their young ones, and there was everything else that the people who
owned this big cage thought their little birds would want. It had
wires all around it to keep the birds from flying away.

One of the tamest and prettiest of the birds who lived in this place
was called little Tweet, because, whenever she saw any of the family
coming near the cage she would fly up close to the wires and say,
"Tweet! Tweet!" which meant "Good-morning! how do you do?" But they
thought it was only her pretty way of asking for something to eat; and
as she said "Tweet" so much, they gave her that for a name.

One day there was a boy who came to visit the family who owned the
birds, and very soon he went to see the big cage. He had never seen
anything like it before. He had never been so close to birds that were
sitting on trees or hopping about among the branches. If the birds
at home were as tame as these, he could knock over lots of them, he
thought.

There was one that seemed tamer than any of the rest. It came up close
to him and said: "Tweet! Tweet!"

The boy got a little stick and pushed it through the wires at little
Tweet, and struck her. Poor little Tweet was frightened and hurt. She
flew up to a branch of the tree and sat there, feeling very badly.
When the boy found he could not reach her any more with his stick, he
went away.

Tweet sat on the branch a long time. The other birds saw she was sick,
and came and asked how she felt. Some of them carried nice seeds to
her in their bills. But little Tweet could not eat anything. She ached