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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8f2367 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #66780 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66780) diff --git a/old/66780-0.txt b/old/66780-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 1b5a677..0000000 --- a/old/66780-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2481 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Subject to Vanity, by Margaret Benson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Subject to Vanity - -Author: Margaret Benson - -Illustrator: Margaret Benson - -Release Date: November 21, 2021 [eBook #66780] - -Language: English - -Produced by: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive/American - Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUBJECT TO VANITY *** - - - - - -SUBJECT TO VANITY - - -Τῇ γὰρ ματαιότητι ἡ κτίσις ὑπετάγη, οὐχ ἑκοῡσα ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν -ὑποτάξαντα, ἐπ’ ἐλπίδι ὅτι καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ κτίσις ἐλευθερωθήσεται ἀπὸ τῆς -δουλείας τῆς φθορᾶς εἰς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τῆς δόξης τῶν τέκνων τοῦ θεοῦ. - - - - - SUBJECT TO VANITY - - BY - MARGARET BENSON - - _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR_ - - NEW YORK - DODD, MEAD, & COMPANY - 1895 - - - - - TO - OUR BETH - - IN LOVE AND GRATITUDE - FOR - LIFELONG LOVE - AND CARE - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - I. APOLOGIA PRO FELE MEA 9 - - II. CLANDESTINE CORRESPONDENCE 31 - - III. IN THE BOSOM OF THE FAMILY 41 - - IV. CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE 51 - - V. THE DESERTED LOVER 65 - - VI. JACK 75 - - VII. A REGULAR FLIRT 89 - - VIII. A FAITHFUL FRIEND 97 - - IX. KIDS OF THE GOATS 111 - - X. COMMUNITY LIFE 123 - - XI. FINISHED SOLOMON 135 - - - - -[Illustration] - -I - -APOLOGIA PRO FELE MEA - - -Why were cats created? I do not mean this as a sceptical question, -doubtful of any end in their creation; no answer about adaptation and -environment would be adequate, nor any statement of specific use. For -with all the higher animals--that is to say, with all the animals one -intimately knows--there is some beauty of intelligence, physique, or -character which renders them, as one must necessarily believe they -are, ends in themselves, not only means to the perfection of our very -egotistic species. The dog, for instance, has at anyrate moral beauty, -and the stag physical; but the cat, who so often loses her physical -beauty after the first year of her life, and who slinks about with a -weight of strange and secret care on her shoulders, what has she? Who -ever knew a cat of really fine character, and yet why otherwise do they -suffer such bitter experience? Not experience merely of pans and pots -and cat-hunts, which only touch the physical cat; but of the real, -keen, emotional suffering of the moral cat, fierce pangs of envy, and -the burden of alienated affection? I think cats must be meant to be -good rather than beautiful. - -When Persis walked out of her travelling-basket, I thought that I -had never seen so pretty a kitten. She was about as long as she was -high, and as broad as she was long; her coat was of grey--or as this -particular shade is called blue--and white, soft, long hair; and she -had olive-yellow eyes. She would not have much to say to me just then; -but when I came into the room, where she had been shut up in the -evening, and saw the little, upright figure sitting on the table beside -a lighted candle, which my nurse had set there in case she should feel -lonely and unhappy in the dark, after a moment’s contemplation--for -Persis is shortsighted--she jumped down and rushed to meet me. - -She is very well-bred; of course her white is a mistake--she ought -to be blue all over; but she has all the other signs of good -breeding--long silky tufts in the inside of her paws; ears so -beautifully feathered that all other cats’ ears look distressingly -naked; a little, dark smudge on her pink nose, to show that she knew it -ought to have been black; and now she is full grown, the most beautiful -tail I have ever seen--“like a squirrel,” children say. - -[Illustration] - -She was not called Persis at first, but Hafiz. The popular rendering of -that as “Uffiz” was not very pretty; and while the salutation to “the -beloved Persis” was being read in the second lesson one Sunday morning, -it suddenly struck me that Persis would be a very nice and appropriate -name for a Persian cat, and the name “took.” - -Her manners mostly were charming, and with gracefulness like a -well-born lady she would stretch one hand from her basket to greet one -coming into the room. She was very affectionate; she would put her arms -round my neck in a way I have never known any other cat do, not even -her children. Like most other Persian cats, she would kiss me and lick -my hand. She had, I will confess, one rude trick: when she was in a -larky condition in the twilight, if she caught my eye, she would run, -with her head turned round and the side of her face on the ground, all -about the room, ending up by coming quite close to me, and jumping and -clawing in the air. The position was ludicrous, her head twisted round, -and her eyes fixed on mine so that she could not see what was in front -of her, and ran sometimes into legs of tables and chairs; her nerves, -too, in such a tense condition that if one startled her she would jump -high into the air, and then flee into a corner. She always reminded one -of the way in which a cockney street-boy makes faces if you catch his -eye. - -She was not always amiable, the one defect in her character was that -she was liable to “strange fits of passion,” and would pass from play -to anger on occasion without the slightest warning. - -She is the fiercest cat towards other animals that I have ever seen. -While she was yet a tiny kitten, I brought up a large semi-Persian -Tom cat to paint. The tiny kitten chased this big creature round and -round the room; if he got under a chair, she got on it, and reached -down a little menacing white paw to slap his face. He submitted meekly, -until, in order to see what would happen at close quarters, I brought -her quite near to him. She spit and swore at him, but thus brought to -bay he knocked her over with a sounding box on each ear, and she fled -under the table, where, with a tiny drop of blood on her face, she -bemoaned herself and appealed for sympathy, the picture of a helpless, -injured child. As for the other cat, once roused he went on growling -and spitting all morning. - -The only small quadruped I ever knew Persis not want to fight was a -rabbit. Some children on the place had a tame rabbit which was very -fond of cats. One day she met him out of doors. He saw her and came -running to play with her; she looked with a horrified face for a -moment then turned and fled; she must have thought him a deformed sort -of cat; much as if children met a human being with huge pendent ears -and an uncouth way of walking who wanted to come and play with them. - -Persis was very musical. If one whistled to her she would come from any -part of the room, creep up as near to one’s face as she could, purr -loudly, lick one’s face in growing rapture; then, if the whistling -continued, she got over-excited, and had to manifest excessive pleasure -by biting. I am determined to tell a story which no one will believe, -but which is none the less true, that three or four times she has been -found standing on the music-stool and making dabs at the keys with her -forepaws; she, of course, had discovered before that a piano would -make a sound if walked on, and she not unfrequently practised in that -manner, but these three or four times I looked up, being surprised at -hearing the same note repeated, and found her standing as I have said. -However, no one need believe that, and it is their own loss if they do -not; and anyhow, now it is a matter of ancient history, for Persis lost -all care for the æsthetic part of life when she had a family to bring -up. - -While she was still an independent lady she used to sleep in my room, -chiefly on my bed. It was a difficult matter to arrange at first, -because I did not want the kitten to sleep on my face, which was her -constant aspiration. Consequently, when I put out the light and settled -to sleep, placing her firmly at the end of the bed, a loud purr was -heard, and a little dark form proceeded to march up, stamping her paws -on the counterpane and drawing them out in rapturous expectation of a -pleasant evening. - -Finally we compromised: she was allowed to sleep half-way up, embracing -my arm if she liked. But I was rather glad when this habit was broken, -because she began not to leave me enough room. One of my brothers -thought he would try her in his room one night, but he had broken rest; -for first she made defiant runs at him from the end of the bed, then -in the middle of the night he was waked up by a pitiful howling, of -which he took no notice. Two hours later he was waked again by louder -howling, and then discovered that the cat had got out of one of his -windows, walked on a narrow moulding round to a shut window, and did -not dare to go back again. She was so overjoyed at being taken in that -she fell into the bath. After that she came on his bed. - -But I am wandering from the point of my story. Before Persis’ kittens -came she had some friends, but no rivals. She treated her friends in a -rather severe manner at first. One of them was a fox-terrier, called -Don. The first time she was introduced to him she nearly jumped out of -her skin with swearing and spitting. When he went out of the room, she -went round to all the places where he had been and spit at them afresh. -She has a fine scent; if new people have been in the room she always -goes round and smells the places where they have been. She smells every -new dress I have. The meek Don, who could kill a strange cat as soon -as look at it, submitted wonderfully to her whims; and when she flew -at him, beside herself with passion because he was enjoying the coffee -sugar at the bottom of a cup merely picked the cup up in his teeth and -trotted off. But she soon got accustomed to him. And then, distressed -at his appearance, tried to lick the black spots off his back; used -stealthily to wash the inside of his ears, ready always to rain a -shower of blows on his nose with the tips of her paws if he so much -as turned round. Then she began to worship in a manner not common to -cats; with the sincerest flattery, she used to lie at his feet in the -same position that he was lying in; if, for instance, he was lying with -his legs stretched straight out below him, she would lie with her back -touching the tips of his toes and her legs stretched out in the same -way--an unnatural position for a cat. - -[Illustration] - -Now her daughter, the image of Persis, will lie in the same way at -Don’s feet; but I have never heard of any other cat doing it. - -After this she became acquainted with a Gordon setter, and the -obstinate curliness of Di’s hair gave Persis as much occupation as -those black spots on Don’s back which never would come off. But she -was jealous of none of these, she knew herself to be--as a cat--so -infinitely superior to them. She was jealous of nobody and nothing -until her kittens came. - -There are certain great facts in life which nothing can prepare you -for. No amount of reasoning, no previous imagination, will make you -in the least able to calculate your feelings. Such must be the moment -to very many when they realise that they will die; such is often the -moment when people or creatures realise that there exists a little -helpless living thing, theirs peculiarly, and yet not themselves. The -change that her child can work in a grumbling, egotistical woman is -incomprehensible,--could not have been argued by any logic; but far -more surprising the event must be to a creature who does not know what -is going to happen, cannot guess that her feelings will be moved in a -totally new way, and could not realise beforehand that such an event -might happen to her as it had to others. I tried to prepare Persis -once; I gave her a stuffed kitten on a penwiper to play with. She -looked at it with some interest, licked it a little, shook it, and left -it; treated it much as a rather careless child treats her doll, but -more amiably than she treated other animals. Nor could she dream that -little bits of fur,--much like that to the outward eye,--endued with -just enough life to tremble on their little weak legs, and utter tiny, -plaintive shrieks, should rouse her to such a passionate emotion as to -make her forget her own pressing bodily wants. - -We know very little more than she did about it, we know just the bare -fact that it always will be so, but why it _should_ be so we know no -more than she. Who understands the miracle by which an utterly selfish -creature, whose natural instinct is to hate all other animals, and, -indeed, only to tolerate human beings because it can make use of them, -should be made to know and feel, in a short ten minutes’ space perhaps, -an overpowering, passionate, protective love? - -One morning Persis did not feel very well, in sign whereof she showed -a decided intention to occupy my bed. She was sent down to an empty -bedroom while a hamper of hay was being prepared for her; but when -her invalid couch was ready she was nowhere to be found; a search -discovered finally that she had put herself to bed in the room already, -under the counterpane. Still, she was thinking of nobody but herself. -Later in the morning I visited her,--when three little helpless, -shapeless, furry things were moving about her, and Persis was not -thinking of herself at all. One would not have believed an animal’s -expression could change so much; the overwhelming surprise, the intense -affection, were in her face as clearly as they could be in an human -face; for the time her egotism had gone, she was not a cat, she was a -mother. Formerly she had been shy of people, frightened of men; now, as -one after another came in to see her kittens, she showed no fear, and, -what was even more curious, no anger; she merely purred in pride and -entire confidence. - -They were wonderful kittens--two quite blue, one like its mother; their -eyes were shut, their ears were flattened down over their faces,--they -were little bodies which breathed and fed and grew. - -But they _did_ grow, and their ears stood up and their eyes -opened,--dark and light blue,--and their heads got steadier, and in a -month they were little square solid kittens, who with much difficulty -could get out of the box in which they were placed. Getting out was a -process which involved the fullest exercise of all mental and physical -powers; for first they had to advance to the side, then one tiny paw -and then another was put over the side, and the adventurer was for the -time hung up by his shoulders. Then he worked himself on by the help -of much kicking behind and clawing against the box, until the part -outside was just heavier than the part inside, and with a scramble, and -by the help of the centre of gravity, the whole kitten tumbled on to -the floor. It was a grand triumph of mind over matter. And still Persis -beamed on them, and on the world in general. - -[Illustration] - -But as they grew began the first little rift within the lute. It was -difficult to help it. I put it to you--could one carry three kittens -and a cat about, like Henry III. of France, to exhibit to visitors. -If it was a choice between exhibiting kittens and cat, visitors would -surely prefer to see the kittens; and so it came to pass that the -children were carried into the drawing-room and handed round, while -in the empty schoolroom the “old” cat sat alone. It was only a couple -of months since she had been shown to visitors herself. Sometimes I -took her too, but that was not a great success, for everybody liked the -kittens best. - -And now the kittens began to be steady on their legs, and able to -run and play, and their horizon was no longer bounded by licking and -feeding and warming; and when they once began to play, their mother -seemed rather large and rather old to play with them. Persis did not -care to play with me or cheek me any more, but she liked to gambol -with the kittens. So she played mouse in front of Pasht, but Pasht -would rather play with her brother and ran off the other way; and -she pretended to be a tiger lying in ambush to wait for Marjara, but -Marjara wished to tie herself up in a soft heap with Ganem and bite his -ears, so the Old Cat stopped in her gambols and looked at them. - -Ganem was given away; and as he had been rather a favourite playfellow, -and the least favourite child of his mother, the family got on more -happily after that. Then I went away, and saw them no more for some two -months. When I came back, the Old Cat and Pasht were sent for. - -They made their journey in a large hamper, and were brought up to my -room. Pasht had grown lovely; soft mouse colour with topaz eyes; but -nevertheless the meeting was a real disappointment. Persis came out of -the basket and with no greeting to me, jumped down and went to look out -of the window. What could I do? I had to play with Pasht. - -I thought perhaps the cat’s temper had been upset by the journey, so I -left her alone, and some hours after came back to both of them. Persis -was lying and staring out of the window, and the kitten was occupying -the room; it ran at me, jumped and climbed up with loud purrs, and -rubbed against my face. I went to the window-sill, and still Persis did -not move; when she saw the kitten she growled a little; I put it down -close to her, on which she spit, slapped it, and fled. - -So things went on. When I came into the room the kitten always ran -to greet me: it was impossible to take no notice of such a soft, -confiding, mouse-coloured creature, yet all the while I was speaking -to it two great sullen, green eyes were fixed on us, watching us round -the room. If I came there to speak to the cat, she went quickly away, -if the kitten approached her she spit, and if it came nearer, hit out -at it. Evidently the change had come in Persis from a kitten to a cat. -She was a mere domestic cat, with a not very amiable temper, she cared -no more for human beings, and had arrived at the queer alienation from -the young when they are grown up which comes to nearly all creatures; -she had had half a human soul once, but she had fulfilled the animal -functions, and she was an animal again. - -Yet one or two symptoms seemed to belie this view. Once or twice, -coming into the room, I greeted her first. Then she purred until the -kitten came near, when she got up and left us hastily. - -But it was difficult to see why this sullenness should so perpetually -prevail. She hardly ever forgot it. Her big green eyes had almost -always that sullen, lowering, miserable expression. - -Now and then, indeed, when twilight came on, she rushed in and out of -the room, alternately defying the kitten and flying from it; but not -the most unimaginative cat on earth can resist the excitement of the -growing darkness, when the eyes flash out in amethyst and topaz, and -the pupils dilate with dramatic terror and eagerness. But twilight -deepened into dark, and candles were lighted and fairyland stopped, and -the legs of the tables and chairs ceased to be tree-trunks in a jungle, -and Persis came back to life in the schoolroom, and despair clouded -back on to her brow. - -But the truth only began to dawn upon me one day. I took Persis into -my own room quite alone, and suddenly the sullen expression vanished; -I carried her in my arms and she began to purr; I put her down and she -walked up and down on the counterpane, stamping her paws and spreading -her claws,--Persis had all at once become a kitten again. She licked my -face and put two arms round my neck when I took her up. I brought her -downstairs, thinking our old relations were re-established; the kitten -came near, and Persis walked hastily away from me and took no more -notice of either of us. - -Then the kitten ailed and was sent away to be nursed, and with that -curious, confused idea that creatures have, the mother felt a lack -somewhere when the object of such strong emotion was removed, even -though the emotion was only jealousy. She hunted for the kitten all -afternoon. We found her in a part of the garden which she did not -usually frequent, and she ran away with a sense of guilt when she saw -us. But when evening came, and she was in the room alone with me and -there was no kitten, I was left in doubt no more as to what it was -which was moving her. She squeezed herself in by me on the sofa, she -kissed me and purred blissfully. - -And so it goes on. I have not had the heart to banish the kitten -altogether, yet when she is there I can seldom get a purr or a look -from the cat. One day I persuaded her to let me stroke her under the -ears and the throat; this is almost like mesmerism to a cat, and if one -can persuade them to let one begin, one can do almost anything with -them; and so I was gradually bringing her to a happier state of mind, -when the friendly kitten, perceiving that something sociable was going -on, came up to share in it. They met face to face as Persis took turns -up and down under my hand. They looked at each other for a moment, then -she slapped the kitten in the face and fled. - -What am I to do? If I keep the kitten I cannot prevent this jealousy. -Persis lives in a condition of perpetual, jealous misery; if she thinks -the kitten is sent away, or that she is exclusively favoured, then only -does she emerge out of sullenness. And yet she is not really devoted -to me; she is only a complete egoist, and cannot be happy unless I am -devoted to her. After all, am I not bound to her? Was she not once my -sole and only cat, carried about, exhibited to company, hunted for -if she got lost? And yet Pasht is much fonder of me than Persis ever -was; Pasht will run after me, while Persis wishes to run away and be -fetched back. Pasht comes to meet me when I come into the room, cries -to be picked up, purrs as soon as I touch her; but when I do so, those -green, miserable eyes watch me, and Persis will allow no caress which -is not offered to her first. - -What shall I do? - -[Illustration] - - - - -II - -CLANDESTINE CORRESPONDENCE - - -The last week has been an arduous one; I have had to chaperon Pasht. - -Pasht has experienced her first proposal. I suppose it is no wonder, -considering her age, that she was flattered; but I could wish that she -had fixed her affections on anyone less vulgar and under-bred. - -This was how I found it out. Pasht had been for many days very eager -to go into the garden. One morning we were playing croquet on the -lawn, and I paid no attention to the kitten, until suddenly I looked -up to see her lying on the path, her long thick hair fluffed out, her -sweet mouse-coloured cat’s visage resting on the edge of the grass, -her little chin rubbing against it, and her long squirrel tail lazily -sweeping and thumping the gravel. - -At first I thought it was only flirtatiousness in general, an attempt -to captivate the universe at large, when lo! out of the laurels -opposite to her flashed an ordinary, vulgar, ill-bred, short-haired -tabby cat, who stood there for a moment, looked at me and disappeared. - -[Illustration] - -I was very much shocked, picked up Pasht and shut her up in the -schoolroom, when she instantly appeared on the window-sill and -reproached me loudly. But of course I did not take it seriously, and -thought that they would both get over it. - -I must explain the position (unfortunate in this respect) of the rooms -in which the cats and I live. - -It has four large windows looking on the lawn and the laurel -bushes--too high for a cat to jump down, but not too high for her -to practise little wiles on the window-sill for the benefit of -appreciative spectators below. Just on the left hand of the door is a -long window, from which steps go down to the garden, and close by the -steps is a large laurustinus, a most convenient place for ambushes -and clandestine meetings. Opposite the schoolroom door, again, there -is another door opening on to a back staircase, whence one gets into -kitchens, whose windows also give on to the lawn, and are usually open. -My bedroom is above the schoolroom. - -On the evening when I had abruptly stopped Pasht’s flirtation, a noise -arrested my attention as I was going to bed. It was the voice of a cat -saying “wwoww.” You know what it means when a cat says that? He is -paying compliments. The noise went on and on, round the schoolroom-end -of the house, until I went to sleep, but I heard no answer from Pasht. - -Pasht was hysterically affectionate when I saw her next morning; she -said “a - - - ow,” and clung on to my dress, and climbed up on to my -shoulder and refused to leave me, and walked about over my letters when -the ink was wet, and flapped her tail into my mouth, and altogether -played the fool, and pretended that she had forgotten her vulgar -suitor of the night before and I heard no serenades outside. - -[Illustration] - -But in the middle of the day I suddenly heard from my bedroom an -extremely loud voice saying “wwaughwow,” and looking down saw Pasht -standing on the window-sill of the schoolroom. I don’t know whether she -said it or not, for as soon as she saw me she looked up and took to the -more ordinary and ladylike expression of a general desire to go out in -the sunshine. Several times in the day I heard it again, but as soon as -I looked round, Pasht turned an innocent face to me and said “miaow.” - -In the evening the gentleman began to woo again; I knew it was the -suitor this time, as Pasht was safely shut up. I listened at the door -of the schoolroom to hear if she was answering, but there was no sound. -She _is_ a regular flirt. - -A party from the house went round the garden with croquet mallets, but -with no result. - -Next morning it became too clear that Pasht was encouraging her suitor; -he rushed away from the laurestinus bush as I came out, and she was -sitting on the window-sill. I took her out for a short time in the -garden under strict supervision, but she would do nothing but flop into -graceful attitudes on the lawn. I really had not thought it of her. - -I took her in again, and argued the point a little. - -I told her that she was behaving in a very vulgar and forward manner, -and that no nice Tom would respect her. She merely looked up in my face -and said “a - - - ow.” - -Then I said I would not have made any objection if he had been a -gentleman, but he was so exceedingly common and ill-bred. - -But she still looked with pathetic topaz eyes, and opened a little pink -mouth with a deprecating mew. - -I felt much as if, “with a little hoard of maxims,” I was “preaching -down a daughter’s heart.” - -And what was worse, it did no good. Every time the door was opened, -however much Pasht was pretending to be devoted to me, she suddenly -found she had urgent business in the kitchen, and flew downstairs; -and when I, knowing the nature of the little flirt, did not go down -to the kitchen at all, but straight out of the long window on to the -lawn and found her there, she looked up with the most innocent face -possible,--“Yes; after all, I see you enjoy the sunshine as much as -I do.” When, in spite of kicks and struggles, I carried her in, she -never once said “wwoww,” but merely gave vent to the emphatic mew which -means, “_I don’t want to go in._” - -I took her an airing in my arms that day, but it was