ashed the globe
thoroughly and put the fish back, and scattered wafers of fish food on
the top. The fish came up and snapped at it, and acted as if they were
glad to get it. She did each globe and then her work was over for one
morning.

She went away for a while, but every few hours through the day she ran
up to Carl's room to see how the fish and canaries were getting on. If
the room was too chilly she turned on more heat; but she did not keep it
too warm, for that would make the birds tender.

After a time the canaries got to know her, and hopped gayly around their
cages, and chirped and sang whenever they saw her coming. Then she began
to take some of them downstairs, and to let them out of their cages for
an hour or two every day. They were very happy little creatures, and
chased each other about the room, and flew on Miss Laura's head, and
pecked saucily at her face as she sat sewing and watching them. They
were not at all afraid of me nor of Billy, and it was quite a sight to
see them hopping up to Bella, She looked so large beside them.

One little bird became ill while Carl was away, and Miss Laura had to
give it a great deal of attention. She gave it plenty of hemp seed to
make it fat, and very often the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, and kept a
nail in its drinking water, and gave it a few drops of alcohol in its
bath every morning to keep it from taking cold. The moment the bird
finished taking its bath, Miss Laura took the dish from the cage, for
the alcohol made the water poisonous. Then vermin came on it, and she
had to write to Carl to ask him what to do. He told her to hang a muslin
bag full of sulphur over the swing, so that the bird would dust it down
on her feathers. That cured the little thing, and when Carl came home,
he found it quite well again. One day, just after he got back, Mrs.
Montague drove up to the house with a canary cage carefully done up in a
shawl. She said that a bad-tempered housemaid, in cleaning the cage that
morning, had gotten angry with the bird and struck it, breaking its leg.
She was very much annoyed with the girl for her cruelty, and had
dismissed her, and now she wanted Carl to take her bird and nurse it, as
she knew nothing about canaries.

Carl had just come in from school. He threw down his books, took the
shawl from the cage and looked in. The poor little canary was sitting in
a corner. It eyes were half shut, one leg hung loose, and it was making
faint chirps of dist