One day when the sun was bright and the sky was clear, a cheerful bird sat in the branches of a tree and laughed. In a cave near the tree, Mr. Hiram Gruffstuff, an old and cantankerous hermit, heard the laughter and was not pleased.
Mr. Gruffstuff disliked any kind of mirth. He quickly resolved to put an end to the laughter of the bird.
"What an unpleasant sound!" he said to himself, as he stepped out of his cave.
Mr. Gruffstuff approached the tree in which the cheerful bird was sitting. The bird greeted him with a peal of laughter.
"Why are you laughing?" asked Mr. Gruffstuff.
"I laugh because I am happy," replied the bird.
"Why are you happy?" asked Mr. Gruffstuff, growing more impatient.
"I am happy because I am free," replied the bird.
The old hermit demanded that the cheerful bird stop laughing. The bird flapped his wings and continued to laugh.
Mr. Gruffstuff went back to his cave and began to think. He decided that the situation called for extreme measures.
"The bird laughs because he is happy," Mr. Gruffstuff thought to himself. "He is happy because he is free. If I put the bird in a cage he will be unhappy. If he is unhappy, his laughter will cease."
Mr. Gruffstuff spent the rest of the day building a wooden cage. The next day he put the cage on the ground beneath the tree. Then he hid himself behind a bush.
Mr. Gruffstuff watched and waited. The door of the cage was open. Inside, on the bottom of the cage, was a pile of seeds.
The cheerful bird was always looking for a meal. When he saw the seeds, he flew into the cage.
Mr, Gruffstuff jumped out from behind the bush and shut the door of the cage. The bird made no sound.
"That will stop your laughter!" said Mr. Gruffstuff.
"I will be free again, and I will laugh again," said the bird.
Mr. Gruffstuff scowled at the bird and returned to his cave. The bird looked toward the sky.
A short time later, Mr. Gruffstuff heard a strange noise: the flapping of many wings. He looked out of his cave and saw a flock of birds overhead. The birds descended on the cage in which the cheerful bird was trapped and pulled the cage apart with their beaks.
The cheerful bird was free again. Mr. Gruffstuff stood in front of his cave and frowned, and the sky was filled with the laughter of a hundred birds.
