I will never forget an accident that happened in my own childhood. When I was a boy of twelve, something happened to me that made me never1any birds in a cage.
We lived on the edge of a2in South Carolina, and every evening many mockingbirds would come and rest in the trees and sing. There isn't any sound that can be3 than the song of the mockingbird.
I decided to catch a young bird and keep it in a cage, 4in that way, I could have my own musician. I finally caught one and put it in a cage. The bird was5and fluttered about the cage, but finally it became quiet in its new home. I felt pleased with6 and looked after my little musician carefully.
On the second day, the bird's mother flew to the cage7food in her mouth. The baby bird ate up8she brought. I was pleased to see this. Certainly his mother knew better than I how to feed her baby.
The following morning when I went to see9my little bird was, I found it on the floor of the cage, dead. I was very surprised! What had happened! I had taken great10of the little bird, or so I thought.
Arthur Wayne, a famous scientist, happened to be in the forest where we lived at the time. Hearing me crying over the11of my bird, he told me what12. "A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes bring it poison(毒药) food. She thinks13better for her young to die than to live in a cage."14I have never caught any birds or put them in a cage. All the birds have the right to15in the sky .
