strong;
I plumed myself and I sang a song:
Where is the hero to rescue me,
And set me free? And set me free?”
The song ended and Teddy opened the door.
Within was another room that looked almost like the first, only there was a fireplace in it, and in front of this fireplace a young girl was sitting.
As soon as Teddy opened the door she looked over her shoulder, and when she saw him she sprang to her feet with a glad cry and clasped her hands. “Oh!” she cried, “have you come to rescue me?”
“Who are you?” asked Teddy, wondering at her.
She was very beautiful. Her eyes were as bright and black as a sloe, her hair shone like threads of pure gold, and she wore a long cloak of golden feathers over her shoulders.
When Teddy spoke she answered him, “I am Avis, the Bird-maiden.”
“And how did you come here?” asked Teddy.
Then the Bird-maiden told him how she used to live in a golden castle that was all her own; how she ate from crystal dishes and bathed every morning in a little marble bath-tub, and had nothing to do all day but swing in her golden swing and sing for her own pleasure. But after a while she grew tired of all this and began to wonder what the outside world was like, and one the day the sun was so bright and the air so sweet that she left her home and flew out into the wide, wide world.