During the night, poor foolish Dick had picked off the
splints from his leg, and now it was as bad as ever. "I shall have to
perform a surgical operation," he said.
I did not know what he meant, so I watched him when, after breakfast, he
brought the bird down to his mother's room. She held it while he took a
pair of sharp scissors, and cut its leg right off a little way above the
broken place. Then he put some vaseline on the tiny stump, bound it up,
and left Dick in his mother's care. All the morning, as she sat sewing,
she watched him to see that he did not pick the bandage away.
When Carl came home, Dick was so much better that he had managed to fly
up on his perch, and was eating seeds quite gayly. "Poor Dick!" said
Carl, "leg and a stump!" Dick imitated him in a few little chirps, "A
leg and a stump!"
"Why, he is saying it too," exclaimed Carl, and burst out laughing.
Dick seemed cheerful enough, but it was very pitiful to see him dragging
his poor little stump around the cage, and resting it against the perch
to keep him from falling. When Mrs. Montague came the next day, she
could not bear to look at him.
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