extremely -exhausting, and I covered my dress with long hair. - -And all that night the cat mewed. - -Another exploring party went from the house with shovel and tongs. - -I couldn’t stand it any longer. Pasht was sent away to a very strict -boarding-school system at the farm. - -A week after, when the strange cat had ceased to howl round the house, -she came back again; but as soon as the schoolroom door was left ajar, -the urgent business in the kitchen claimed her, and Pasht disappeared -for many hours. - -Poor little Pasht, were you disappointed that no one met you in the -garden to flirt with, or wanted to bounce out of the laurel bushes and -exhibit his masculine beauty before you? Or, after all, is your little -heart as hard as I think it, and do you prefer a nice warm room, a lawn -to romp on, someone in whose lap to lie, who will gently ruffle your -throat and ears--do you really, deep down in your heart, prefer these -beyond all lovers whatever? - -Anyhow, when Pasht appeared at the long window, she had a gay, innocent -little air on, and she ran in saying, “You see, the fine weather _did_ -tempt me to stay out rather long,--where is my breakfast?” - -Never mind, little Pasht; we will arrange an honourable alliance some -day with a gentleman of rank. - - - - -[Illustration] - -III - -IN THE BOSOM OF THE FAMILY - - -Is it not true that there is a very general want of recognition of -family-life among domestic animals? It is a great mistake to suppose -they are incapable of it; often, as a matter of fact, they do not lead -domestic lives, for the simple reason that people will not let them. -If, for instance, you won’t keep a whole family of cats, how can you -expect them to develop domestic affections? We talk of their being -“domesticated,” but we mean that they are made a part of our domestic -arrangements, without being allowed to have any of their own; yet they -are quite as capable of it as we are. Of course their domesticity does -not last long, naturally and necessarily not, because they have not -one family but a series of families, and one family must be dismissed -before the next is taken on; so domestic affection developes into -murderous desires. However, I must say that in all experiences I have -personally had of cats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, dogs, goats, and birds, I -have only known one murder, and that was by an uncle. - -Rector was allowed to have all his family about him. His wife was -decidedly under-bred. He was called Rector, in fact, because he would -not catch the mice, and had to have another less aristocratic but more -useful cat to help him. The curate was called Jenny. She was a low-bred -tabby. Rector could not help despising Jenny, and if anything vexed him -he used to bite her badly; but she was a very meek drudge, and took it -as a matter of course. Rector was white, with blue eyes, so we only -kept the white kittens, some of which were blue-eyed, and _not_ deaf; -blue-eyed or not, Rector used to take them out walks in the evening. - -The four--papa and mamma and two kittens--used to proceed together to -the mound near the pump, and Jenny then left them, to crouch in the -bushes,--this for a purpose of her own. - -Then began the game. Rector rolled the kittens over and played with -them gently, until all three became a little excited; then, if Rector -got carried away, and bit or scratched his infant till it squeaked, -out bounced Jenny from the bushes to deal him a handsome box on the -ear; and, having thus admonished her husband to take better care of the -children, she retreated again to the shelter of the yew-trees. - -If you keep a whole family, you will find that there is not only -a parental, filial, brotherly, and sisterly relation, but also a -grand-parental. When Midge had some white kittens, Jenny, whose -under-bred offspring had been put out of the way shortly before, helped -her to nurse them, with as much pride and perhaps more solicitude than -Midge herself showed. It was a most charming scene. We went to see the -family soon after the birth of the kittens, and found Midge, in the -rôle of the interesting young mother, leaning back upon Jenny. Jenny -put a paw round her, while they surveyed--the mother languidly and the -grandmother proudly--the squirming white family. - -But it is not cats only who have these strong domestic ties; almost -every animal shows the same thing in a greater or less degree. - -We inherited, on changing our home, a beautiful pair of swans. The -first year that they became ours they had four cygnets, and brought -them up extremely well. It is true that when they were full grown, the -cock-swan, if one may use such an expression, tried to kill them; but -that was only natural, they had become his rivals. They were variously -disposed of: one was taken up to a pond in London, from which, not -being properly pinioned, he escaped, and kept a cockney crowd for an -hour well amused on London Bridge by flying over it and swimming under, -after which he--or, as he could not possibly be caught, the abstract -idea of him--was presented to the Thames Conservancy. - -So far, this doesn’t seem to have much to do with the swan’s idea of -home, but, as some candid preacher said, “You may think this has not -got much to do with my text, but I’m coming to it presently.” - -The swans lived on in peace and happiness through the autumn and -winter, but in the spring, when they ought to have been nesting, some -wicked boy hit the lady swan on the head with a stick, and she sickened -and died. - -For some time the widower was left solitary; then we thought this was -rather cruel, and busied ourselves in getting a mate for him; and a -fine young swan was procured. When lo! it was found that the old -fellow would not let his young companion come into the pond. We thought -it would “wear off,” and left the young one to its fate; and many times -we passed the pond to find the poor young thing squatting sadly on the -road, and the widower swelling up and down. - -Then we found there was a slight mistake, the young swan was a -cock-swan also. - -So we changed him, and got a real lady instead. This time he would -just let his companion come into the pond, but oh! she had a bad time -of it there; he pulled her feathers out, and he drove her away from -the bread; but it had to be gone through,--it was his way of showing -constancy, and it turned out all right. She is treated now with as much -respect as his first wife. - -But she was a very young wife; so, when she had hatched three eggs -into cygnets, her pride knew no bounds. The father, getting into his -dotage, encouraged her in her maternal follies. The cygnets were fine -healthy birds, but the two old birds took them out walking to such an -extent that one by one they died. No one quite knows why. Some say that -there was not enough grass by the pond, and the parents took them to -find grass; and some say that parental vanity wished to display such -flourishing offspring; but anyhow, the fact remains that the cygnets -took walks with their parents till they died. There is nothing more -domestic than the family walk. - -But now contrast this domestic affection with the melancholy fate of -the inebriate swan. - -A clergyman’s wife kept one swan, and the swan, no one knows how, got -into the habit of going to eat malt at a public-house. If he had done -this within bounds it would not have mattered, but he got regularly -intoxicated, and every evening reeled homewards. His mistress tried to -reform him, but to no purpose; and she tried to shut him up, but he -got out; and she used to meet him coming home with rolling, uncertain -step and hanging head. She wept, for it was such a bad example to the -parish; but that had no effect on him. At last, one evening, he was run -over and killed while reeling home in a state of intoxication. - -Now, how far more melancholy is such an end than that of the three -infants killed by family affection! I would rather die three times over -from walking with my family than once from intoxication. - -What is the moral? Do not break up the family too early. The presence -of the children (up to the age when he wants to kill them) will have -a softening and steadying effect on the manners of the father; while -who knows what stores of masculine experience he may not impart to his -children up to the time when they wish to fight him. - -Besides all this, it is really much more amusing. - - - - -[Illustration] - -IV - -CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE - - -How vividly one sometimes retains for years the memory of a chance -acquaintance--a person whom one has met but once, passed in the street, -talked to for half an hour, whose name one may not even know. - -A friend of mine was travelling in Persia, and as she and her brother -were resting in a caravansarai after a journey, they saw a Persian -gentleman beckoning to them from the garden. They went down to him, and -he asked them to come and have supper with him. They came, and found -the bread laid out, plate-wise, and the roast meat on it. They ate and -talked to him, and after their meal went on their journey. They never -asked for nor heard his name, nor he theirs,--they will never meet -again; but that Persian gentleman will be as vivid to them until the -day of their death as a friend of years. - -Such memory of a mere passing chance acquaintance is not confined to -human beings. Sometimes one meets animals for an hour or two, sometimes -one accidentally lights upon them in a crisis of their lives,--such -even as their death,--and one suddenly and unexpectedly understands -and knows them. Some people and animals one never gets near. You may, -for instance, sit opposite people in church for years, know all their -Sunday dresses and hats, and how much they give in the offertory, -and be not a bit nearer to them in the end than at the beginning. -Such is the acquaintance one has with caterpillars; they are always -just the same; they eat and grow and become cocoons, and reappear as -butterflies, and there is no character from beginning to end. That is -partly why they are such excellent symbols. - -Then there are some animals that have no sense of intimacy; they -let you into all their domestic relations,--their committees, their -politics, and so forth, at once; for the reason that they have only one -side to their character. They have established a Platonic Republic; -they do their domestic duties on the scale of the commonwealth, -have a universal nursery and government education. In spite of their -monarchical arrangements, they are real socialists at heart,--they -care for nothing but the good of the State. Even those that live in -a tiny community, two or three together, have no real individuality. -Have you ever found one of those tiny round nests, like ashes of paper, -which apparently grow on a stalk, and in which two or three yellow and -black tree-wasps live? It is the easiest thing in the world to scrape -acquaintance with those wasps; kill an ordinary housefly and give it to -them. They will take it from your fingers, and, without the slightest -shame at “talking shop” in public, will roll it into a neat, hard, -black ball, crushing up legs and wings alike, and stow it away inside -the nest. - -But the want of intimacy characteristic of many insects is not -characteristic of insects _as such_. I once attended a grasshopper -crisis. There was nothing professional about the grasshoppers; they -did not not “spend themselves in leaps ... to reach the sun.” They did -not think the least bit in the world about the sun, they were merely -private individuals--courting. Grasshoppers’ courting is an organised -affair. I saw it in Switzerland on a soft, sunny afternoon, when the -hotel population was divided between the Roman Catholic Church on the -right and the English Church on the left, and the steps of the hotel -between the two. As I dawdled along by a bank of bilberry just turning -red, the grasshoppers were singing loud among the stalks of heather; -suddenly I was aware that they were not singing aimlessly and jumping -without purpose, but that they were intently engaged. It was like the -old fairy-story, when a child falls asleep on a bank, and wakes to find -himself surrounded by fairies intent on preparation for the marriage -of the king. The large limp ladies were sprawling about ungracefully, -and in front sat their small, spry gentlemen singing away. Here was a -green gentleman serenading a brown lady, and I wondered at his taste; -presently she got up and ran away. Clearly that was part of the drama; -it was the genuine “flirtatious” instinct of avoiding a plain answer on -purpose to provoke pursuit; for the gentleman does not jump, but runs -after her to bring her back. When lo! a green lady is seen crossing -the path, also coyly escaping from a suitor, and the faithless swain -is captivated all in a moment by the green charms, and deserts his -brunette to pursue her. Further on--astonishing sight!