n the lump, and you get
something you want. That's what I say.'

"'_I_ want no more pets,' said the old lady, stiffly.

"'Well, you won't be troubled with this one long,' said her son; 'it'll
go with me, and that's soon enough.'

"Any allusion to his departure always melted the old lady, as Jack well
knew. She became tearful, and begged him to leave the thrush with her.

"'You know, my dear, I've always looked to your live things as if they
were Christians; and loved them too (unless it was that monkey that I
never _could_ do with!). Leave it with me, my dear. I'd never bother
myself with a bird on board ship, if I was you.'

"'That's because you've got a handsome son of your own, old lady,'
chuckled the sailor; 'I've neither chick nor child, ma'am, remember,
and a man must have something to look to. The bird'll go with me.'

"And so it came to pass that just when the thrush was becoming
domesticated, and almost happy at the cottage, one morning the sailor
brought him fresh turf and groundsel, besides his meal-cake, and took
the cage down. And the old woman kissed the wires, and bade the bird
good-bye, and blessed her son, and prayed Heaven to bring him safe home
again; and they went their way.

"The forecastle of a steam-ship (even of a big one) is a poor exchange
for a snug cottage to any one but a sailor. To Jack, the ship was home.
_He_ had never lived in a wood, and carolled in tree-tops. He preferred
blue to green, and pine masts to pine trees; and he smoked his pipe
very comfortably in the forecastle, whilst the ship rolled to and fro,
and swung the bird's cage above his head. To the thrush it was only an
imprisonment that grew worse as time went on. Each succeeding day made
him pine more bitterly for his native woods--for fresh air and green
leaves, and the rest and quiet, and sweet perfumes, and pleasant sounds
of country life. His turf dried up, his groundsel withered, and no more
could be got. He longed even to be back with the old woman--to see the
apple-tree, and the window-plants, and be still. The shudder of the
screw, the blasts of hot air from the engine and cook's galley, the
ceaseless jangling, clanging, pumping noises, and all the indescribable
smells which haunt a steam-ship, became more wearisome day by day. Even
when the cage was hung outside, the, sea breeze seemed to mock him with
its freshness. The rich blue of the waters gave him no pleasure, his
eyes failed with looking for green, the