ed sat and gazed at
her, at first with a vague wonder and then almost with awe. A new idea
seemed to enter her mind. Could Molly be sending the mocking-bird to
heaven with a message to her mother?

VII.

The poor lady who had given Mildred the bird was still leaning out of
her window studying the backs of the houses on the other street down
below hers in the direction the little girl had gone, when at the top
window of one of the oldest and most tumbled-down houses there was a
movement, and a flash of sunlight on something caught her eye. Yes,
that was the place. Looking hard, she could make out what was going
on. She could see the cage set on the window sill and two little
figures on the bed at the open window. It was a flash of sunshine on
the cage which had reached her. She knew now where the bird would
hang, and if it ever sang again she would be able to hear it faintly.
In the distant past she had heard birds singing at least that far off.
She was watching intently, when to her astonishment she saw the bird
step out on the sill into the sunlight, and the next second it dashed
away. It had escaped! With a gasp she watched it until it rose above
the housetops and disappeared far away in the depths of the blue sky.

When it had quite disappeared she looked back at the window. The two
little figures were there as still as ever. There was no excitement.
Could they have set the bird free on purpose? She gazed at them long
and earnestly, then turned and looked back at the sky where the bird
had faded from her view. It was deep and fathomless, without a speck.
Her thoughts followed the lost bird--away over the housetops into the
country, into the past, into the illimitable heavens. Her life was all
spread out before her like a panorama. She saw a beautiful country of
green fields, where lambs skipped and played; gardens filled with
flowers, and orchards with clouds of bloom, where bees hummed all day
long and birds sang in the leafy coverts. A little girl was playing
there as free as the birds; as joyous as the lambs. In time the little
girl grew to be a big girl. And one day a lad came up the country road
and stopped at the gate and looked across at her. He was shy, but
pleasant looking, and after a moment he opened the gate and came
straight up to her and asked for lodging. He was unlike any one else
she had ever known. He had come from a State far away. He looked into
her eyes, and she fel