My father was fixing the roof and accidently killed a mother bird and buried it. He brought the nest down and showed me an egg. He said the mother sits on the egg and that bye and bye a bird comes out. I got sick 'cause I had eaten two birds for breakfast. My father explained that I really didn't eat no birds; but I didn't understand.

He said that no bird would come outta this egg 'cause there was no bird to sit on it. There was plenty of other birds; but he said they don't take in orphans. I decided that I would sit on the egg. But my father came up with a better way. We put the nest on the part of the stove where the pilot is and made sure there was no draft.

I watched the egg all the time. It seemed like for years. Then one day there was this thing in the nest with the broken egg. It was awful looking but it was a bird. My father got some worms and mushed them up. The bird put its head straight back and opens its mouth, and you just drop the worms in. I didn't like mushing worms, but it was the baby's only chance. After a while the baby got fluffy like chickens in the store windows at Easter time.

My father said that we would make a cage after a while because it would be quite some time before he could fly and take care of himself. He said it might have to spend its whole life in the cage 'cause it had no mother to teach it what it ought to know. I had watched birds for a long time, so I tried to teach him how to talk. I talked pretty good pigeon.

I wondered if it was a boy or girl, so I checked; but it's not like a dog. My parents said they didn't know. My mother got mad. She never liked my bird. She wanted to flush it down the toilet.

I taught him to eat crackers and bread. I tried to teach him how to fly, but every time I moved his wings he bit my fingers.

One morning I woke up with a terrible feeling and ran to the kitchen. There was my bird on the floor, not moving. I got down and listened, but couldn't hear his heart beat. I put a mirror by his beak, but there was nothing. I pushed on what I figured was his chest, but nothing. I got my father up, and he said it was dead. A broken neck. Said it probably fell from the nest.

I buried my bird in the back yard and cried a lot. My brother laughed at me and I hit him in the head with a brick.