The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-03-08

the proper person 20 furnish the room
and make the beds. What could Chip
know about such things?
And this is the way they get about 1t
After spending few days pleasantly
together, it became evident that some
grave subject was on foot. Chip and
Nan put their heads together quite often
and held long consultations, while every
nook and corner of Chips cage was
thoroughly ransacked At length was
duly informed, with ever so many
"cheeps," that the young couple had
made up their minds to begin house-
keeping. Would i please provide them
with nice little home, and few ar
I ticles-not many, just enough to start
with +? Like Boots of the inn, in one OF
Dickens charming stories, ] gave long
whistle; but how could j refuse? 80
i there was another visit to the stores to
| find breeding cage, for was too busy
to make one. Now it so happens that
makers Of cages know nothing Of rearing
canaries, and bird dealers about as much.
A perfect breeding cage, therefore, can't
be bought, and so ] would advise our
young 'fanciers" to make their own.
A fair sized home for pair OF canarles
would be eighteen inches wide, fourteen
inches high, and ten inches from front to
back. Half-inch stuff planed to til.
eighths is heavy enough, and the COM
monest white pine will do. The top and
back should be of wood, the front and
ends wired, the wires being half an inch
apart. There should be q tolerably large
door at the front and one at each end;
and the seed and water vessels must all
be in front. There should also be slit
in the top, through which, when it is
wanted, a wired partition can be let down,
cutting off small compartment at one
end of the cage, which is to serve as a
nursery for the little ones when they are
ready to leave the nest.
Chips new home was, however, only
the common breeding cage of the stores.
With,it ] bought also round wire nest,
which was lined first with canton fan
mel, well stitched down, and then fast
ened at the back of the cage, close to and
little higher than the perch. A wood
ell box, four inches square and two deep,
hung on nail or screw like an old fash
Toned soap box, would have been better
and more convenient. A little moss was
next scalded and thoroughly dried, and,
with some soft wool Rawlings cut into
short pieces, placed in the cage. The
permanent fxings being all complete,
Chip and Nan took possession of their
new home, and, the first novelty over,
began nest building in earnest
things young housekeepers mean to do
when first they begin. Nan was hard to
please--a little fastidious, perhaps. She
didn't want front parlor at all if it was
not prettier than anybody else's front
parlor. Her first nest, which it took two
days to build, seemed to me very snug
aud cozy, and Chip was immensely de-
lighted with it. But the eapricious little
|ady's tastes were not satisfied. Chip
had probably got matters mixed putting I
wool where moss should have gone, and
twisting his tail the wrong way in round ,
ing things off. So on the third day Nan
'ore the nest all to pieces, tossed the
wool and moss to the bottom Of the cage, {
md tugged away at the canton flannel
IS If the fate of canarydom depended on
rs removal Chip was bewildered.
The poor fellow didn't know what to !.
make of it, and i noticed that he seemed
little shy of his mate, as though he J
cared that it would be his turn next.
But Nan was a good bird, and soon the
york of rebuilding was commenced.
'robably, Chip was more careful this !,
ime. Perhaps he didn't offer go many
as before. can't say. But
he nest was duly completed; both Nan
nd Chip thought it just the thing, and
he next morning it contained-an egg.
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