brought the other chicken, and I tried to be a mother to them both, for my dear little kittens had all been sent away. The other chicken grew faster than the first one; it had a strong throat to swallow with. I took great care of them both and licked them clean, for I could not bear a speck of dirt on them any more than if they had been my kittens.

Now when the maiden saw me doing this she told her brother that if I could live peaceably with chickens I could with birds, and that she meant to try me. She first fed me well then brought to me a tame bird. Its wings had been clipped so that it could not fly and it was very hungry. It was afraid of me and it hopped round crying its bird kind of cry. But I did not touch it and when it saw me licking the chicken it hopped near me to get some rice which both the chickens were eating. In a few days the bird and I were good friends. He let me lick him and he used to sit on my head and sing, and we all ate our meals together until the chickens died. The first one died of its weak throat and the other died of the bite of a cat. One day a girl brought her cat to see us. She kept her up high on her shoulders, away from us, but when that other chicken put its head out to pick up a bug, that cat jumped down quick and caught that chicken by the head, and it died afterwards.“But before these died the maiden and her brother tamed some young guinea pigs and some young white mice, and made them grow up friends. They stayed in a pen close to ours until we all became acquainted with each other and then the slats between the pens were taken off, and the two pens were made into one and we all lived together. I must own that at first I did wish to catch a mouse just for the sake of catching one, and though born short-clawed I could no doubt have caught one in a pen, but the maiden thought I might have such a wish and pared my claws. I was very happy with my new friends. After I knew the little mice I had no wish to catch them. I played with them and let them run over my back. When one comes to know mice, one likes their company and finds them very agreeable and playful and lively.

“The maiden’s brother said they might as well have a Happy Family, and he trained some big birds and other birds and they came to live with us and we were a very Happy Family.

“When the maiden and her brother went away to live in another place they sold us to a showman to put in his show. The showman travels about the country showing his show. A few days ago the wagon we were in upset and our door came open. The birds flew away, the mice hid under a rock and the guinea pigs ran into the woods. I am on my way 

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