TOOTS AND TINY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 22, 3 June 1893, Page 527

TOOTS AND TINY.

Toots and Tiny did not always live in the pretty brass cage that hangs in our window. They were born in a home among the alder-hushes along the bank of the sparkling river, where their brilliant father sang all the bright day to their patient dusky-brown mother as she brooded them under her wings. There were four brothers and sisters in the nest with them, the soft blue sky above them, the green branches around them, and the winds to rock them to sleep. It was there that Sister Nell found them one day when the father and mother were searching for food to stop their hungry cries. All the frightened birdlings escaped but two when Nell’s hand closed over the nest. Those two were our Toots and Tiny. Nell brought them home and put them in the pretty brass cage. She fed them on nice seed and egg paste, and soon they forgot their wild home, and were as contented and cunning as only goldfinches can be. Toots soon wore a beautiful gold and black coat like his father’s, and Tiny’s wings became the exact colour of her dusky mother’s. They have learned all sorts of cute tricks, and the funniest thing of all is to hear them sing when Nell holds a hemp seed up and says, ' Little Tommy Tucker sang for his supper.’ Then Toots swells his little throat and sings impatiently, watching her sharply with his bright eyes, while Tiny chirps loudly, until they both get the coveted dainty. They will ring a tiny hell when the seed-box is empty, and kiss us when they’re told. Oh, money cannot buy our Toots and Tiny from us, and yet—perhaps they are longing for tbdir home among the alders.

Sometimes there is a Hash of gold and black in the lilacs outside of the window, and a song wilder and freer than Toots ever sings. Do you think it w the father hunting for his children ? And do they want to fly away with him ’ I wish I knew.