hem in cages. The flight and recapture of Cocky in "Lob" were
drawn from life, though the bird did not belong to her, but her
descriptions of how he stood on the window-sill "scanning the summer
sky with his fierce eyes, and flapping himself in the breeze,... bowed
his yellow crest, spread his noble wings, and sailed out into the
aether";... and his "dreams of liberty in the tree-tops," all show the
light in which she viewed the practice of keeping birds in
confinement. Her verses on "Three Little Nest-Birds" and her tale of
the Thrush in "An Idyll of the Wood" bear witness to the same feeling.
Major Ewing remembers how often she used to wish, when passing
bird-shops, that she could "buy the whole collection and set them all
free,"--a desire which suggests a quaint vision of her in Seven
Dials, with a mixed flock of macaws, canaries, parrots and thrushes
shrieking and flying round her head; but the wish was worthy of her in
(what Mr. Howells called) "woman's heaven-born ignorance of the
insuperable difficulties of doing right."

In this (1877) volume of _Aunt Judy's Magazine_ there is a striking
portrait of another kind of animal pet, the "Kit" who is resolved to
choose her own "cradle," and not to sleep where she is told. It is
needless to say that she gets her own way, since,--

There's a soft persistence about a cat
That even a little kitten can show.

She has, however, the grace to purr when she is pleased, which all
kits and cats have not!

I'm happy in ev'ry hair of my fur,
They may keep the hamper and hay themselves.

There are three other sets of verses in the volume, and all of them
were originally written to old wood-cuts, but have since been
re-illustrated by Mr. Andre, and published by the S.P.C.K.

"A Sweet Little Dear" is the personification of a selfish girl, and
"Master Fritz" of an equally selfish boy; but his sister Katerina is
delicious by contrast, as she gives heed to his schemes--

And if you make nice feasts every day for me and Nickel, and never
keep us waiting for our food,
And always do everything I want, and attend to everything I say, I'm
sure I shall almost always be good.
And if I'm naughty now and then, it'll most likely be your fault: and
if it isn't, you mustn't mind;
For even if I seem to be cross, you ought to know that I meant to be
kind.

An old-fashioned fairy tale, "The Magician turned Mischief-maker,"