Let the good work go on until the mummy of a dead bird will be recognized by all persons as an unfitting decoration for the head of womankind.

JOHN F. LACEY.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I. [THE ORCHARD]
II. [DICKEY DOWNY'S MEDITATIONS]
III. [THE RULER WITH THE IRON HAND]
IV. [DICKEY'S COUSINS]
V. ["DON'T, JOHNNY"]
VI. [THE PARROT AT A PARTY]
VII. [A WINTER IN THE SOUTH]
VIII. [THE PRISON]
IX. [THE HUNTERS]
X. [A NEW HOME]
XI. [THE ILL-MANNERED CHILD]
XII. [TWO SLAVES OF FASHION]
XIII. [DICKEY'S VISIT]
XIV. [THE COUNTRY SCHOOL]
XV. [POLLY'S FAREWELL]

List of Illustrations

[ The Indigo Bird ]

[ The Summer Tanager ]

[ The Baltimore Oriole ]

[ The Bobolink ]

Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan Sonnet
And many humming birds were fastened on it.
Caught in a net of delicate creamy crêpe
The dainty captives lay there dead together;
No dart of slender bill, no fragile shape
Fluttering, no stir of radiant feather;
Alicia looked so calm, I wondered whether
She cared if birds were killed to trim her bonnet.
Her hand fell lightly on my hand;
And I fancied that a stain of death
Like that which doomed the Lady of Macbeth
Was on her hand.