ared that it
would be impolite for him to do so; and while he was considering what he
should do, the surgeon came along that way, and said to them,--

"Children, have you seen the little bird?"

"What bird?" exclaimed the children, all together.

"Why, there has a bird come on board," replied the surgeon. "He belongs
in Nova Scotia, I suppose. That is the nearest land. He is forward,
somewhere, among the sailors."

The children immediately hurried out to the most forward part of the
promenade deck, near the great smoke pipe, to a place from which they
could look down upon the forward deck. There they saw the little bird
perched upon a coil of rigging. He was perfectly still. Some sailors
were standing near, looking at him. The bird, however appeared to take
no notice of them.

"Poor little thing!" said Rollo. "I expect he is tired flying so far. I
wonder how far it is to Nova Scotia."

Rollo turned round as he said this, to see if the surgeon was near, in
order to ask him how far the poor bird was from home. The surgeon was
not there, but he saw that both Jennie and Hilbert had suddenly started
together to go back toward the stairway, as if they were going below.

"Jennie," said Rollo, "where are you going?"

Jennie did not answer, but hurried on. Hilbert seemed equally eager. In
fact, it was evident that they had both been seized with some new idea,
though Rollo could not at first imagine what it was. At length, he
said,--

"Ah! I know. They are going down where the bird is, to see it nearer.
I'll go with them."

So saying, Rollo hurried away too.

He was mistaken, however, in supposing that Hilbert and Jennie were
merely going to the forward deck so as to get nearer the bird. Jennie
was going down into the cabin to shut up her kitten. The instant that
she saw the bird she was reminded of Tiger, having sometimes seen Tiger
run after little birds in the yards and gardens at home. _They_ could
escape from her by flying away, but this poor bird seemed so tired that
Jennie was afraid the kitten would catch it and kill it, if she came
near; and so she ran off very eagerly to shut the kitten up.

She found the kitten asleep on a sofa in the cabin. She immediately
seized her, waking her up very suddenly by so doing, and hurried her off
at once to her cage. Jennie put the kitten into the cage, and then shut
and fastened the door.

"There, Tiger," said she, "you must stay in there. There is something up
stairs