get what I want,' sighed Johnny."

[Illustration: The Summer Tanager.]

"His mother seemed to be much amused at this statement. 'Oh, no, my
son, it doesn't always turn out that way; but you know it wouldn't do
for me to promise to have it just as soon as we get back,' she
objected. 'I am always very busy just at our return. It might be very
inconvenient for me to prepare for a children's evening at that time;
but when I am ready I shall take pleasure in getting up a nice party
for you sometime in the autumn.'

"This sounded well, but it was not definite enough to suit Johnny.
However he said no more at that time. While the family were gone
Bessie and I had the back porch to ourselves, and no one being there
except the housemaid to whom she could display her superiority over me,
she grew to be quite agreeable. For some time before the Morrises had
bought her, which was years and years before, long before Johnny was
born, she had lived in a taxidermist's shop. The owner of the shop was
also a bird dealer in a small way. On account of her accomplishments
he had held her at a price that few were willing or able to pay, and so
she had been forced to stay with him a long time. She much preferred
being owned by a refined family to living in a dingy store, for she was
a bird of luxurious tastes, she said.

"I too had never ceased being glad that the grocer had sold me to the
Morrises, for I was sure that life would not have been so comfortable
for me in the back part of a country store, inhaling the odors from
fish barrels and molasses kegs, and with the dreary outlook afforded by
shelves full of canned vegetables and cracker boxes. The only point in