o feel that it was perfectly
safe while under her protection. It would not, however, venture out if
any one else was in the room. Fanny kept its cage hung up on a peg near
the window of her bedroom. She brought it down that morning to show to
Mrs Leslie.

"I must give it a name, dear granny," she said; "can you help me? Do
you recollect the pretty story you used to read to me when I was a very
little girl, about the three robins--Dickey, and Flapsey, and Pecksy. I
have been thinking of calling it by one of those names, but I could not
make up my mind."

"Which name do you like the best, my dear?" asked Mrs Leslie.

"I think Pecksy. Pecksy was a good, obedient, little bird, and I am
sure my dear little bird is as good as a bird can be."

"Then I think I would call it Pecksy, dear," answered Mrs Leslie; and
Fanny decided on so naming her little favourite.

"Now you shall see, granny, how Pecksy will come out when I call it, if
you will just hold up your shawl as you sit in your arm-chair, so that
it may not see you; yet I am sure it would not be afraid of you if it
knew how kind you are, and I shall soon be able to teach it to love
you;" so Fanny placed the cage on a little table at the farther end of
the room, and, opening the door, went to some distance and called to
Pecksy, and out came Pecksy and perched on her fingers. She then,
talking to it and gently stroking its back, brought it quietly up to her
granny. Greatly to her delight, Pecksy did not appear at all afraid.

"There, granny! there! I was sure Pecksy would learn to love you," she
exclaimed; and Pecksy looked up into the kind old lady's face, and
seemed perfectly satisfied that no harm would come to it.

"Oh, I wish Norman would be fond of the little bird too," she said, "but
he does not seem to care about it, and thinks it beneath his notice; and
yet I have heard of many boys--not only little ones, but big boys, and
even grown-up men--who were fond of birds, and have tamed them, and
taught them to come to them, and learn to trust and love them."

"I do, indeed, wish that Norman was fond of your little bird," observed
Mrs Leslie; "many noble and great men have been fond of dumb animals,
and have found pleasure in the companionship even of little birds. It
is no sign of true manliness to despise even the smallest of God's
creatures, or to treat them otherwise than with kindness. You remember
those lines of the poet Cowper which begin thus--