Main Street was not hard to find, neither seemed the Fosters. A corner druggist directed Dan without hesitation to a wide, old-fashioned house, surrounded by lawns and gardens, in which the hydrangeas—blue, pink, purple—were in gorgeous summer bloom. But, though the broad porch was gay with cushions and hammocks, no boys were in sight; and, lifting the latch of the iron gate, Dan was proceeding up the flower-girdled path to the house, when the hall door burst open and a pretty little girl came flying down the steps in wild alarm.
“Bobby!” she cried. “My Bobby is out! Bobby is gone! Oh, somebody catch Bobby, please,—somebody catch my Bobby!”
A gush of song answered the wail. Perched upon the biggest and pinkest of the hydrangeas was a naughty little canary, its head on one side warbling defiantly in the first thrill of joyous freedom. Its deserted mistress paused breathlessly. A touch, a movement, she knew would send him off into sunlit space beyond her reach forever.
Quick-witted Dan caught on to the situation. A well-aimed toss of his cap, and the hydrangea blooms were quivering under the beat of the captive’s fluttering wings. Dan sprang forward and with a gentle, cautious hand grasped his prisoner.
“Oh, oh, oh!” was all the little lady could cry, clasping her hands rapturously. “Don’t—don’t hurt him, please!”
“I won’t,” was the answer. “But get his cage quick; for he’s scared to death at my holding him.”
Bobby’s mistress darted into the house at the word, and reappeared again in a moment with a gilded palace that was surely all a bird could ask for.
“O Bobby, Bobby!” she murmured reproachfully, as Dan deposited his subdued and trembling captive behind the glittering bars. “When you had this lovely new cage and everything you wanted!”
“No, he hadn’t,” said Dan, conscious of a sudden sympathy with his feathered prisoner. “He has wings and wants to use them.”
“But he couldn’t find seed or chickweed for himself, and the cats and hawks would have had him before morning. Oh, I’m so glad to get him back safe I don’t know how to thank you for catching him for me!” And the little lady lifted a pair of violet eyes, that were still sparkling with tears, to her benefactor’s face.