The Enchanted Canary

XV

`Will some one be kind enough to tell me the meaning of all this?' cried the Lord of Avesnes.

`Your Excellency, it is the bird,' replied the Scullion, and he placed it in his hand.

`Nonsense! What a lovely bird!' said Tubby, and in stroking its head he touched a pin that was sticking between its feathers. He pulled it out, and lo! the Canary at once became a beautiful girl with a golden skin who jumped lightly to the ground.

`Gracious! what a pretty girl!' said Tubby.

`Father! it is she! it is Zizi!' exclaimed Desire, who entered at this moment.

And he took her in his arms, crying: `My darling Zizi, how happy I am to see you once more!'

`Well, and the other one?' asked Tubby.

The other one was stealing quietly to the door.

`Stop her! called Tubby. `We will judge her cause at once.'

And he seated himself solemnly on the oven, and condemned Titty to be burned alive. After which the lords and cooks formed themselves in lines, and Tubby betrothed Desire to Zizi.

XVI

The marriage took place a few days later. All the boys in the country side were there, armed with wooden swords, and decorated with epaulets made of gilt paper.

Zizi obtained Titty's pardon, and she was sent back to the brick- fields, followed and hooted at by all the boys. And this is why to- day the country boys always throw stones at a titmouse.

On the evening of the wedding-day all the larders, cellars, cupboards and tables of the people, whether rich or poor, were loaded as if by enchantment with bread, wine, beer, cakes and tarts, roast larks, and even geese, so that Tubby could not complain any more that his son had married Famine.

Since that time there has always been plenty to eat in that country, and since that time, too, you see in the midst of the fair- haired blue-eyed women of Flanders a few beautiful girls, whose eyes are black and whose skins are the colour of gold. They are the descendants of Zizi.