Captain Tarwell noticed the little girl’s downcast face.
“Storm clouds?” he chuckled. “What’s the trouble, Vevi? Have you lost one of your pets?”
Vevi told him then how Jane was teasing her because she had been unable to make her bird report.
“I’ve thought and thought and I can’t think of a single one the other girls haven’t told about,” she said sadly. “I guess I’m just no good.”
“Now if I were a little girl with a report to make, I’d use my eyes,” chuckled the captain. “I’d tell about a bird that lives in this very cottage.”
“Here?” Vevi asked in disbelief. “Oh, I’m sure you must be mistaken, Captain Tarwell. No bird except Snow White ever lived here.”
“No?” inquired the old seaman.
Without saying more, he raised his eyes to gaze up into the sky. Vevi saw then that he was watching a short, fat bird that was wheeling overhead.
Its wings were beating swiftly and in such stiff fashion that the creature appeared to be a mechanical toy rather than living.
As Vevi watched, the bird dived down into the chimney of the cottage.