"Well, stand still and do not shake my arm--so saying, he began the
attempt, and drew the bread carefully out of the distended mouths of
the two.

"Now the other! the other, William!"

"That I cannot help," he answered: "see! she has forced it down, and
we cannot get it back again; it is dying now."

Anne picked up the dead one from off the ground, and stroking it
with her forefinger, "Poor little thing!" she said, "was she so cruel
to you!"

It was not long before they heard a rustling in the tree near the
place, and then a chirp of fright and distress. "Ah!" said their
mamma, "there is the mother! poor things, we will go a little
distance to let her come to the nest; perhaps she will be able to
save the two."

They all withdrew, and the little parent bird was soon on her nest,
fluttering and chirping to awaken the dead and dying little ones,
till at length she sorrowfully brooded down on her nest, and spread
her wings over them, occasionally chirping as if to solicit an answer
from her little brood.

"Oh!" said Mary, bursting into tears, "I cannot bear it! cruel
Frances, to be so unkind to the little birds!"

"Go and find Frances," said their mamma, "and bring her to me."