"They went right on talking, though I sang my very best, without paying
the slightest attention to me; and when I stopped, I caught the words
'So sweet' from my mistress, and then I sang again: 'Sweet, sweet,
sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet is the clover--sweet is the
rose--sweet the song of the bird--sweet the bird--sweet the
clover--sweet the rose--the rose--the clover--the bird--yes, yes,
yes--sweet, sweet, sweet!' And as I paused to take breath, I heard some
one say, 'What a noise that bird makes! how loudly he sings!' 'How
loudly he sings!' repeated I, 'how loudly he sings!--the bird, the
bird, the beautiful bird--sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet----' But suddenly
my song ended, for my mistress got up, unhooked my cage, saying,
'Canary, you're a chatterbox; you talk too much,' and brought me in
here.

"And really, mouse, as you must see, I didn't say more than a dozen or
so words. What do you think about it?"

"Well," said the mouse, stroking her whiskers and speaking slowly, "you
_didn't say_ much, but it strikes me you talked a great deal."

"Oh!" said the canary, putting his head on one side and looking
thoughtfully at her out of his right, bright, black, round eye. But
just then the mouse heard an approaching footstep, and, without even
saying "good-bye," she hurried away to the hole behind the book-case.




A NIGHT WITH A BEAR.