ppose the little
berry will be enough for you? One side of it is withered, you see."

"That won't matter," returned the boy-lark. "The Royal Necromancer said
to eat one berry. He didn't say a little or a big one, you know, or
whether it should be plump or withered."

"That is true," said the girl-lark. "Shall I eat mine now?"

"The sooner the better," Chubbins replied.

"Don't forget me, little friend, when you are a human again," said
Policeman Bluejay, sadly.

"I shall never forget you," Twinkle answered, "nor any part of all your
kindness to us. We shall be friends forever."

That seemed to please the handsome blue bird, and Twinkle was so eager
that she could not wait to say more. She plucked the big, plump berry,
put it in her mouth with her little claw, and ate it as soon as
possible.

In a moment she said: "Ouch! Oo-oo-oo!" But it did not hurt so badly,
after all. Her form quickly changed and grew larger; and while Chubbins
and Policeman Bluejay watched her anxiously she became a girl again,
and the bird's body with its soft gray feathers completely disappeared.

As she felt herself changing she called: "Good-bye!" to the bluejay;
but even then he could hardly understand her words.

"Good-bye!" he answered, and to Twinkle's ears it sounded like
"Chir-r-rip-chee-wee!"

"How did it feel?" asked Chubbins; but she looked at him queerly, as if
his language was strange to her, and seemed to be half frightened.

"Guess I'll have to eat my berry," he said, with a laugh, and proceeded
to pluck and eat it, as Twinkle had done. He yelled once or twice at
the cramp the fruit gave him, but as soon as the pain ceased he began
to grow and change in the same way his little comrade had.

But not entirely. For although he got his human body and legs back
again, all in their natural size, his wings remained as they were, and
it startled him to find that the magic power had passed and he was
still partly a bird.

"What's the matter?" asked Twinkle.

"Is anything wrong?" enquired the bluejay.

The boy understood them both, although they could not now understand
each other. He said to Twinkle:

"I guess the berry wasn't quite big enough." Then he repeated the same
thing in the bird language to Policeman Bluejay, and it sounded to
Twinkle like:

"Pir-r-r-r--eep--cheep--tweet!"

"What in the world can you do?" asked the girl, quite distressed. "It
will be just dreadful if you have to stay like that."

The tears