r her and tell her about freedom and the green fields.
Or, maybe, it might even go to Heaven and tell her mother about her.

The bird had not always been in a cage; it had been born in a lilac
bush in a great garden, with other lilac bushes and tall hollyhocks of
every hue, and rose bushes all around it; and it had been brought up
there, and had found its mate in an orchard near by, where there were
apple trees white with bloom and a little stream bordered with willows,
which sometimes looked almost white, too, when the wind blew fresh and
lifted the leaves. It had often sung all night long in the moonlight
to its mate; and one day, when it was getting a breakfast for the young
in its nest in the lilacs, it had been caught in a trap with slats to
it; and a man had come and had carried it somewhere in a close basket,
and had put it into a thing with bars all around it like a jail, and
with a dirty floor; and a woman had bought it and had kept it shut up
ever since in a cage. It had come near starving to death for a while,
for at first it could not eat the seed and stuff which covered the
bottom of its cage, they were so stale; but at last it had to eat, it
was so hungry. It grew sick, though, not being used to being shut up
in such a close, hot place, with people always moving about. Though
its owner was kind to it, and talked to it, and was gentle with it, it
could not forget its garden and freedom, and it hoped it would die.
The woman used to hang it outside of her window, and after she went
away it used to sing, hoping that its mate might hear, and, even if it
could not release it, at least might come near enough to sing to it and
tell it of its love and loneliness, and of the garden and the lilacs
and the orchard and the dew. Then, again, when she did not come, it
would grow melancholy, and sometimes would try desperately to break out
of its prison. Sometimes at night it would dream of the lilacs and
would sing. How Molly watched it and listened to it, and how she
pitied it and hoped it knew she was there, too!

One other thing that interested Molly greatly was the great gray house
over beyond the other houses. She supposed it was a palace. There she
could see a little girl walking about in the long upper
gallery--sometimes alone and sometimes with a colored woman, her nurse.
Molly had very keen eyes and could see clearly a long distance; but she
could not, of course, see the features of the little girl. Sh