Choose the best answer.
Watching some children
trying to catch butterflies one August afternoon, I thought of my unforgettable
experience in my own childhood. When I was a boy of twelve in South Carolina,
something happened to me that made me never put any wild creature in a cage.
We lived near a forest, and every evening at dusk the mockingbirds
would come and rest in the trees and sing. Their singing is the most beautiful
sound I've ever heard.
I decided that I would
catch a young bird and keep it in a cage and in that way, I would have my own
private musician.
I finally succeeded in
catching a young bird and put it in a cage. At first, being frightened, the
bird fluttered(扑腾) in the cage, but finally it settled
down in its new home. I felt very pleased with myself and looked forward to
some beautiful singing rom my little musician.
On the second day, my new
pet's mother flew to the cage with food in her mouth. The baby bird ate
everything she brought to it. I was pleased to see this. Certainly the mother
knew better than I how to feed her baby.
The following morning when
I went to see the bird again, I found it on the floor of the cage, dead. I was
terribly surprised! What had happened! I had taken good care of my little bird.
Arthur Wayne, the famous
ornithologist, who happened to be visiting my father at the time, hearing me
crying over the death of my bird, explained what had happened. "Mother
mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes bring it poisonous
berries(毒莓). She thinks it better for her young to die
than to live in a cage."
Since then I have never
caught any living creature and put it in a cage. All living creatures have a
right to live free.
