strength caused a slip
somewhere, and away he went, buzzing louder than ever in triumph. This
sound again roused the hunter's instinct, and both orioles flew wildly
after that noisy creature, which took one turn around the room, then
alighted on the top of the lower sash of a window, and passed quickly
down the hole made for the window-cord. The orioles in chase of this
slippery fellow, seeing him outside, came bang against the glass, and
then dropped to a perch, looking rather foolish.

[Sidenote: _THE FLY ESCAPED._]

Very soon after these birds were at home in the room, the female began
to sing a low and sweet song of considerable variety. The male confined
his utterances to scolding and "huffing," and he tried to silence her
with a peck, or by making ostentatious preparations for a nap, in which
curious way many birds show contempt. But she did not often sing at
home. She preferred a perch the other side of the room, where she sat
down, her breast feathers covering her toes, threw her head up, and
turned it from side to side (perhaps looking for the enemy always ready
to pounce upon her), as she poured out the pleasing melody. Not a note
of song came out of his throat till weeks afterwards, when her presence
no longer disturbed him, and spring came to stir even his hard heart.

Matters culminated, in this ill-assorted union, with a tragedy. He
began a bully and a scold; and so far from being mollified by her
gentleness, his bad temper increased by indulgence, until he absolutely
prevented her from eating, bathing, or entering the cage when he was
about. At this point providence--in the shape of the
mistress--interfered, bought a new cage as big as the old one, and, in
the summary way in which we of the human family dispose of the lives and
happiness of those we call the lower animals, declared a divorce. This
was agreeable to the female, at least. She entered her solitary cage
with joy, and ate to her satisfaction, but not so well pleased was the
tyrant; he wanted an object on which to vent his ill-humor, and it
grieved his selfish soul to see her happy, out of his reach, with table
spread as bountifully as his own. He usurped the new cage; she retired
contentedly to the old. Still he was not suited, for the old one was
nearer the window; so he tried to occupy both, and drive her away
altogether. So outrageous did he become that finally he had to be shut
into one cage before she could enter the other. It was curio