In a Handkerchief

About a month after her birthday, a storm blew violently during the night.  The next morning she was surprised to find a house sparrow dead under their kitchen window.  She felt very sorry for it and ran inside and fetched a clean cotton handkerchief, gently wrapped the dead bird in it and carried it to the edge of the garden.  She knelt down and dug under a rose bush.  When she had dug the hole to what she thought was the appropriate length, width, and depth, she paused and looked at the sad little bundle beside her.  She reverently lifted the wrapped sparrow and placed it into the hole.  She looked down at it and then up to heaven.  She prayed for God to take the creature into His hands in heaven, and she wished there was a choir singing for its funeral, but she heard only silence.


Little did she know, but perhaps she sensed it, this would be the last bird she would ever see for the rest of her life.