was hopping from perch to perch, and
singing until her warbling became almost overpowering.

"Yes, you may well sing," said the neck of the bottle; but it did not
say this as we should say it, for the neck of a bottle cannot speak,
but it thought so within itself, just as we human beings speak
inwardly.

"Yes, you may well sing, you who have your limbs entire. You should
have experienced, like me, what it is to have lost your lower part, to
have only a neck and a mouth, and the latter stopped up with a cork,
as I have; then you would not sing. But it is well that somebody is
contented. I have no cause to sing, and I cannot. I could once though,
when I was a whole bottle. How I was praised at the furrier's in the
wood, when his daughter was betrothed! Yes, I remember that day as if
it were yesterday. I have gone through a great deal when I look back.
I have been in fire and in water, down in the dark earth, and higher
up than many; and now I am suspended outside of a bird-cage in the air
and sunshine. It might be worth while to listen to my story; but I do
not speak it aloud, because I cannot."

So it went on thinking over its own history, which was curious enough;
and the little bird poured forth its strains, and in the street below
people walked and drove, every one thinking of himself, some scarcely
thinking at all; but the neck of the bottle _was_ thinking.

It remembered the blazing smelt-furnace at the manufactory where it
was blown into life. It remembered even now that it had been extremely
warm; that it had looked into the roaring oven, its original home, and
had felt strongly inclined to spring back into it; but that by
degrees, as it felt cooler, it found itself comfortable enough where
it was, placed in a row with a whole regiment of brothers and sisters
from the same furnace, some of which, however, were blown into
champagne bottles, others into ale bottles; and that made a
difference, since out in the world an ale bottle may contain the
costly LACRYMAE CHRISTI, and a champagne bottle may be filled with
blacking; but what they were born to every one can see by their shape,
so that noble remains noble even with blacking in it.

All the bottles were packed up, and our bottle with them. It then
little thought that it would end in being only the neck of a bottle
serving as a bird's glass--an honourable state of existence truly, but
still something. It did not see daylight again until it was unpacked
along