Bedtime Bird Stories–A Short Classic Children's Story-No. 3

Hi,

This is Stefania,

And we're back with Bedtime Bird Stories.

These are the stories that Daddy tells his children,

Jack and Evelyn,

Before they go to bed,

About the adventures of some of the many different kinds of birds there are in the world.

This story is about the tame canary bird and his mistress.

Daddy had heard that afternoon the story of a very tame canary bird.

The little girl who owned the bird and who was a friend of Jack and Evelyn had told Daddy about her little pet.

So when Daddy got home in the evening,

He was ready at once to tell the story of the little bird.

I'm going to tell you about the little bird Elizabeth has.

Her Daddy gave him to her several weeks ago,

And he is just as tame as tame can be,

Said Daddy.

She's named him Bubsy,

And he knows his name too,

For whenever she calls him Bubsy,

He replies with a little beep,

Beep.

Every morning,

Bright and early,

He wakes up and begins to sing the most beautiful songs.

He sings so steadily that Elizabeth says a surprise to her that he doesn't run out of voice.

After Elizabeth gets up,

She always gives him a little piece of apple before she begins her breakfast.

She puts it on her finger between two wires of the cage,

And he hops right over on this little bar and takes it from her finger.

The next thing is his bath,

Which he takes soon at the breakfast.

He loves that.

He spatters the water about and has just the best time in the world.

He acts as if it were the most wonderful game.

After his bath,

He has a treat of delicious lettuce to eat,

And then he sits in the sun and smooths down his feathers.

In his cage,

There is a swing,

And he swings on it and hops from one perch to the other.

In fact,

He has a fine romp around his cage.

He usually does this right after his bath,

For then he feels so energetic.

In the afternoons,

Elizabeth lets him out of his cage.

Of course,

She sees first that there are no windows up or doors open before she opens the door of the cage.

When the cage door is open,

Bubsy flies out and makes a tour of the room.

How he does enjoy flying around and perching on the back of the different pictures and on the windowsill.

But the thing he likes more than anything else is to play with Elizabeth.

He perches on her shoulder and walks around on her hand.

And he loves to tease her too,

For if there are any flowers in the room,

He will fly over to them,

Peck at them,

And begin munching at them.

Then he won't let Elizabeth catch him.

He thinks this is a huge joke,

And he always flies to some high spot in the room and begins to sing.

Well,

Elizabeth told me,

Children,

Any number of tales of the tricks that he does.

But she told me to invite you two children to come and see her,

And then she promises you that Bubsy will entertain you.

Oh,

That's fine,

Said Elizabeth.

Do you suppose we can go tomorrow?

Oh,

Yes,

I think so,

Said Daddy,

For as a matter of fact,

I believe I told her to expect you both tomorrow.

Rah!

Shouted the children,

You always think of such nice things for us to do.

And that's the story of the canary bird.

And the children were very excited to go and see with their own eyes what kind of tricks Bubsy would get up to.

And now we've got the story of Mr.

Sparrow and the ducks.

Mr.

Plain Sparrow visits the ducks.

It was such a hot day yesterday,

Said Daddy,

That Mr.

Plain Sparrow simply could not get cool.

You see,

He never goes away in the winter,

And so he gets used to really cold weather.

On a day as hot as it was yesterday,

He simply doesn't know what to do with himself.

He called himself Mr.

Plain Sparrow because that was exactly what he was.

He was just a plain,

Ordinary sparrow.

And he thought it such a wise thing to call him that and not put on any silly frills.

He prided himself on being sensible.

If there's anything in this world I hate,

He said,

Is pretending to be what a creature is not.

And so he called himself by the name of Mr.

Plain Sparrow.

And his wife was Mrs.

Plain Sparrow,

And his children were the Plain Sparrow children.

I think,

He said,

That I will take a walk or a fly to the duck pond in the park nearby.

Yes.

It seems to me that's an excellent plan.

