ch I have now
solemnly declared.

Of that land of Ever-Plaisance was our little Mistress Merciless ever
fain to hear tell. But when she beset the rest of us to speak thereof
we knew not what to say other than to confirm such reports as Master
Sweetheart had already made. For when it cometh to knowing of that
far-off land,--ah me, who knoweth more than the veriest little child?
And oftentimes within the bosom of a little, helpless, fading one there
bloometh a wisdom which sages cannot comprehend. So when she asked us
we were wont to bid her go to Master Sweetheart, for he knew the truth
and spake it.

It is now to tell of an adventure which on a time befell in that full
fair garden of which you have heard me speak. In this garden lived
many birds of surpassing beauty and most rapturous song, and among them
was one that they called Joyous, for that he did ever carol forth so
joyously, it mattered not what the day soever might be. This bird
Joyous had his home in the top of an exceeding high tree, hard by the
pleasant arbor, and here did he use to sit at such times as the little
people came into that arbor, and then would he sing to them such songs
as befitted that quiet spot, and them that came thereto. But there was
a full evil cat that dwelt near by, and this cruel beast found no
pleasure in the music that Joyous did make continually; nay, that music
filled this full evil cat with a wicked thirst for the blood of that
singing innocent, and she had no peace for the malice that was within
her seeking to devise a means whereby she might comprehend the bird
Joyous to her murderous intent. Now you must know that it was the wont
of our little Mistress Merciless and of Master Sweetheart to feed the
birds in that fair garden with such crumbs as they were suffered to
bring with them into the arbor, and at such times would those birds fly
down with grateful twitterings and eat of those crumbs upon the
greensward round about the arbor. Wit ye well, it was a merry sight to
see those twittering birds making feast upon the good things which
those children brought, and our little Mistress Merciless and little
Master Sweetheart had sweet satisfaction therein. But, on a day,
whilst thus those twittering birds made great feasting, lo! on a sudden
did that full evil cat whereof I have spoken steal softly from a
thicket, and with one hideous bound make her way into the very midst of
those birds and seize upon that bird Joyous, t