isheartened tone:

"What can I do? It's a fancy she has...."

The others looked at one another in silence: they knew what the
neighbor's words meant. Her little girl had long been saying that she
would get well if Tyltyl would only give her his dove; but he was so
fond of it that he refused to part with it....

"Well," said Mummy Tyl to her son, "won't you give your bird to that
poor little thing? She has been dying to have it for ever so long!..."

"My bird!" cried Tyltyl, slapping his forehead as though they had
spoken of something quite out of the way. "My bird!" he repeated.
"That's true, I was forgetting about him!... And the cage!... Mytyl,
do you see the cage?... It's the one which Bread carried.... Yes, yes,
it's the same one, there it is, there it is!"

[Illustration: "It's the Blue Bird we were looking for! We have been
miles and miles and miles and he was here all the time!"]

Tyltyl would not believe his eyes. He took a chair, put it under the
cage and climbed on to it gaily, saying:

"Of course, I'll give him to her, of course, I will!..."

Then he stopped, in amazement:

"Why, he's blue!" he said. "It's my dove, just the same, but he has
turned blue while I was away!"

And our hero jumped down from the chair and began to skip for joy,
crying:

"It's the Blue Bird we were looking for! We have been miles and miles
and miles and he was here all the time!... He was here, at home!...
Oh, but how wonderful!... Mytyl, do you see the bird? What would Light
say?... There, Madame Berlingot, take him quickly to your little
girl...."

While he was talking, Mummy Tyl threw herself into her husband's arms
and moaned:

"You see?... You see?... He's taken bad again.... He's wandering...."

Meantime, Neighbor Berlingot beamed all over her face, clasped her
hands together and mumbled her thanks. When Tyltyl gave her the bird,
she could hardly believe her eyes. She hugged the boy in her arms and
wept with joy and gratitude:

"Do you give it me?" she kept saying. "Do you give it me like that,
straight away and for nothing?... Goodness, how happy she will be!...
I fly, I fly!... I will come back to tell you what she says...."

"Yes, yes, go quickly," said Tyltyl, "for some of them change their
color!"

Neighbour Berlingot ran out and Tyltyl shut the door after her. Then
he turned round on the threshold, looked at the walls of the cottage,
looked all around him and seemed wonderstruck:

"Daddy, Mummy, wh