would only find time to tie him up, cage and all, in a blue
handkerchief, and carry him off at the very last moment. All this came
to pass, as he so sagely predicted, and after being blinded-up in this
fashion for some time, and jogged and shaken in a very uncomfortable
manner, we came to our journey's end in a bedroom in this house. We were
not disturbed till next morning, for Mary had only time to give my
friend his seed and water, before she set off on her new round of
duties. Two days after, however, she managed to find time to think of
the bird.

"'You shall go down stairs into the kitchen, my pretty Dick,' said she,
chirping to him, 'for cook says she is fond of birds, and will give me
some sugar for you. But I must clean your cage first, for you are not
fit to be seen, I'm sure, now!'

"And so saying, she proceeded to make Dick's house clean and neat, and
in the course of doing so, she came upon me. 'Why, Dickey,' she said,
laughing, 'have you been trying a game of shuttlecock, by way of sport?
How came this in your cage, I wonder!'

"Dick tried to explain in his bird fashion, and did so, _I_ thought,
very intelligibly, but, then, as you know, all human beings are so very
difficult of comprehension. So she took me out in spite of all my poor
cousin's protests, and laid me on the table in her room. On the
following Sunday, when Mary was to stay at home with the little ones
while nurse went to church, she remembered me, and brought me down to
amuse the young Spensers. Like all the rest of their race, they soon
became tired of me, and I was thrust away in this dusty cupboard till
now. Of all the histories that have been related to amuse you, none, I
am sure, have surpassed mine for vicissitudes and changes. I was the
early companion of Duchesses and Lords, and yet have been doomed to
endure the society of coachmen and stable boys, and to be rescued from a
rackety bird-cage to end my days in a dusty cupboard!"

Then the Shuttlecock ceased to speak, and betook herself to her corner,
to bewail in private the sad downfall she had endured.

"And now," said the Ball, "I will call upon our venerable friend, the
Noah's Ark; I am sure he will be able to tell us a great deal that is
very interesting about himself and his numerous tribe."

The poor old Ark creaked slowly forward, and announced his willingness
to add his history to the rest, beginning in the following words.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IX.

WHAT