It was first published posthumously in The Nation and Atheneum on 21 April 1923, and later appeared in The Doves' Nest and Other Stories (1923).
She finished the story on 7 July 1922, when she and her husband John Middleton Murry were living at a hotel in Randogne (now part of Crans-Montana), Switzerland, from 4 June to 16 August 1922.
She discusses her pet canary who has died at an unspecified time in the past.
She gives him some anthropomorphic characteristics, describing his personality and his habits, and the companionship he provided her with.
She discusses her three lodgers, who she overhears mockingly calling her "the scarecrow".