



Produced by Katherine Ward, Suzanne Shell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)





  WHAT THE BLACKBIRD SAID.


  A Story
  _IN FOUR CHIRPS_.


  BY
  MRS. FREDERICK LOCKER.


  _ILLUSTRATED BY RANDOLPH CALDECOTT._


  LONDON
  GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS
  BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL
  NEW YORK: 416 BROOME STREET
  1881


  LONDON:
  R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,
  BREAD STREET HILL, E.C.


  TO MY DEAR CHILDREN,
  GODFREY AND DOROTHY,
  THIS LITTLE STORY IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
  BY THEIR MOTHER.




CONTENTS.
                                                                  PAGE
  CHIRP THE FIRST--WINTER                                            1
  CHIRP THE SECOND--SPRING                                          22
  CHIRP THE THIRD--SUMMER                                           47
  CHIRP THE FOURTH--AUTUMN                                          69




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
                                                                  PAGE
  THE BLACKBIRD ON A SMALL WHITE HILLOCK.                            4
  THE ROBIN'S NEST.                                                 38
  THE ROOK.                                                         62
  THE THREE FRIENDS--THE ROBIN, THE ROOK, AND THE BLACKBIRD.        84




CHIRP THE FIRST.


The winter of 1878 was certainly an unusually dreary one, and so thought
a remarkably fine young Blackbird, as he perched one morning on the bare
b