LITMIR.BIZ

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and thanked him very earnestly for his assistance.

      "Goodness me!" exclaimed the eagle, turning his head first on one side and then on the other, that both his bright eyes might observe the child-larks; "what curious creatures have you here, my good policeman?"

      "Why, it is another trick of old Hautau, the tuxix. She found two children in the forest and enchanted them. She wanted to make them toads, but they wouldn't touch her, so she couldn't. Then she got herself into a fine rage and made the little dears half birds and half children, as you see them. I was in a tree near by, and saw the whole thing. Because I was sorry for the innocent victims I befriended them, and as this basket belongs to them I have asked you to fetch it to their nest."

      "I am glad to be of service," replied the eagle. "If ever you need me, and I am anywhere around," he continued, addressing the larks, "just call me, and I will come at once."

      "Thank you," said Twinkle, gratefully.

      "We're much obliged," added Chubbins.

      Then the eagle flew away, and when he was gone Policeman Bluejay also bade them good-bye.

      "I'll be back this afternoon, without fail," he said. "Just now I must go and look over the forest, and make sure none of the birds have been in mischief during my absence. Do not go very far from your nest, for a time, or you may get lost. The forest is a big place; but when you are more used to it and to your new condition you can be more bold in venturing abroad."

      "We won't leave this tree," promised Twinkle, in an earnest voice.

      And Chubbins chimed in with, "That's right; we won't leave this tree until you come back."

      "Good-bye," said the policeman.

      "Good-bye," responded Twinkle and Chubbins.

      So the bluejay darted away and was soon lost to sight, and Twinkle and Chubbins were left alone to seriously consider the great misfortune that had overtaken them.

      [CHAPTER III]

       The Child-Larks

      "Folks will be worried about us, Twink," said Chubbins.

      "'Course they will," Twinkle replied. "They'll wonder what has become of us, and try to find us."

      "But they won't look in the tree-tops."

      "No."

      "Nor think to ask the birds where we are."

      "Why should they?" enquired Twinkle. "They can't talk to the birds, Chub."

      "Why not? We talk to them, don't we? And they talk to us. At least, the p'liceman and the eagle did."

      "That's true," answered Twinkle, "and I don't understand it a bit. I must ask Mr. Bluejay to 'splain it to us."

      "What's the use of a p'liceman in the forest?" asked Chubbins, after a moment's thought.

      "I suppose," she replied, "that he has to keep the birds from being naughty. Some birds are just awful mischiefs, Chub. There's the magpies, you know, that steal; and the crows that fight; and the jackdaws that are saucy, and lots of others that get into trouble. Seems to me P'liceman Bluejay's a pretty busy bird, if he looks after things as he ought."

      "Prob'ly he's got his hands full," said Chubbins.

      "Not that; for he hasn't any hands, any more than we have. Perhaps you ought to say he's got his wings full," suggested Twinkle.

      "That reminds me I'm hungry," chirped the boy-lark.

      "Well, we've got the basket," she replied.

      "But how can we eat cake and things, witched up as we are?"

      "Haven't we mouths and teeth, just the same as ever?"

      "Yes, but we haven't any hands, and there's a cloth tied over the top of the basket."

      "Dear me!" exclaimed Twinkle; "I hadn't thought of that."

      They flew together to the basket and perched upon the edge of it. It seemed astonishingly big to them, now that they were so small; but Chubbins remarked that this fact was a pleasant one, for instead of eating all the good things the basket contained at one meal, as they had at first intended, it would furnish them with food for many days to come.

      But how to get into the basket was the thing to be considered just now. They fluttered around on every side of it, and finally found a small place where the cloth was loose. In a minute Chubbins began clawing at it with his little feet, and Twinkle helped him; so that gradually they managed to pull the cloth away far enough for one of them to crawl through the opening. Then the other followed, and because the big basket was not quite full there was exactly room for them to stand underneath the cloth and walk around on top of a row of cookies that lay next to a row of sandwiches.

      The cookies seemed enormous. One was lying flat, and Chubbins declared it seemed as big around as the dining-table at home.

      "All the better for us," said Twinkle, bending her head down to nibble at the edge of the cookie.

      "If we're going to be birds," said Chubbins, who was also busily eating as best he could, "we ought to be reg'lar birds, and have bills to peck with. This being half one thing and half another doesn't suit me at all."

      "The witch wasn't trying to suit us," replied Twinkle; "she was trying to get us into trouble."

      "Well, she did it, all right," he said.

      It was not so hard to eat as they had feared, for their slender necks enabled them to bend their heads low. Chubbins' hat fell off, a minute later, and he wondered how he was going to get it on his head again.

      "Can't you stand on one foot, and use the other foot like a hand?" asked Twinkle.

      "I don't know," said he.

      "The storks stand on one leg," continued the girl. "I've seen 'em in pictures."

      So Chubbins tried it, and found he could balance his little body on one leg very nicely. For if he toppled either way he had but to spread his wings and tail feathers and so keep himself from falling. He picked up his hat with the claws of his other foot and managed to put it on by ducking his head.

      This gave the boy-lark a new idea. He broke off a piece of the cookie and held it in his claw while he ate it; and seeing his success Twinkle followed his example, and after a few attempts found she could eat very comfortably in that way.

      Having had their luncheon – and it amazed Chubbins to see how very little was required to satisfy their hunger – the bird-children crept out of the basket and flew down to the twig beside their nest.

      "Hello!" cried a strange voice. "Newcomers, eh?"

      They were so startled that they fluttered a moment to keep from tumbling off the limb. Then Twinkle saw a furry red head sticking out of a small hollow in the trunk of the tree. The head had two round black eyes, an inquisitive nose, a wide mouth with sharp teeth and whiskers like those of a cat. It seemed as big as the moon to the shy little child-larks, until it occurred to the girl that the strange creature must be a squirrel.

      "You – you scared us!" she said, timidly.

      "You scared me, at first," returned the squirrel, in a comic tone. "Dear me! how came you birds to have children's heads?"

      "That isn't the way to put it," remarked Chubbins, staring back into the eyes of the squirrel. "You should ask how we children happened to have birds' bodies."

      "Very well; put the conundrum that way, if you like," said the squirrel. "What is the answer?"

      "We are enchanted," replied Twinkle.

      "Ah. The tuxix?"

      "Yes. We were caught in the forest, and she bewitched us."

      "That is too bad," said their new acquaintance. "She is a very wicked old creature, for a fact, and loves to get folks into trouble. Are you going to live here?"

      "Yes," answered the girl. "Policeman Bluejay gave us this nest."

      "Then it's all right; for Policeman Bluejay rules the feathered tribes of this forest about as he likes. Have you seen him in full uniform yet?"

      "No,"

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