--is a young -ladies’ school, just “come out”; fourteen or fifteen green and brown -ladies, shy and awkward, scrambling down the bank and all talking -together. - -I never saw such courting before or since, but I shall never lose the -feeling of intimacy, for I know now that grasshoppers are not always -little machines arranged with the greatest amount of muscle for the -smallest amount of weight, or wound up to trill on in the sunshine, as -mechanically as a watch ticks, or even created to be a burden,--but -they are tiny creatures, full of emotion and insect loves, putting -their best energy into their whirring song to claim the admiration of -the languid, lovely creatures that lie lazily listening. - -But sometimes one arrives at a sudden personal relation to a wild -creature, too often ended abruptly by its escape or death, and its -kinsfolk are never afterwards to one as little as before. One has -regarded it as a member of a class; henceforward one regards that class -as composed of individuals possessed of strong personal desires, needs, -emotions, not merely obeying what we call “instincts,”--meaning thereby -the mechanical impulse to eat, grub, make nests, care for young. To -take an extreme instance, perhaps you think that moles are altogether -uninteresting, merely existing for the sake of lightening the soil and -destroying the wire-worm, and, in case of undue increase, fit to make -a cap for the mole-catcher and a little skeleton to swing from a tree. -But perhaps some day you will see in the stubble, after the hay is -cut, a little black form running confusedly round and round; catch it, -and hold in your hands the soft, velvet-coated body; feel the funny, -groping snout pushing through your fingers, on the chance--however -different their touch is from the damp, delicious earth--that it will -be able to find some place where it may grub a hole and escape; realise -that you might make a pet of this small, soft thing, and then please -recognise its wild desire for liberty, and let it go. - -But there are some animals which, although usually recognised as “wild -animals,” seem to have no fear whatever, except when they are being -chased; once they are in the hands of a human being they are completely -self-possessed. A friend of mine sat in a field when the hay was being -carried, and saw a little field-mouse playing about; she pursued and -nearly caught it, but it finally escaped. She came back to where she -had been sitting to fetch her umbrella, and under it was found another -little field-mouse asleep, which she caught without difficulty, carried -back, and put into a box with holes in it. - -[Illustration] - -She brought him in to tea that afternoon, and even at this, his first -meal, he sat up like a kangaroo on his long hind-legs, and ate bread -and milk out of a spoon. He absorbed alarming quantities of it, fell -instantly asleep, woke up after a few minutes and ate a great deal -more; but the next morning the poor little beast was found gasping, -apparently dying; and when his box was opened he would not run away. -But he presently recovered as suddenly, and again devoured much food, -and so went on through the day, though his gasping fits returned at -intervals. Next morning he died. Is it that we find these creatures -generally when they are ill?--the least touch seems to make them die. -Certainly I remember once or twice, in those joyful days when sitting -in a hayfield meant the height of bliss, that our very gentle and -amiable collie, excited by an “animal” smell, would grub open a nest of -little field-mice, and stand by delighted and smiling at his discovery, -while we came up just in time to see three or four expiring infants. He -could hardly have killed them, for he only wanted to look at them. Yet -they died. - -What was it, I wonder, that killed Maximilianus? Maximilianus was a -very small shrew, and we found him running about the garden; he was -just about as long as his name. He was not the least frightened, and -we carried him about for half a day; but we found nothing he could -eat, until at last we came upon a very large, fat, orange-coloured -centipede. Maximilianus seized upon this with the utmost delight, began -it vigorously at one end, and ate it up like a radish as far as the -middle. Then he died. - -We had once a visitor in the shape of a squirrel, who came uninvited, -made his abode with us for some months, and finally departed, taking -“French leave.” My mother was his guide, philosopher, and friend. He -slept in a pocket of her apron (this was in the seventies), whence -he came out to fly up the curtains and drop down, venture on to the -breakfast table, and experiment on her tea with a tiny paw. He always -ran up the curtain when he was scolded; as for instance when my father, -going to the sideboard to cut ham, found the squirrel’s head just -coming out of it, having eaten its way through from the other side. -Then, after being received in the bosom of our family, after sharing -meals with the household, after attending lessons and even prayers -(when he ran up the back of a kneeling housemaid), the skwug suddenly -disappeared without warning. A few days after, my mother was walking -in the wood, when a squirrel ran up to her, put its paw upon her foot, -looked her in the face, then turned and ran away. It was never heard of -again. - -Sometimes you find animals which, though not very near and dear to -human beings, have a great influence on other animals. Our donkey -died the other day. She was a remarkable and original animal. Though -she was a fixture, taken at a high valuation from our predecessors, -her demeanour was such that we called her Jack, and thought she had -retired to a well-earned repose. Then we found she was not quite two -years old, and a lady. We were always good friends, but not specially -intimate. She and her mule-foal might come to the window for bread -and salt when the horses were not allowed on the grass; but for weeks -together she did not avail herself of this privilege, till one day a -snort was heard from outside, and the donkey’s nose was seen flattened -against the glass. Once, when my mother was walking with a friend of -hers,--not an acquaintance of the donkey,--Jack, for I cannot help -calling her so, solemnly accompanied them all the afternoon, walking -between them. But such occasional walks, and the fact that she was -amiably willing to follow anyone quite impartially for a handful of -oats, constituted the extent of our intimacy with her. Not such was her -relation to the other animals. As exclusively as my goat walked with -the cows, Jack walked with the horses. She did not, of course, consider -herself so superior to her company as the goat. She made many friends -among the horses; you might not have known it, perhaps, but neither -as a general rule would you suspect the friendship which men have for -one another by their way of behaving. If a man meets a great friend in -company, he either takes no notice of him or stands near him without -saying anything. Jack used to stand about with the horses without -saying anything, but they liked to have her near. - -One morning Jack was found dead of fatty degeneration of the heart. -“I’m sure the horses miss her,” said the bailiff’s wife; “I look at -them standing in the yard, and I can see they miss her.” - -Jack was buried in the orchard, and her little mule followed the body -as far as the garden-gate. But there they shut the door, and the one -mourner was left outside. - - - - -V - -THE DESERTED LOVER - - -Ever since I was a very small child I had longed to possess a pair of -budgerrygars. There was a tradition of three live ones once in our -family, in proof whereof my nurse could point to a little stuffed -bird in its case. I used to gaze with longing at that beautiful green -and yellow creature, with the speckled back and the black and blue -feathers in its neck, sitting with a foreground of quaking grasses -and an eternal blue sky behind. There existed also, but rarely seen, -a little cardboard box containing a few of these same mysteriously -beautiful blue and yellow and green feathers, with here and there a -long strong tail or wing quill. Yes, there had been budgerrygars among -us once; there were even real live ones now in the possession of those -happy Italian women who sit at the street corners, but for me--while -I was still a child--they were inmates of that imaginary Paradise of -unattainable things, wherein might be found little wax cages of birds, -and the fluffy hollow ducks which live in confectioners’ shops and are -sold for ninepence. - -[Illustration] - -After I was grown up, a friend gave me one of these ducks; I have it -still, and the halo still surrounds it. When I was grown up, too, some -one gave me a pair of budgerrygars; and there followed a tragedy which -was not bargained for in the price paid. - -They came down from London in a tiny cage,--a travelling cage. -Budgerrygars do not mind lack of room, it makes it all the easier for -them to sit quite close, as if they were glued together. They were -lovely little things, with their pearl-grey beaks,--wonderfully sharp -and strong those beaks are, as I know to my cost,--but they could -use them gently, and you would see one turn with a soft croon to put -straight a ruffled feather on its mate’s head. - -The little gentleman had caught a cold, not much of a cold at first; -he only panted slightly as he sat near the little lady and ruffled his -feathers; but she cheered him up, and smoothed the feathers down, and -they sat side by side and looked at the world with little meaningless -grey eyes. - -Their new large cage was a great excitement, and it was immense fun for -them to walk over the top, using their beak as a third leg, and that -the most reliable. And their spirits ran so high that they began to -shriek unmusically at each other when they found themselves at opposite -corners of the cage. - -I am afraid we were not as careful as we ought to have been with -the little gentleman. They were so funny and pretty that they were -carried from room to room; and the cage must have been in a draught, -for the little gentleman began to puff and breathe rather hard, and -his feathers were persistently ruffled, and the little lady could not -smooth them down any more, even if she had tried. - -Sympathy to the ailing, the feeble, and the weak is a very modern -virtue; strange, as civilisation shows us what an unprogressive virtue -it is. The lame and the blind were “hated of David’s soul”; animals -and savages and men of early civilisation agree with David. Now and -then you find a dog which will bring a broken-legged friend to the -hospital, a cat which brings its half-starved neighbour to eat its own -dinner,--souls of philanthropists on pilgrimage, dead or yet to be; -but the stag’s instinct of goring the sickly ones, and the wolf’s of -tearing the wounded, are the ruling instincts. The lady budgerrygar -took David’s side in the matter. She did not wish to bite her spouse, -or peck him, or pull his feathers out, but he began to be hated of her -soul. - -[Illustration] - -One day she would not let him sit by her on the perch; he could -hardly get up to it, yet he would have done so for the sake of sitting -close to her, for the sake of putting a stray feather straight in her -ladyship’s top-knot, of feeling the little pearl-grey bill travelling -softly over his head with a croon of affection; but she would not have -it, she drove him away from her. So he sat on the lower perch, or on -the bottom of the cage; he did not scream or croon, he just puffed his -feathers out and panted. Did David repent in respect of the blind and -lame when he said, “My lovers and friends hast thou put away from me”? - -What strange rebellion against fate moved in the soul of the little -budgerrygar, what necessity of finding a lonely place to die in, what -sad desire of escaping from the mate who would no longer care for him? -It is all very well to talk of “instinct” and dismiss the case, but -how do you suppose the abstract idea of loneliness in death nerved -the failing wings and feet to seek the door of the cage, made him -squeeze through the door, such a little way open; how did it attract -him across the room and through the half-open door,--away--away--as -far as he could go from his faithless love? Did this abstract idea act -on the little budgerrygar like a machine, and move and nerve the wings -for such a flight? Or was there distress in the heart, and anguish in -the little animal soul, when he found himself ill at ease and ailing, -deserted and repulsed? - -It is a work of skill and time to induce a healthy budgerrygar to leave -its cage; but this quixotic spirit found his way out of the cage for -himself, and found his way out of the room, and he must have flown -until he dropped dead. For we found a little heap of gay green and -yellow feathers in the passage,--stone-cold and stiff;--he had been -dead some hours. - -Budgerrygars are very sociable birds, they cannot live alone. The -little dead bird could not. So we got a new mate for the lady, whom she -received warmly, and the pair lived quite happily ever after. - -But I should like to know, in the whole scheme of things, what is the -recompense for the little deserted lover. - - - - -VI - -JACK - - -Few people know how different one bird is from another of the same -kind. Of course we can see when one canary is green and one yellow -and one crested; but few people know that some canaries have blue -eyes, some brown, and some grey; or how different one canary is in -intelligence and character from another. - -Jack was a remarkably intelligent canary; one always felt him to -be immensely superior to oneself. When he consented to sit on his -swing and allow me to swing him, he always seemed to say, “This is a -very childish game, but it appears to amuse you, and I am by nature -indulgent.” He was often very angry with me and pecked me, but I was -sure I deserved it. The only blemish I ever found in him was that -he was rather unscrupulous and ill-tempered, but then he was so -exceedingly superior that he had to find fault with the canaries and me -sometimes. - -Jack was very bright yellow, with a slim, trim figure. When he was -about two years old a little wife was given to him. She was almost -white, and they looked very pretty together. Her name was Thyrsis. -We tried to call them Corydon and Thyrsis, but “Jack” suited him so -well that we were not able to change it, so they remained rather -inharmoniously “Jack and Thyrsis” to the end of their lives. - -I always used to turn Jack and Thyrsis out of their cage when I was -cleaning it. One morning I did not see that the window of the room -opposite was open. They flew