ranks.  Thirty minutes! at that age it is a century, of laughter and
prospective games! Each had promised solemnly, under pain of severe
punishment, to return straight to his paternal nest without delay,
but the air was so fresh and pure, the country smiled all around!
The school, or preferably the cage, which had just opened, lay at the
extreme edge of one of the suburbs, and it only required a few steps
to slip under a cluster of trees by a sparkling brook beyond which
rose undulating ground, breaking the monotony of a vast and fertile
plain.  Was it possible to be obedient, to refrain from the desire to
spread one's wings? The scent of the meadows mounted to the heads of
the steadiest among them, and intoxicated even the most timid.  It
was resolved to betray the confidence of the reverend fathers, even
at the risk of disgrace and punishment next morning, supposing the
escapade were discovered. 

A flock of sparrows suddenly released from a cage could not have
flown more wildly into the little wood.  They were all about the same
age, the eldest might be nine.  They flung off coats and waistcoats,
and the grass became strewn with baskets, copy-books, dictionaries,
and catechisms.  While the crowd of fair-haired heads, of fresh and