The narrator tells the story of a bird that has been cooped up in a small house. The bird is depressed because the cage is small, and the owner might not let the bird out. The narrator says that the bird needs to be inside the cage, and that it is dangerous to follow him into the shop looking like this. He wonders if the owner thought that he escaped from the page. He says that it looks like he didn't leave a memory of this time either, and it is the fate of the box that leads the birds to change their own lives. He tells the narrator that he has never seen the old man before, and wonders if he is related to him. He asks the narrator if there are any specific books he is looking at, and he says that he is interested in looking at the records. He also says that people have told him he is handsome, but that is not what he meant. He adds that he hasn't read a book in a while, so he tends to stick to what he knows.