round the room together, then coming to -the open door they darted out of it, into the next room and straight -to the window. One instant they rested on the window-sill, then like a -flash of sunlight and moonlight they were out into the sunny garden and -trees beyond. All that day I haunted the garden, too anxious to cry, -carrying their cages about, in the vain hope that they might be hungry -or thirsty and want to come back; once I thought I saw a flash of gold, -but night fell and still the birds were out. The next day we sent the -town-crier round shouting out a reward of five shillings for them, and -the day following Thyrsis was brought back to me in a paper bag, much -exhausted but not materially worse. - -I did not hear of Jack for five months. - -Then a boy who lived near and kept canaries heard for the first time of -my loss, and he sent me a canary which some months ago had come through -the open window and settled on his own bird’s cage. Of course it was -Jack. He had not forgotten his way of coming towards me with wings -outspread, uttering the funny scolding noise from which he got his name. - -Now by this time Jack and Thyrsis were come to years of discretion, and -it was thought that they ought to build and have young. So they were -provided plentifully with horsehair and cottonwool, and given a small -round basket in one of the cages, and we put their two cages together, -opening the door between. - -They were very much delighted with the wool, and played with it a great -deal, but they seemed to have no idea of the proper use of it; if we -put it into the nest for them, they merely pulled it out again. - -This became so hopeless, and I was so anxious to try to rear little -canaries, that a friend promised me another hen. She, however, forgot -what our circumstances were, and sent us a pair, who were promptly -named Jock and Mummy. I would not have Jack defrauded of his wife after -all, so Mummy was taken away from Jock and given to Jack instead. There -is not much to tell about poor Jock. He was a middle-aged gentleman, -subject to chronic asthma, and could never in that state of health have -undertaken the cares and responsibility of a young family. His cage -was always hung up near the fire, and when he was worse than usual I -gave him a tiny drop of sal-volatile in his water. He was a contented, -cheerful bird, and lived as long as with his age and asthma one could -expect. - -Mummy was a crested bird, pale yellow with a green crest, rather -pretty, but in mind utterly vulgar. Of course she was far more -effective than the refined Thyrsis had ever been. She knew all about -nest building, and began at once; while the cynical and gentlemanly -Jack looked on. The pair always reminded one of an aristocratic -philosopher who had married his cook. - -But one must give Mummy the whole credit of the nest; she put the moss -and hair and wool into it, she squatted herself down in it, turned -round, fluffed herself out to make it hard and round and compact; and -at intervals went to keep up her strength by taking her “dishing-up -beer” in the shape of hempseed. - -Then she laid eggs quite satisfactorily, and they came out quite -satisfactorily, and one by one all the nestlings died--_not_ -satisfactorily. On examining the little corpses, we found that they had -died of starvation. Jack was found guilty at the inquest, for a first -principle of domestic life among canaries is that the father feeds the -birds while they are very young. What was the reason, then, that he had -so disgracefully neglected his duty of feeding them, while his devoted -wife sat on the nest to keep them warm? There must be something more -than grandeur and cynicism to make a gentleman allow his children to -die of starvation. - -At last we found out the reason--Jack was flirting with his first -love! Thyrsis’ cage was hung in Jack’s sight, and instead of feeding -his infant children, or attending to them in any way, he clung to the -corner of his cage all day and serenaded Thyrsis. We put Thyrsis out of -his sight; Mummy laid a second set of eggs, and Jack attended to them -as if he had done it all his life. It is true that he threw the eldest -out of the nest on to the floor of the cage, but there is great excuse -for that; a gentleman of refined and fastidious feelings must have had -a dreadful shock when he first saw an unfledged canary and realised -that that repulsive creature was his progeny. With all his cynicism, -he could never have imagined that anything so loathsome existed. I -don’t see what else he could have done,--I should have done it myself -in his place. From whatever point you look at them, unfledged canaries -are altogether and absolutely hideous; their brownish-pink skin is -scantily covered with hairs, little bits of flesh wave helplessly about -where their wings and legs are going to be, they have two large dark -swellings where their eyes are going to be, and the only thing that -is defined about them is a huge mouth which is almost always open and -yelling. I had to pick the canary up from the bottom of the cage, and I -still owe Jack a grudge for it, though I cannot in justice blame him. - -Little canaries, when they are fledged, are as pretty as before they -are frightful. These three little birds, when they were fledged, were -all different and all beautiful. One was like her mother, yellow and -green and crested; one like his father, all yellow; and one a sort -of mixture, green and yellow and without a crest. Now a curious thing -happened: the father chiefly devoted himself to feeding the little hen, -who was like her mother; the mother (who begins to feed the birds when -they are getting fledged and do not need warmth so much) fed the little -cock like the father; and I have sometimes seen these two of their -superfluity feeding their neglected brother. He throve well on the -little attention he got. - -[Illustration] - -I brought up several nests-ful. We had Tweedledum and -Tweedledee,--Tweedledee’s name was subsequently changed to “Jewel” by -a little cousin to whom I gave it, and who considered it a priceless -treasure,--and Daffodil, the neglected nondescript, and Vicary, and -Roumenik, called after the Wallachian country-place of some friends -of ours; and others whose names I forget. Roumenik was the only one I -kept, he was the last hatched, and was called “the Baby” until he died -at the mature age of eight years. - -There was one wonderful chicken who did not live to have a name. He -was very precocious, and died young. This was how it happened: the -misguided Mummy laid an egg in January, and in consequence, as I have -always believed, of the weather being so much too cold when it was -hatched, the bird could never get fledged; when it had already begun -to be active and of a roving disposition, it still had no feathers on. -Even sprouting wing-feathers might have broken its fall a little, on -the many occasions when it tried to get out of the nest and fell on its -back on the bottom of the cage. One day it had a fall more serious than -usual, and till evening it sat on the edge of its waterglass with its -head hanging down and its neck apparently dislocated. In the morning -I found it dead in the waterglass. So I do not know to this day which -accident it died of. - -But meanwhile a sudden stirring of domestic instincts came to Thyrsis, -and she was stimulated to rival Mummy’s nest-building. I gave her a -little basket and materials for a nest, and she set to work and built -a very good nest, and sat in it for six weeks, till her claws grew long -and her legs grew weak, and there was of course no sign of an egg. -Then I took it away from her, for I was afraid she would be ill with -sitting, and it would never be the least use. Poor Thyrsis! under other -circumstances she might have proved herself, if less vulgar, quite as -effective as Mummy in building and breeding. When I had had her about -seven or eight years she died quite suddenly. Was it of a broken heart? -Had Jack’s too late attentions stirred in her the emotion of love, as -he clung to the corner of his cage, singing to her and leaving his -babies to starve? - -There is just one more canary I must mention, for it had a curious name -and history. It was called after one of my relations “Uncle Arthur”; -that is to say, it was called so by myself and my brothers; for it was -supposed to be called “Arthur” by my mother and “Mr. Sidgwick” by the -outside world. - -Uncle Arthur was Jack’s brother, but Jack had a monopoly of the -intelligence of the family. Uncle Arthur had been half starved when -he first came to me, and it had affected his intellect. Perhaps I had -better mention that it was not from any supposed similarity in this -respect that he was named after my uncle. He was idiotic in strange -ways; for instance, I have known him try to bathe in a draught, from -which he got inflammation of the lungs. For a long time, also, I -found it was quite safe to take him out of doors without clipping his -wings, for he was too foolish to know how to fly. One day, however, -he astonished me by suddenly flying up into the top of a tree, which -proved that his apparent powerlessness was the result of idiocy; for -when he happened, as thus at intervals, to hit upon the right way of -using his wings, he could fly quite well, though in a rather curious -manner and with a pigeon-like noise. He never seemed to want to build -nests, he never even serenaded any of the hen-birds of Jack’s family. -He had a very happy, limited life. When he was already getting old -I gave him away. I am sorry to say that his death was compassed -accidentally by his new mistress; she was so much disgusted with him -because he would not wash [he had probably forgotten how to], that she -washed him one day herself with soap and flannel. Uncle Arthur died of -it. - -[Illustration] - -Jack outlived all the rest. Towards the end of Mummy’s life all -illusion about her passed away; he got irritated and used to pull -feathers out of her, though he tried to make up by much affection -between times. But it was not Mummy’s fault. She was frankly vulgar -from the beginning, and Jack, with his keen perception of character, -ought to have known it. - - - - -VII - -A REGULAR FLIRT - - -Gypsy was so called because he was bought off a gypsy-cart. A friend of -mine was attracted by his wonderful voice, and gave a half-crown for -him. Others were attracted by his voice too, with results more fatal. - -He was in his first year when I had him, and it was not until the -second year that his feathers and his fascination attained their full -proportions. Gypsy was a mule, a cross between a goldfinch and canary. -His back was dark green, he had a yellowish breast with dark splashes -on it, black wing feathers, and two patches on his cheeks the colour -of gooseberry fool; and he had a reddish golden crest, which he could -raise a little when he was excited. - -The next summer was beautiful weather at Oxford, and I took Gypsy there -when I went to College, though I cannot say that he aided study. If I -read, he got up a quarrel with the leaves of the book, and flew at them -as I turned them over. If I wrote, he fell into a passion with my pen, -and ran across the wet ink on my paper to peck it. And his love-affairs -were very distracting. - -Gypsy’s cage used to be put all day on the window-sill; and I began -after a time to be aware that he was liable to be seized by sudden -agitations, when he fluttered backwards and forwards in his cage, with -a quick, excited note. A few days more and the cause of this agitation -became apparent; for a little goldfinch, a hen goldfinch I suppose, -came and sat upon the window-sill. - -The intimacy rapidly improved; the goldfinch would come into the room -and sit on Gypsy’s cage; it made friends with a siskin and a bullfinch -in the next room, and would roost in an empty cage there at night. - -Gypsy’s wing-feathers were clipped, so that I could let him walk -about out of doors. When I took him into the garden he called to his -friend, and the goldfinch dropped down by his side to take a walk with -him. Other goldfinches came sometimes, but only one constantly and -fearlessly when I was there. One day I remember Gypsy walking down the -path in front of me accompanied by three friends. - -But it was not long before there was a signal of danger. The house we -were in was having some rooms added on to it, and there were workmen -about. One day when I was sitting in my room and Gypsy was having an At -Home, there was a little sound outside, and a limed stick was gently -shoved towards my window-sill. Of course I remonstrated, and of course -I was told by the workmen that they had done it entirely for my sake, -because they thought that I should like to have the bird in a cage,--I -could have caught the bird ten times over if I had wished it. - -But this, I fear, must after all have been the end of the love-lorn -bird; for it disappeared suddenly, and I never saw it again. - -For a long time Gypsy had no society but mine and the canaries. He did -not care for canaries, and he was mostly in a passion with me. But -after some time a pair of goldfinches was given to us, much attached to -each other and otherwise uninteresting. One day I put Gypsy in their -cage to see what would happen. In three minutes a complete change had -been worked in that happy home. Gypsy was sitting with the little -lady on her perch, whispering sweet nothings into her ear, while her -disconsolate spouse sat by himself on the perch below, meditating -pistols for two and coffee for one. - -[Illustration] - -I will do Gypsy the justice to say that he admired himself quite as -much as anyone else admired him. When he was held to the looking-glass -he did not fight his reflection as some animals do, he fell deeply in -love with it, and whispered to it in a tiny, sweet, wooing voice, until -it was obscured by a little circle of damp breath on the glass. - -Some one may ask why, if Gypsy was so universally attractive and so -extremely susceptible, I did not provide him with a wife to himself. -Simply because it would have been no good; Gypsy was a mere flirt; he -never would have had nests and eggs and brought up families like other -birds; he was a mule-bird, and they cannot be domestic. - -Gypsy had one last flickering of flirtation. I took his cage out one -day into a London garden, and sat with him under a tree, and he sang -loud; suddenly I heard a sound very unfamiliar in London, the voice -of a bird which was hopping about on the tree above. I looked up, and -through the leaves I could see that it was a little goldfinch; but it -was shy and flew away. - -These mule-birds die generally very suddenly; and Gypsy died without -apparent sign of illness at about the age of ten years. - - - - -VIII - -A FAITHFUL FRIEND - - -[Illustration] - -We were called into my mother’s room one day, and shown a hamper -which had just arrived. The hamper was strangely agitated, like that -hasty-pudding in which Tom Thumb sheltered, and when it was opened out -rolled a puppy! It was a collie puppy, long haired, black, with tan -cheeks, a white tip to his tail, white collar and paws, and wholly -fascinating. - -It was really a charming puppy; at present too young to sin; too young -to do anything but roll about and be petted. - -He was named Watch, “for,” said the friend who gave him, “he is a sheep -dog, and you are a pastoral family”--a very pretty reason, but I think -she was also influenced by the _horlogerie_ of our namesake. - -Time passed, and Watch grew older and uglier. His neck lengthened, -until his ears looked like ridiculous ornaments on the top of it, his -legs grew long and lanky, his coat grew thin, and he grew naughty. He -did not indeed eat up slippers, which is the favourite employment of -story-book puppies, but he did pull most of a cold Sunday dinner on to -the lawn, lick the butter out of the dish, and leave joints of mutton -and beef on the grass. And he had another very original, reprehensible, -natural impulse--he wished to garden. His method of gardening was to -dig up saplings from a carefully-planted hedge of yews. He knew it -was wrong, but he could not help it. When he was seen thus employed, -he fled back and sheltered himself in his stable. He was just in that -state of mind and body which answers in human beings to the condition -of rapid growth and dissatisfied temper, when sleeves retreat up the -arms, and frocks and knickerbockers up the legs, and the family seems -to be in a conspiracy for making things disagreeable to you. - -So it seemed best that he should be sent to a shepherd for training. -He went, and three months passed, and we looked daily for his return; -when one morning, I was sent for to the door, where I saw, held in a -strap, a beautiful, bashful, silky collie, small and well-proportioned, -with long tail and ruff, and silk-fringed legs, ready to hide his face -against the first friend with affection. I could hardly believe it was -Watch--he was full-blown, come out! - -That he should sleep in a stable any longer was a manifest -impossibility. Watch was established as a house-dog. - -He was wonderfully quick and obedient; he learnt to shut the door, play -the piano, shake hands, catch things from his nose, and lie dead, in -no time. He was so gentle that one could put little animals under his -charge; the canary would stand on his head, and a kitten run between -his paws. One of our blue-eyed white kittens, granddaughter of the -formidable cat Rector, attached herself warmly to him. - -But there were one or two circumstances under which he was not docile. -Soon after he came home we took him for a walk in the fields near the -town. He followed quietly; when, suddenly, he spied a flock of sheep -feeding, and up went the white tufted tail like a banner; nothing could -hold him; no threats restrain him, until from hedge and ditch he had -collected the whole flock into marching order. Much severe treatment -was necessary before we could induce him to relinquish his profession. -Then often as we went through the fields, Watch following with an eager -eye, longing to be off after a scattered flock, an old north-country -shepherd would sidle up and “pass the time of day,” and gently turn the -conversation until he could say, “I suppose that dog of yours is not -for sale?” He was right, Watch was not for sale. - -He could not, it is true, quite resist the instinct of the chase; and -often one saw him flying down the garden in pursuit of the white kitten -Midge, while her old-fashioned, under-bred, good-hearted tabby mother -followed to protect her. But nothing happened; he rolled over and over -with Midge, and Jenny jumped upon the soft heap, and dealt out boxes of -the ear when Watch’s head got uppermost. Then they all got amicably up -together, and went off quite good friends. Once, I am sorry to say, he -did break the leg of a rabbit, but he was more surprised than any one -else at it. I found him another time, having caught a blackbird; he was -very much surprised and delighted, but puzzled as to the right course -to adopt next; so he made short runs at it, and pretended to bite it, -and wagged his tail very much, and asked me to come up and look at it. - -As for the goat, he was a most excellent good comrade with her. He -exercised all his sheep-driving skill to fetch her when she lagged -behind. And it takes as much skill to fetch one goat as fifty sheep. -When she behaved well, he consented to go in double harness with her. -The double harness was made out of tape dyed purple with Judson’s dyes. -There was an old madman who lived in a house opposite the field where I -generally drove them. He was very fond of watching the performance. - -But now I come to a part of Watch’s character which I cannot present in -such a favourable light. He was jealous. - -Of course we did not find it out at first. He was not brought into -comparison with other dogs, only with inferior animals, and he -would naturally not be jealous of them. We are not jealous of our -friend’s cat and dog, but of our friend’s friends. Watch was not -jealous of our cats and birds, and goats and guinea-pigs, but of our -dog-acquaintance. Occasionally he showed slight uneasiness when a horse -or a baby was much noticed; they were rather too high in the scale of -creation--nearly at the level of dogs. - -But one day there had been a dog show near us, and after the booths had -been taken down, and the exhibits gone, one poor spaniel was discovered -who had lost his friends, and appealed to us for sympathy; so we -invited him to afternoon tea in the garden. Watch came to tea as usual; -but when he saw the other dog, he suddenly became demonstratively -affectionate. This was quite appreciated; but the other dog was not -therefore neglected. So Watch bit him. This was not appreciated at all. -We told Watch so, but he only sat down and turned his back to us, and -gave the family five minutes for repentance; and as they did not fall -on their knees, and beseech his forgiveness, he solemnly marched away -into the house and lay in his master’s study, quite alone, sulking. I -am sorry to say, too, that he conceived occasionally the most violent -antipathies to the most delightful and well-intentioned people. There -was a friend of ours, devoted to dogs in general, and to him in -particular, whom he would not allow to touch him; he would not take -food from her hand; once, when he had accepted from some one else the -food he had refused from her, he stopped eating it because he heard her -laugh. Once he was the victim of uncontrollable fascination. A girl -came to tea, at whose greeting he growled; then he lay down in a corner -with his eyes fixed on her. She went on talking and taking no notice of -him, and he came out into the room, little by little, looking at her, -till he finally sat straight in front of her, with his eyes fixed on -hers; and there he remained until she went away. - -Watch had become identified with the family, to the extent of being -called “Watch Benson” by many friends. His English vocabulary was -wonderfully large. I remember the surprise of one gentleman who came -to talk business with my father. Watch was in the room, and, hearing -our voices outside, suddenly started to the door, which was shut. “Why -don’t you go out of the window, then?” my father said, quite quietly, -and Watch in a moment ran to the window and jumped out. - -I never quite knew what Watch’s position was towards religious -exercises. I think he approved of them, but disapproved of our -exclusiveness about them. So he pretended altogether to despise -church. He was depressed on Sunday morning, came to the garden gate to -congratulate us when church was over, and pretended to be sleepy when -the time for evening church drew near. But I think that was because he -was not allowed to go; for he took up a very different position about -prayers; he insisted on coming; he had his own stall in a window; -though occasionally, when strangers were there, and he could not be -turned out, he suddenly decided to leave it for the softer rugs in the -middle of the chapel. There was one memorable occurrence, when the 26th -chapter of St. Matthew was read, and Watch got more and more excited -as he heard his own name repeated more and more emphatically, until -at the final, “I say unto all, _Watch_,” he ran eagerly out into the -middle--such exciting, personal prayers! - -But he made a great point of attending; for when we changed our -house, and came to the conclusion that his presence would no longer -be appreciated, his efforts to attend prayers were quite pathetic. -Sometimes he scratched at the door, or pushed it open, and marched in -in the middle; sometimes he slunk in when we went into the chapel, and -sometimes ran in first and tried to hide. He had a vague idea in his -mind, that it was some special privilege, some special identification -with the family. - -Now that we were in London half the year, Watch could not be with us -constantly. For one thing his dirty paws were such a mortification to -him, and we thought he would die from the amount of soot he licked -off. And he could not go walks, for he would stand smiling at us in -the middle of the street, with a tram, two omnibuses, a cart, and four -hansoms, bearing down upon him. So he went to stay with friends, or -down to the farm in the country. - -That last was often necessary, but not a great success. Watch was -very exclusive; he never would go walking with servants, except when -everyone else was--not out, for he might have met them--but away -from home. The one exception was when the servants were nurses with -children. He was fond of children, and did not think it _infra dig._ to -play with them. In the same way he despised everyone at the farm, and -had to be treated in a very special manner, quite different from all -other dogs. “Why can’t Watch live like any of the other dogs?” one of -the children asked. “Oh, my dear, Watch is much too good for us,” his -mother told him, with a deep sarcasm. No other dog could come on the -rug when Watch was lying there. The cat might come and was welcome, and -liked the benevolent old gentleman. Just as one would not like anybody -to come and take half of one’s armchair, but might be rather flattered -if a cat or a little dog jumped up to settle itself there. Cats were -only cats, and fit subjects for philanthropy, but other dogs were his -own ill-bred relatives. As some one summed it up, “Watch doesn’t care -for dogs.” - -The other dogs could not be expected to appreciate this, and Watch’s -airs provoked at last one outburst from King, the steady old -patriarchal collie of the farm. King flew upon him one fine day to -have it out, and all the other dogs, seeing that King “had taken out a -free ticket,” as the bailiff phrased it, flew to avenge their private -grievances. Watch was very nearly killed, but he kept his airs to -the last. Such strong arguments were brought to bear upon King, that -ever after, when Watch crossed the yard, King retired promptly to his -kennel. He could not trust his own self-control, and fled temptation. - -Poor King! he had a sad end. He and a young golden collie called Pat -went out together in some woods--poachers, I fear. Towards evening Pat -came back in a fearful state of agitation, trembling. The dog must -have longed for words to tell what he had seen! But they guessed it. -The gamekeeper was known to have a grudge against King, and he was -never heard of again from that day to this. - -Watch had a very different end. He grew old and blind. He had to live -altogether at the farm now, but he did not mind that. He had two great -friends. One was the bailiff’s daughter, and one the niece of the -landlady at the “Cricketers,” over the way. The first nursed Watch, -the second he went to see every day. But the niece got married, and -Watch never crossed the road again, but transferred all his affection -to Katie. He was nearly blind now, quite deaf, and very rheumatic. He -had not much emotion left; it soon wearied him. I remember while he -was still at the house, that when we all came home at the end of the -holidays in two detachments, he greeted the first-comers effusively, -and then retired under the sofa, and took no notice of the second batch -until they had been in the house about an hour; then, his emotions -being rested, he came out and greeted them too with affection. - -But two loves remained to the end; his love for Katie and his love -for milk pudding--and Katie generally gave him the milk pudding. He -hobbled about after her as long as he could, and sat in her room. Once -they thought him dying. He lay on Katie’s bed, and Katie was away--was -coming back that evening. His head lay