She gave it plenty of hemp seed to make it fat, and very often the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, and kept a nail in its drinking water, and gave it a few drops of alcohol in its bath every morning to keep it from taking cold.

The moment the bird finished taking its bath, Miss Laura took the dish from the cage, for the alcohol made the water poisonous.

Then vermin came on it, and she had to write to Carl to ask him what to do.

He told her to hang a muslin bag full of sulphur over the swing, so that the bird would dust it down on her feathers.

That cured the little thing, and when Carl came home, he found it quite well again.