I would like to see those ducks for their right smart creatures,

And I like to hear their funny quack,

Quack talk.

What are you up to,

Ducks?

He called as he flew over the pond and then poached on a small bush that was at one side.

We're well,

Said the ducks,

We're enjoying a cooling drink between swims.

Would you like to join us?

It's just tea time.

Is it tea time now,

Said Mr.

Plain Sparrow?

And would you give a fellow a good fat worm in place of bread and butter and cake?

Quack,

Quack,

Ha ha ha.

Laugh the ducks.

We don't like bread and butter and cake,

But we can't get the worm for you just now,

As we're not very good at digging on such a hot day.

Well then,

How about my digging for a couple of them,

And then joining all you nice ducks when you're ready to have your tea?

Splendid idea,

Quacked the ducks,

And off went Mr.

Plain Sparrow to a soft place in the earth where he thought there would be some good worms.

Very soon he came back with some fine ones,

And he sat on his perch and ate them while the ducks nibbled at their food and had drinks of pond water,

Which they call tea.

Mr.

Plain Sparrow flew down and took sips of water by the side of the pond,

And in one very shallow place he had some nice shower baths while the ducks were having swims.

And before he left,

He told the ducks what a good time he had had and how nice and cool he felt.

Well,

You're so friendly.

We're glad you came,

Quacked the ducks once again.

And Mr.

Plain Sparrow was off,

Off to his home to tell the wife and the Plain Sparrow children about his adventure.

Maybe he'll take them along with him the next time.

And our last story is What the Rainbow Thinks of the World.

The fairies were giving a luncheon party for the birds,

And they wanted to have a great big surprise,

Said Daddy.

The birds which were invited were the robins,

The orioles,

The blue jays,

And the hummingbirds.

Now,

Birdies,

Said the fairy queen,

I'm going to ask the king of the clouds to this luncheon.

So we'll have plenty of delicious rainwater to drink.

Of course,

The fairy queen had told the king of the clouds that she didn't want him to send his army of raindrops to the earth,

For an army would make it pour too hard and they wouldn't have any fun at the luncheon.

She just wanted some of the big,

Big drops to come down and fill the little stones she had at the places for the birds so they could have delicious water at her party.

But she didn't want to make it so wet they'd get their beautiful feathers drenched.

Just a nice little shower was what she wanted.

The king of the clouds,

Daddy said,

Had promised,

And he had told the raindrops just what to do and how many could go down on the earth.

The birds enjoyed the delicious luncheon the fairies gave them,

And of course they loved their fresh drinks of water.

Now,

For our surprise,

Shouted the fairies after the luncheon was over,

We're going to have two famous guests today.

This is going to be a really,

Real day.

And we're going to have them both at the same time.

And we're to have another treat too.

Guess,

Birds,

What are we going to have?

Guess,

Guess,

Guess.

For the fairies were so excited they kept repeating themselves over and over again.

But before the birds had time to do more than Twitter and chirp among themselves as to what the great surprise was going to be,

Who should appear right along with the raindrops?

That Mr.

Sun,

And then over a hill came the most beautiful rainbow with all the glorious colors the fairies admire so much.

And then you should have heard the singing of the birds.

Every one of them had a glorious voice and the chorus was the loveliest the fairies had ever heard.

As for Mr.

Sun,

He beamed and shone with all his might.

Well,

Hello,

Raindrops,

He said.

I'm mighty glad to see you.

It's not often we meet,

But the fairy queen can make all of us friendly,

Even the sun and the rain.

And the raindrops,

Daddy said,

Came on down to the earth very gently,

But without stopping.

While back of it,

All the rainbow leaned down over the hill and whispered,

Isn't this a wonderful world?

There are fairies,

The sun,

Fresh water to drink.

I'm so glad I am here,

Said the rainbow.

And that's the end of the bedtime bird stories for today.

We'll be back again with more bedtime bird stories.

Until next time,

Bye for now.