The children clustered round Andrew at once, eagerly peering into the cage.
“Let Phoena have the first peep,” said Di, and all agreed thereto.
“Oh! thank you,” she said, “but we won’t open the cage here, he shall be set free out of doors, poor darling; you see——”
Her voice changed suddenly into an angry scream. “Oh! you wicked, wicked man, the poor darling’s dead, quite dead!”
Yes, there was no doubt of it! With its head hanging limply on one side, so that his beak just ruffled the pretty speckled plumage of his breast—such a still motionless breast it was—and with his little claws, looking like tiny stiffened
