Chico, the story of a homing pigeon

by Lucy Mansfield Blanchard Blanchard

He had even managed to eat a crumb or two, and, in spite of the fact that he was very lonely without his sister to keep him company, he had finally succeeded in going to sleep.

In the morning the big hand had grasped him again and had shown him to two long-legged creatures who he had guessed were human children, because they looked much as his mother had described them in one of her favorite lullaby coos. He had not been afraid of them, but, flattered by their delighted exclamations, had eaten everything they had offered him.

By the time the second night had come, Chico had so far become accustomed to his strange surroundings that he slept almost as well as if he had been under his mother's wings.

He was still dreaming when he heard a voice call, "Chico, Chico—are you still there, Chico?"

He roused instantly, reminded of his friends who had given him his breakfast the morning before.

He raised his head. There was a sound of other little feet climbing upon the dry-goods box, and a softer voice called, "Chico, Chico!"

Still he made no movement, listening while the children speculated as to whether or not their pet had been spirited away during the night.

"Chico! Chico!" There was something so pleading in the boy's voice that the baby pigeon thrust his open bill out of the window on the ledge.

"He's here, he's here!" Andrea shouted, almost losing his balance in his excitement, but he saved himself in time to put a bit of cracked wheat into the wide-open mouth. It was greedily swallowed and the open bill demanded more. This performance was repeated until the boy's supply was exhausted. Then the bill was withdrawn, and Chico disappeared from view. But between the boy and the bird had been established a bond that would never be broken. From that time on, Chico was his pigeon in every sense of the word, and, at Andrea's first call, the greedy bill would immediately appear.

So it went on, until one bright morning, when the children turned the corner of the church, they found Chico, perched on the window ledge, faking a sun-bath and waiting for his friends.