on the pillow and his eyes were -closed, and they thought him dead, when Katie came upstairs and spoke -to him; and the life came back to him, and she fed him, and he lived a -few days more. Then he died, this time with Katie close to him. - -He is buried by the gold-fish pond under a cedar, and he has a -tombstone and an epitaph, “_Esne Vigil_.” And the other day I passed -by, and freshly-gathered daisies were lying on it. I think Katie must -have put them there. - -[Illustration] - - - - -IX - -KIDS OF THE GOATS - - -They were Zoe and Marcianus Capello (but she was no kid), and Capricorn -and his brother, and Chat and Tan. I did not possess them all at the -same time; in fact, I never had more than three at one time, and that -was because Marcianus Capello had twins. - -Zoe was the first. When she came to us she was a little white kid, just -taken from her mother; she was very pretty, with a dark mark down her -back and two little tassels of hair on her neck. But, as I say, she was -only just taken from her mother, and the first evening was full of much -trouble and care, for we could not find anything she would eat, and -we thought she would be starved. She would not be fed, moreover, with -milk, and we were in despair until we thought of trying if she would -eat the tender sprouts of may. It was early spring, and for a day or so -all her meals were taken in our arms, as we held her up to nibble at -the hawthorn hedge. - -But she soon grew less fastidious, and, as goats do, would eat -anything, from garden flowers, laurel leaves, and cabbages, down to -paper and bread. She was tethered in the field, and this was very -necessary, for if she was free she would follow us everywhere, would -go walks with us out of doors, and would come into the house after us. -The chief difficulty with kids is superabundant affection; they wail -pitifully when one leaves them alone, and cannot be persuaded that -their presence is not always desirable. Some friends of ours--they were -Quakers too--used to dress up a stick with a waterproof and hat to -keep their kid company. It satisfied her completely; but was it quite -consistent with the Friends’ idea of truth? - -Zoe nearly had a bad accident once, in consequence of her fondness -for coming into the house. I was sitting on the steps at the door -and playing with her, when suddenly she bounced away from me and -ran into the drawing-room. I pursued her, and she, knowing she was -wrong, ran farther, saw a way of escape, and jumped straight through a -large plate-glass window. I thought she would be cut to pieces, and -in agonies rushed outside, where I found her making the most of her -opportunities by devouring our best rose trees under the window. - -Zoe lived with us for a year. Then I was kept indoors by a bad cold and -throat, and I heard that the kid was sympathising with me by having a -bad throat also. But alas, poor Zoe! her throat was much worse than -mine, and though we strapped a little blanket on her back to keep her -warm, and though the gardener and the cowman poured gruel down her -throat, when she could hardly swallow, she got thinner and weaker, and -one morning she died. I sobbed audibly all through prayers that morning. - -Then a friend of mine told me that some cousins of hers were anxious -to part with a goat they had, and Marcianus Capello, otherwise called -Marcap, arrived. She was not at all like Zoe; she was a large, dull, -elderly, brown and white goat. She did not want to make friends at all; -she chiefly wanted to eat. But there was one great advantage about -her, for a few weeks after I had her she gave birth to two little twin -billygoats--two fluffy black-and-white creatures with huge legs. - -Marcap was, like Zoe, tethered in the field, and it was supposed that -filial affection would keep the kids near her. The kids had a fine -time in consequence. One morning one heard a rattling over the roof of -the nursery, and found the kids were playing King of the Castle on the -house-top. Another time they came skipping out of a yard where building -was going on, covered with lime to the tops of their legs; and for some -little time we were terribly afraid that the smallest kid would lose -his eyesight, as he had splashed lime up into his eyes, and that they -both would come out of it with skinny hairless legs. A procession, -of my nurse holding a cup of milk and water, myself and my youngest -brother (who was too naughty to be left alone), could be seen crossing -the field three times a day to bathe the kid’s eyes. - -When the kids were old enough to do without their mother, we gave -Marcap away. I did not mind parting with Marcap; I never should have -got fond of her, for she had no idea of intimacy. But to part with a -kid was a different matter; it took us a long time to decide that it -would be better to keep the biggest and strongest kid, Capricorn; and -we gave away the little one. - -Capricorn proved just a little more warlike than it is quite convenient -for a kid to be, if you are in the habit of taking it out for walks. -In the first place, if he met a flock of sheep in a field, he would at -once begin to drive them away, running and butting after them. In the -second place, if he met cows, he would invariably have a pitched battle -with them, unless he was dragged away by main force. I have seen him in -the middle of a ring of cows, knocked down by them, and getting up to -butt them again. Thirdly, if he met a donkey, even in a cart, he would -go for it, which sometimes caused the drivers of the cart to swear. -Lastly, if he met children, he would try to awe them by standing on his -hind-legs. His wickedness gradually developed with his growth. Before -he was grown up he was a very affectionate kid. Once, when I turned -back in a walk, the rest of my family had the greatest difficulty in -inducing Capricorn to go with them. He got on very well with our wise -collie. Watch was useful in fetching him up, if he lagged behind in a -walk to carry out some of his evil designs. I had a little cart for -Capricorn, too, and made him pull up stones for a rockery we were -making; this was a good outlet for his energies, and he had less time -to be wicked. - -But he finally got too fierce for us to keep him any longer. If I was -running down a hill by his side he would try to hook me with his horns, -and he was not at all to be trusted with children. I gave him away -reluctantly, and it was some consolation to hear that he nearly killed -his new master, who came upon him suddenly in the dark. Since then I -found out that it was not individual wickedness, but, so to speak, -class wickedness, and that it is rarely safe to keep a billygoat when -he grows up. - -Then for some time I had no kid. After a while a lady near who kept -goats gave me two kids. - -These were very pretty kids; one was quite white, the other fawn -colour, and very graceful. They would follow me everywhere; but, as I -could not keep two, Chat, the white one, was given away. - -It was considerably easier to take Tan walks than it had been to take -Capricorn; for Tan did not want to fight every beast or child she met. -Watch was useful in fetching her as he had been with Capricorn. Long -afterwards, when the acquaintanceship between them was a thing of the -past, to say, “Watch, fetch the kid,” would bring her hurrying up to -us. Tan was the only one of my goats who ever learnt a trick, but I -taught her to shake hands in exchange for leaves or oats. - -Then we moved from the place where we were living, and I left Tan -behind me for a child of the family who were coming into our old house. -I heard no more of her for a year, and then they wrote to me to say -that Tan was pining, and they wished that I would send for her. So she -came up by train, and the first moment she saw me she remembered me, -and we shook hands. - -Tan is still alive. On misty summer mornings, one sees her pass the -windows heading a herd of cows; she is much too proud to walk with -sheep; and though she will condescend to go with cows, she keeps -herself to herself, never talks to any of them, but preserves a proud -and solitary position. On rare occasions a sudden burst of friendship -or curiosity will induce her to come into the house with me. - -But my friendship with Tan, I must confess it, is not what it was; -perhaps it might never have waned if I had not consented to the year’s -separation. But although occasionally we bleat to each other from a -distance, though we shake hands over a few oats, she no longer runs -to meet me if I come near, she no longer cries out with a wailing -bleat when I go away, she no longer has to be tied up to prevent -her following me. And I do not think it is age that has made this -difference, I think it was worked by that year of separation. - -[Illustration] - -Passing through the farmyard on a cold day, I found Tan in the corner -where the dead leaves had blown up, and lay a foot or more deep. She -was standing in the deepest part of the heap, which came up to the top -of her legs, and had secured herself, as it were, a good hot bottle for -the night. - -In conclusion, I would say that there are no pets more enchanting -than kids. They will give you as much amusement as kittens or -puppies; while they are as intelligent as grown-up dogs, and even more -wildly devoted. But there are two things you must never expect of a -goat,--neither the least unselfishness in their affection, nor the -smallest spark of benevolence. - - - - -X - -COMMUNITY LIFE - - -Our old cowman Callaway was Cornish; he taught me to milk; he took a -fatherly interest in my animals; he talked Cornished English, and I -understood about a quarter of what he said. He had a wife who worked in -the house of a neighbour of ours, and a very elegant daughter. I never -could imagine how her hats and jackets and dresses got into the hovel -in which the family lived; however, I suppose they must have got into -it, for they certainly came out. - -[Illustration] - -The wife’s employer’s daughter kept guinea-pigs; and Callaway promised -to get us a white one. In due time he appeared with it. But to our -delight, when the box was opened, out came two little white creatures, -with shining red eyes, not weak bluish-pink eyes, but real good red -ones like little jewels. They were named Ixtlilxochitl and Atahualpa, -and installed in a wooden house with a wired-in yard under the laurel -trees of the drying-ground. Here they rapidly became naturalised; -burrowing under their wire fence, they found the way to the long, -fresh grass beyond, and enjoyed as much liberty as they wished till -nightfall, when the wooden slide of their house shut them safe from -dogs and rats and cats. - -I had many sympathisers in my amusements. Not only was there Callaway -the cowman, who became house-builder to the community, but my old nurse -used to take the guinea-pigs a breakfast of soaked bread every morning; -and we had a butler sagacious about animals, to appeal to as a highest -authority on all difficult questions. So when, one morning, I opened -the slide, to find two new white things about as big as large mice -gaily running about, the first thing I did was to run to the servants’ -hall and summon the butler to advise in this difficult and delicate -situation. Ixtlilxochitl was sent to a new hutch, hastily erected for -him, and Atahualpa kept house for the babies. - -This was very good for the development of Ixtlilxochitl’s character. -He became very tame, learnt to sit up with his forepaws on my finger, -and to “lie dead” on his back with his little pink hands and feet in -the air; guinea-pigs’ forefeet are really small pink hands, with short -claws on the fingers, and a rudimentary thumb. - -Guinea-pigs grow up very soon; they have no helpless infancy at all. -I have heard of a guinea-pig eating bran twenty minutes after it was -born. I know we used to carry the infants about and let them run up our -sleeves till they stuck, and had to be pulled back by their hind-legs; -and though I would not recommend this practice, they never seemed to -take any harm from it. Then, when they are about three months old they -become heads of families. At first the family only consists of one or -two members, but they increase in number until each family numbers -seven or eight. You may expect a new family once every six or eight -weeks. There is a nice sum in geometrical progression! And after this -general statement of the matter you will hardly expect me to give -you a history of each individual, though I made a chart of their -genealogies. I will, however, give a short biographical notice of the -most interesting characters. - -The first two were Ulfias and Brastias. Ulfias was a nice, comely -guinea-pig; he took after his father, and had brown whiskers. Brastias -had pink ears, which were generally much bitten, and fierce red eyes; -he was an ill-conditioned, cross little beast, and a great fighter. -Moreover, he was a murderer. - -[Illustration] - -It is the funniest thing in the world to see guinea-pigs fighting. -They stand on the tips of their toes and raise their noses, until they -present the chin only to their adversaries; then they begin to dance -round, always chin to chin, gnashing their teeth; when they see a good -opportunity they fly in and bite. It is a scientific way of fighting, -like wrestling or fencing--quite different from the indiscriminate -plunge of a cat, who rolls round in a heap with her adversary. - -After these two came Enid, Elaine, and Geraint. Enid was the first to -have a baby, and she had only one--a fat round one, which grew and -prospered until one day when he suddenly disappeared. We searched and -hunted with anxious hearts, but with no result. After a time we wanted -to move the hutches to a new place, and when we took up that in which -poor Enid and the baby lived, there was a hole under it--a rat’s hole, -and