"'One of these days, when I get time, I am going to train her to use a
napkin when she eats,' said Johnny.

"'She'll be a perfectly accomplished lady then,' added Mary Ethel.

"By this time some of the stranger children had left the table and had
come over to my cage to look at me.

"'The admiral's an awful purty feller,' said one.

"'Wouldn't his tail be sweet on a Sunday hat?' suggested another.

"'Oh, I choose his wings for my hat,' exclaimed a third.

"'I choose his head and breast for mine,' said the first one who had
spoken. 'And Naomi chooses his whole body for her hat, I expect,' she
added as Naomi joined them.

"'No,' said Naomi, 'we don't wear birds any more in our family. My
sister and I used to have our hats trimmed with them, but we've quit.
I had a lovely one on my blue velvet hat last year. It was a beautiful
hat," and she smiled at the recollection. 'But we've quit now,' she
added gravely.

"'Why?' asked the other girls in a breath.

"'Oh, because my mother thinks it is wrong to wear them. Little boy,
little boy, be careful or you'll let the bird out,' she called hastily.

"But the warning was too late. While the girls had been talking the