and would
gladly have done it some harm had she dared. At last, one morning her
opportunity came. Her husband had gone to the town some miles away down
the mountain, and would not be back for several hours, but before he
left he did not forget to open the door of the cage. The sparrow hopped
about as usual, twittering happily, and thinking no evil, and all the
while the woman's brow became blacker and blacker, and at length her
fury broke out. She threw her broom at the bird, who was perched on a
bracket high up on the wall. The broom missed the bird, but knocked down
and broke the vase on the bracket, which did not soothe the angry woman.
Then she chased it from place to place, and at last had it safe between
her fingers, almost as frightened as on the day that it had made its
first entrance into the hut.

By this time the woman was more furious than ever. If she had dared,
she would have killed the sparrow then and there, but as it was she only
ventured to slit its tongue. The bird struggled and piped, but there was
no one to hear it, and then, crying out loud with the pain, it flew from
the house and was lost in the depths of the forest.

By-and-bye the old man came back, and at once began to ask for his pet.
His wife, who was still in a very bad temper, told him the whole story,
and scolded him roundly for being so silly as to make such a fuss over
a bird. But the old man, who was much troubled, declared she was a bad,
hard-hearted woman, to have behaved so to a poor harmless bird; then he
left the house, and went into the forest to seek for his pet. He walked
many hours, whistling and calling for it, but it never came, and he went
sadly home, resolved to be out with the dawn and never to rest till he
had brought the wanderer back. Day after day he searched and called; and
evening after evening he returned in despair. At length he gave up hope,
and made up his mind that he should see his little friend no more.

One hot summer morning, the old man was walking slowly under the cool
shadows of the big trees, and without thinking where he was going,
he entered a bamboo thicket. As the bamboos became thinner, he found
himself opposite to a beautiful garden, in the centre of which stood
a tiny spick-and-span little house, and out of the house came a lovely
maiden, who unlatched the gate and invited him in the most hospitable
way to enter and rest. 'Oh, my dear old friend,' she exclaimed, 'how
glad I am you have found m