Such was the substance of the uproar
as the downy ball of mopping feathers
took on a beak, claws and big brown eyes,
blank and round, perching upon the foot-rail
of a cot!

"Oh! it's as bad as the bats in Tory
Cave. And they were so-o hor-rid!"
wailed Una. "It--it just tickled my
lips with its wing. Bah!"

"Bad! It's not bad, at all; it's dear,"
cooed Jessie, the merle, feeling instant
kinship with the bewildered bird. "Girls!
Girls! I believe it's blind--blind as a
bat, or as the pale fish in the cave. There
it goes--look--knocking its head, this
way and that, against the wall!"

Yes, the fluttering thing, of a sudden
taking to flight again, was now playing
shuttlecock, feathered shuttlecock, to the
battledore of a broad sunbeam which
batted it wildly hither and yon.

"Oh! keep back--quiet--maybe, 't will@
settle down again," pleaded the merle.
"Hasn't it the face of a cunning little
[[191]]

p190 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p191w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p192

v?