robin and as green as
the foliage amid which it was so heedlessly disporting.

"I see him," said Pee-wee. "Gee, don't you cry; we'll get him some way.
We're scouts, we are, and we'll get him for you."

His reassuring words did not seem to comfort the girl. "Oh, there he
goes!" she cried. "Now he's going to fly away!"

He did not fly away but merely flew to another limb and began to preen
himself. For so small a bird he was attracting a great deal of notice in
the world. Following Pee-wee's lead, others including Tom and Roy
ventured upon the lawn, smiling and straining their eyes to follow the
tantalizing movements of the little fugitive.

"Of course," said Pee-wee to the girl, "it would be easy enough to shin
up that tree--that would be a cinch--anybody could do that--I mean any
_feller_--of course, a girl couldn't; but I'd only frighten him away."

"You'll never get him," said one man.

"What kind of a bird is it?" Tom asked.

"It's a dwarf parrot," the girl sobbed, "and I'll never get him--never!"

"You don't want to get discouraged," said Pee-wee. "Gee, there's always
some way."

The spectators evidently did not agree with him. Some of them remained
about, smiling; others went away. The diminutive Pee-wee seemed to
amuse them quite as much as the diminutive parrot, but all were agreed
(as they continually remarked to each other) that the bird was a
"goner."

"Is he tame?" Roy asked.

"He was _getting_ tame," the girl sobbed, "and he was learning to say my
name. My father would give a hundred dollars--Oh," she broke off, "now
he _is_ going away!" She began to cry pitifully.

Pee-wee stood a moment thoughtfully. "Have you got a garden hose?" he
presently asked.

"Yes, but you're not going to squirt water at him," said the girl,
indignantly.

"If you get the garden hose," said Pee-wee, "I'll bring him down for
you."

"What are you going to do, kiddo?" Roy asked.

"You'll see," said Pee-wee.

The other boys looked at each other, puzzled. The girl looked half
incredulously at Pee-wee and something in his manner gave her a feeling
of hope. Most of the others laughed good-humoredly.

They hauled the nozzle end of a garden hose from where it lay coiled
near a faucet in the stone foundation. Pee-wee took the nozzle and began
to play the stream against the trunk of the tree, all the while looking
up at the parrot. Presently, the bird began to "sit up and take notice,"
as one might say. It was plainly i