te's beak. In turn the Cardinal struck him
like a flashing rocket, and then red war waged in Rainbow Bottom. The
females scattered for cover with all their might. The Cardinal worked
in a kiss on one poor little bird, too frightened to escape him; then
the males closed in, and serious business began. The Cardinal would
have enjoyed a fight vastly with two or three opponents; but a
half-dozen made discretion better than valour. He darted among them,
scattering them right and left, and made for the sycamore. With all
his remaining breath, he insolently repeated his challenge; and then
headed down stream for the sumac with what grace he could command.

There was an hour of angry recrimination before sweet peace brooded
again in Rainbow Bottom. The newly mated pair finally made up; the
females speedily resumed their coquetting, and forgot the captivating
stranger--all save the poor little one that had been kissed by
accident. She never had been kissed before, and never had expected
that she would be, for she was a creature of many misfortunes of every
nature.

She had been hatched from a fifth egg to begin with; and every one
knows the disadvantage of beginning life with four sturdy older birds
on top of one. It was a meager egg, and a feeble baby that pipped its
shell. The remainder of the family stood and took nearly all the food
so that she almost starved in the nest, and she never really knew the
luxury of a hearty meal until her elders had flown. That lasted only a
few days; for the others went then, and their parents followed them so
far afield that the poor little soul, clamouring alone in the nest,
almost perished. Hunger-driven, she climbed to the edge and exercised
her wings until she managed some sort of flight to a neighbouring bush.
She missed the twig and fell to the ground, where she lay cold and
shivering.

She cried pitifully, and was almost dead when a brown-faced, barefoot
boy, with a fishing-pole on his shoulder, passed and heard her.

"Poor little thing, you are almost dead," he said. "I know what I'll
do with you. I'll take you over and set you in the bushes where I
heard those other redbirds, and then your ma will feed you."

The boy turned back and carefully set her on a limb close to one of her
brothers, and there she got just enough food to keep her alive.

So her troubles continued. Once a squirrel chased her, and she saved
herself by crowding into a hole so small her pursuer c