there were her own lovely eggs,
scarcely an inch from her face, but separated from her by a stout glass
that could not be broken, although she madly dashed her body against it
again and again.

"Finally, realizing her helplessness, poor Susie left the room by the
open window and flew back to the forest, where she told us all the
terrible thing she had seen. No one was able to comfort her, for her
loving heart was broken; and after that she would often fly away to the
house to peer through the window at her eggs and her beautiful husband.

"One day she did not return, and after waiting for her nearly two weeks
we sent the bluejay to see what had become of her. Our policeman found
the house, and also found the window of the room open.

"He boldly entered, and discovered Susie and her husband sitting side
by side upon the dried limb, their bodies both stiff and dead. The man
had caught the poor wife at last, and the lovers were reunited in
death.

"Also Policeman Bluejay found his grandfather's mummy in this room, and
the stuffed mummies of many other friends he had known in the forest.
So he was very sorrowful when he returned to us, and from that time we
have feared the heartless men more than ever."

"It's a sad story," sighed Twinkle, "and I've no doubt it is a true
one. But all men are not so bad, I'm sure."

"All men who enter the forest are," answered the oriole, positively.
"For they only come here to murder and destroy those who are helpless
before their power, but have never harmed them in the least. If God
loves the birds, as I am sure He does, why do you suppose He made their
ferocious enemies, the men?"

Twinkle did not reply, but she felt a little ashamed.

[CHAPTER VI] _A Merry Adventure_

"Talking about men," said the cuckoo, in a harsh but not very
unpleasant voice, "reminds me of a funny adventure I once had myself. I
was sitting in my nest one day, at the time when I was quite young,
when suddenly a man appeared before me. You must know that this nest,
which was rather carelessly built by my mother, was in a thick
evergreen tree, and not very high from the ground; so that I found the
man's eyes staring squarely into my own.

"Most of you, my dears, have seen men; but this was the strangest sort
of man you can imagine. There was white hair upon his face, so long
that it hung down to his middle, and over his eyes were round plates
of glass that glittered very curiously. I was so astonished