it sat cowering and unable to utter a sound, for it was voiceless. Yet
how quickly the little bird discovered the beauty of everything around
it. The sweet, fresh air; the soft radiance of the moon, as its
light spread over the earth; the fragrance which exhaled from bush and
tree, made it feel happy as it sat there clothed in its fresh,
bright plumage. All creation seemed to speak of beneficence and
love. The bird wanted to give utterance to thoughts that stirred in
his breast, as the cuckoo and the nightingale in the spring, but it
could not. Yet in heaven can be heard the song of praise, even from
a worm; and the notes trembling in the breast of the bird were as
audible to Heaven even as the psalms of David before they had
fashioned themselves into words and song.

Christmas-time drew near, and a peasant who dwelt close by the old
wall stuck up a pole with some ears of corn fastened to the top,
that the birds of heaven might have feast, and rejoice in the happy,
blessed time. And on Christmas morning the sun arose and shone upon
the ears of corn, which were quickly surrounded by a number of
twittering birds. Then, from a hole in the wall, gushed forth in
song the swelling thoughts of the bird as he issued from his hiding
place to perform his first good deed on earth,--and in heaven it was
well known who that bird was.

The winter was very hard; the ponds were covered with ice, and
there was very little food for either the beasts of the field or the
birds of the air. Our little bird flew away into the public roads, and
found here and there, in the ruts of the sledges, a grain of corn, and
at the halting places some crumbs. Of these he ate only a few, but
he called around him the other birds and the hungry sparrows, that
they too might have food. He flew into the towns, and looked about,
and wherever a kind hand had strewed bread on the window-sill for
the birds, he only ate a single crumb himself, and gave all the rest
to the rest of the other birds. In the course of the winter the bird
had in this way collected many crumbs and given them to other birds,
till they equalled the weight of the loaf on which Inge had trod to
keep her shoes clean; and when the last bread-crumb had been found and
given, the gray wings of the bird became white, and spread
themselves out for flight.

"See, yonder is a sea-gull!" cried the children, when they saw the
white bird, as it dived into the sea, and rose again into the clear
sunl