Poor Blackcap

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21759, 16 April 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

Poor Blackcap

(Translated from the Italian by Barbara Jekyll.) I had seen a poor blackcap closed in a cage: she was timid, sad and sickly; she looked at fear, qhP sheltered in a corner of her cale while listening to the lively 22* of the other little birds who nattered on the green grass and blue° sky, then she followed with a look, one might say, full of tears But she did not venture to reb3 did not attempt to break the wires that hemmed her in, poor little prisoner. Yet her keepers, dear children, wished her well, and noting her sadness attempted to repay her with bits of bread and millet and with gentle words. The Sor blackcap tried to resign her--23? she was wretched but was not naughty, she did not wish to SprSSh th«h. with her sadness, in as much" as she endeavoured to Sick sadly at the millet and pieces Sf bread, but was unable to swalAfter two days she put

her head under her wing and on the morrow was found thin and stretched out in her little prison. She was dead, poor little blackcap! yet her saucer was full. She was dead because in that little body was something that was nourished not only by millet and that suffered something else other than hunger and thirst.

Bed-time ' (By Audrey Deans, aged 10.) I stayed Tup late that lovely night, To see the gold sun sink, To make the west a' fiery red. And tinge the east with pink.

It made the clouds a golden hue, As well as lovely red, It brought the owl from drowsy rest, And sent the thrush to bed.

It made the lark drop down to rest, It stopped the children's play, ■ It gave a sign to everything That 'twas the end oi day, /