o his own work. After a short time he
began to sigh and fidget, and then took his usual heavy walk up and down
the room, stopping from force of habit at the jackdaw's cage, and half
raising his hand as though to invite him to come out. When he had seen
this several times, Ambrose longed to ask, "Is the jackdaw lost?" for he
now began to feel sure this was the case. It was quite natural, he
thought; jackdaws always did get lost, and he knew what a trouble it was
sometimes to get them back. If the doctor would only talk about it he
might be able to help him, but he had not the courage to open the
subject himself.

So he went on with his lessons in silence, but by the time the hour came
for him to go away, he had said the words over so often to himself that
they seemed to come out without any effort of his own.

"Please, sir, have you lost the jackdaw?"

The doctor looked across the table. There was Ambrose's eager little
face all aglow with sympathy and interest.

"I'm afraid so," he answered. "And what I fear is, that he has flown
out of the window into the road. There is no trace of him in the
garden."

"Was his wing cut?" inquired Ambrose, drawing nearer and looking up at
the empty cage.

The doctor shook his head.

"Then, you see," said Ambrose gravely and instructively, "it'll be much
more difficult to find him. He can fly ever so far, and even if he
wanted to get back he might lose his way. Jackdaws always ought to have
their wings cut."

"Ought they?" said the doctor humbly. He and his pupil seemed to have
changed places. It was now Ambrose who took the lead, for he felt
himself on firm ground.

"We lost two that hadn't got their wings cut," he continued, "so now we
always cut their wings."

The doctor listened with the greatest respect, and seemed to weigh the
matter in his mind. Then he said rather uncertainly:

"But how about the cats?"

Ambrose admitted that danger, but was still sure of his first point. It
was best to cut a jackdaw's wing.

"I wonder," he said, looking at the other window, "if you're quite sure
he's not in the garden. P'r'aps he's up in some tree."

The doctor shook his head.

"The garden has been thoroughly searched," he said. "There are very few
trees there."

"Might I look?" asked Ambrose eagerly. Dr Budge meekly led the way
into his little garden. Certainly there was not much room in it for the
jackdaw to hide, and it only needed a glance to see that