small boy who was with them had been entertaining himself by slightly
opening my cage door and letting it spring back to its fastening.
Suddenly he was seized with fright at discovering that it had stuck
while half-way back, and refused to come together.

"Oh, dear!' he called. 'He's out.'

"'Mercy on us! Oh, dear!' screamed the girls as I made a dash through
the opening, and flew to the top of a picture frame. 'Johnny, Johnny,
your redbird's out,' they called.

"All was confusion in an instant. Boys and girls ran hither and
thither, tumbling over each other, and over the chairs and stools, and
all talking and screaming at once.

"'Bring a broom or a flagpole, Johnny,' called Philip. 'I'll shoo him
down for you while you stand underneath and catch him.'

"'Shoo, shoo!' said Jeannette, catching her dress skirt with both hands
and waving it back and forth rapidly. In a minute all the girls were
waving their dress skirts at me and saying 'shoo.'

"'Oh, my pretty Admiral Dewey, my dear old admiral,' wailed Johnny,
almost in tears.

"I didn't wait for the broom or the flagpole to help me from the
picture frame. I balanced myself steadily and then I flew out of the
open window and away into the world, without saying good-bye to
anybody. I suppose they all crowded to the window to look after me as
I disappeared, for the last thing I heard was Mrs. Morris' voice