at the end of the hole, as we peered down, we saw a little white -thing--the skin and bones of a baby guinea-pig. Enid never had another -baby; she grew sad and thin and pined away, and at last she died. - -Then Elaine had a baby--two; but one was deformed, completely paralysed -in his hind-legs, and I felt that the kindest thing to do would be to -destroy him. So I took out a bottle of laudanum, and prepared to begin -the hari-kari. Poor little guinea-pig! it was already very ill, and I -could with difficulty get its little rabbit-like mouth open. What a -tiny throat! could it swallow even enough poison to end its panting -little life? When I laid it down again there was very little change, -and I did not know what to do; then the pink nose, the hands and feet, -began to have a slightly blue tinge. I could not disturb it again to -open its mouth, so I poured a little more laudanum on its mouth and -nose, and the limbs got bluer, and the breathing became harder, and at -last ceased. It was a dreadful thing to do. However, on the whole, it -was less dreadful than drowning it. Once I had to drown a bat.... We -will draw a veil over that. - -However, to proceed with the guinea-pigs. The baby that was not -deformed was a very nice little pig--small but comely. He grew up and -was called Jim. - -There is an individuality about guinea-pigs, not explicable but to be -apprehended intuitively. Jim was quite individual. You would have known -that if you had only seen him sitting upright at his mother’s side to -nibble out of the hay trough. - -The guinea-pigs lived in a large estate fenced in by wire; inside the -yard were various settlements, bedrooms, all with free access to the -yard, and usually to the ground beyond, for they made holes under the -wire and disported themselves outside. They had a beautiful rack to -hold their hay, saucers for bran, and were given a breakfast of soaked -bread every morning. At breakfast-time shrill whistles might be heard -from the guinea-pig yard. Most people think guinea-pigs have only -one noise, but in reality they have, quite clearly defined, three -fundamental notes, of desire, contentment, and anger. They whistle when -they are hungry, make what are called “guinea-pig noises” when they are -well content--for ordinary conversation, and they gnash their teeth -when they are angry. - -About this time, when the colony was not too large, I used to take them -out for picnics. - -Opposite the front door, at the corner of the lawn, there is a large -escalonia tree; on warm summer evenings it sheds a delicious fragrant -smell from leaves and flowers. Opposite this there is a stile made to -get into the fields. The stile is made in such a manner as to be a very -comfortable seat. Here, under the escalonia, I used to turn out the -guinea-pigs for a day in the country, while I read a book on the stile, -and Watch was put to guard them; if any little pig strayed too far, he -saw where it went to, and helped me to find it again. - -But, in time, the colony grew too large for this, and at last it began -to increase with a rapidity that alarmed me; for, as you see, it is not -a case of the simple geometrical progression of creatures which have -the same number in every family; but, as guinea-pigs get older, each -family gets larger, so that it is like a sum in compound interest, at -an accelerating rate of interest. I began to be frightened when the -“five Mitchinsons” were born, and the next family was larger still. - -In fact, they would have eaten us out of garden and farm, if it had not -been for what political economists call “violent checks”; these violent -checks were kidnapping, nepoticide, and massacre. - -Kidnapping was the first check. Our house was being added to, and there -were various workmen about, and one morning when I visited the hutches, -Daisy and Ally Mitchinson were missing. There is no more to say about -it; they were never seen again. I felt like a mother, who, having -complained of the burden and size of her family, is deprived of one of -them. - -But that was not the worst. Atahualpa was still flourishing, although a -great-great-grandmother. One morning I found reason to seclude her from -the rest of the community, and by an arrangement of hutches, I shut off -a little yard for her by herself. - -I came back a few hours later, and I found Brastias had displayed -himself in his true colours at last. He had leaped the barrier, and -was standing with gory mouth and fiery eye, over the carcase of a baby -guinea-pig. In another corner of the hutch was Atahualpa, behaving with -the supremest indifference to six more. - -That day I gave away sixteen guinea-pigs. But I believe that we should -have had a repetition of Bishop Hatto, if it had not been for the last -check--namely, massacre. - -We were overrun with rats, and rat-catchers were sent for. One morning -two men came up with their dogs. The men were looking at the rat-holes, -and arranging a plan of campaign, when suddenly they found that the -dogs were not with them. Across the wall which separated the cow -stables and haystacks from the garden and guinea-pig yard, they heard a -doleful noise. They ran round, and found that the dogs had been doing -their duty nobly, and all the guinea-pigs but two lay dead on the -ground. - -The victims were buried in a large grave, and my brother found a -suitable slate and wrote a Latin epitaph on it. He put it up as a -headstone, and enjoyed the proceeding very much. - -But I did not enjoy it. I had not the heart to keep guinea-pigs any -more. I gave away the two survivors, and the hutches mouldered away, -and cucumbers grew over the yard, and only the genealogy and the -tombstone were left as memorials of that very large family with the -white coats and jewelled eyes. - - - - -[Illustration] - -XI - -FINISHED SOLOMON - - -King Solomon was journeying through a thirsty land--sand beneath his -feet, sand around as far as a man could see, above the pitiless blue -sky. No tree could grow here, and no rock was there to cast its shadow -on the sand. “What shall shield me,” said the king, “from the fury of -this sun?” Then was heard the sound of light wings beating the air, for -all creatures knew the voice of the words of King Solomon; and there -came through the air a cloud of hoopoes, and they spread their barred -wings, and closed them together, wing to wing, and they shielded King -Solomon. So, when the toilsome journey was over, the king called the -hoopoes, and said, “O hoopoes, what will ye that I give you for your -service done to me this day?” And the hoopoes said, “O King, give us -crowns of gold”; and the king gave the hoopoes crowns of pure gold. - -But men hunted the hoopoes through the length and breadth of the land, -and they killed them for the sake of their golden crowns; then the -hoopoes cried to King Solomon, for King Solomon knew the voice of all -beasts and birds, yea of the creeping things also, and the hoopoes -said, “Take away our crowns, O king, for men kill us for the sake of -our golden crowns.” And Solomon took away their crowns. “Yet,” said he, -“it shall be known what the hoopoes did for the King,” and he gave them -crowns of golden feathers. - - * * * * * - -So says the _Book of the Enchantments of the King_, and that is why my -hoopoe was called Solomon. - - * * * * * - -I was riding through a village near Thebes in the evening, and among -the groups of children who held out grimy hands and cried “Backsheesh”; -and the half-blind boys who made the somewhat startling statement, -“Finished Fazzer, finished Muzzer, I yam berry hongerry”; I saw at the -door of a mud house three children, one of whom swung towards me a bird -he held by the wings,--and I recognised the helpless, half-dead, fluffy -mass for a hoopoe. - -I refused to give them the wages of sin, and they were too much -surprised to attempt to hinder the departure of the hoopoe. Indeed, if -they had kept it much longer, it would have departed without assistance -by the silent road, for one claw had been tied back to its leg, and it -had been swung in that manner till its tormentors happened to think -that they had better try the wings instead; its crown of feathers had -been pulled out; and when I got back to the hotel, it shut its eyes -and fell forwards on the point of its beak as if it was about to die. -The string had been tied so tightly that it was with difficulty that -we got it free from its bonds, and then we plied it with whisky and -water. That was no easy matter either, for it would not open its mouth, -and one had first to get the long beak open, and then to hold it so, -while from a feather dipped in the refreshing beverage a drop trickled -down the pink throat; then the bill was shut, and one watched to see -if the feathers of the throat would ruffle and give sign that the -drop was passing down. The method succeeded, for presently the little -forked tongue was shot out to suck up the liquid, the little brown -eyes opened, and the hoopoe, taking in the situation, hurried into the -corner of the window-sill, and supposed that he was hiding himself by -laying his long bill up the wall. - -It would certainly be necessary to provide the hoopoe with a -habitation, were he only the guest of a day; so a crate which had -contained pottery was found, its straw was arranged nestwise, and the -bird was bestowed in it, much to its own satisfaction. - -But the diet was a problem. Its natural food was live insects. I went -so far as to kill a housefly, but it was a very disgusting process, and -the fly was not at all well received; moreover, I was not sure whether -the hoopoe was of an age to receive, shall I say _peptonised_ food from -his parents, or whether he preferred the raw material. But as the best -compromise, including the carnivorous and the more-or-less-peptonised -element, I decided on hard-boiled egg; that had to be administered in -the same way as the whisky, with drops of water to help it to run -down. After this I put the hoopoe into the crate for the night. - -I frankly confess that I expected to find a stiff little body there in -the morning, but instead I saw a bright brown eye fixed upon me, and a -smooth, compact, though crownless little hoopoe, sitting in the straw. - -If the hoopoe was going to live, other things became necessary--first -and foremost, a name. - -[Illustration] - -The name suited him exactly. From the time that he was called Solomon, -he _became_ Solomon. We never spoke of him as the hoopoe; indeed, it -is with great difficulty that I have avoided so far using his name. -Now I have told you when and why he was named; henceforth, then, he is -Solomon. - -But, secondly, Solomon must have exercise, and fresh animal food. It -would be better, both for the sake of digestion and economy of time, if -the two could be combined, and I spent most of my time in effecting the -combination in one of the garden beds. - -The beds in the hotel garden are excellently convenient for feeding and -exercising half-fledged hoopoes; they are lowered three or four inches -below the level of the paths, for the purposes of irrigation. Thus -when, once a week, the water is turned in, the beds become a series -of pools, until the water has gradually soaked away through the rich -black mud. Further, the beds are surrounded with a bushy little plant, -so that when Solomon tried to spring over the edge and escape me, his -wings were not strong enough for the purpose; he sprawled on the bushy -plant, wings spread and legs kicking, and was easily captured. - -But it was Sunday, and the hour drew towards church time. Solomon must -go home and be fed before I went to church. Accordingly, I went to -catch him, but there was one thing I had forgotten. At the corner of -the bed was a drain through which the irrigation was effected. Quick as -thought Solomon ran in there, and was out of arm’s length in a minute. -What was to be done? The bell was already ringing to church; decent -and godly people, with their prayer-books in their hands, were walking -down the garden path; and there was I plunging round the drain in -search of an ungrateful, half-fledged, discrowned hoopoe. I dared not -leave him there, to be the prey of the numerous and ravenous hawks and -crows. - -But suddenly, as a _Deus ex machina_, Mahmoud the gardener hove in -sight; so I called to Mahmoud, and Mahmoud called to Ibrahim, and -Ibrahim brought a dry palm leaf, and we put it in at the opposite end -of the drain, and made a very terrible shaking noise in the inside with -it; and there hurried out a very long beak, supported by a very small -bird at the end of it; and Solomon was captured in time for church. - -When I came back from church, Solomon’s crate was empty. We trod -carefully over the room for fear of squashing him flat, like a -botanical specimen; we looked under the sofa, under the chairs, and -Solomon was not there. Then a little scuffling noise on the balcony -attracted our attention, and there was Solomon with a guilty look in -his face. We lined the inside of his crate with stiff newspaper. - -But when I came back from lunch I saw a ridiculous silhouette far up -the half-lighted passage. There again was Solomon! He had carried on -mining operations on the paper during lunch, and had escaped again. -Another crate with narrower bars had to be procured. Of course he -instantly put his head through and got it fixed, and I had to seize him -by the beak and push him back. - -[Illustration] - -Now, by all the laws of animal literature, Solomon ought to have been -devoted to me by this time. If he had studied the _Whole Duty of -Birds_, he would have found out that he must wake me at dawn (I cannot -feel sure that I should have appreciated that); that he must flutter -his wings with joy and chirp when I came into the room, even if he did -not feel equal to opening his little bill and pouring forth a grateful -song (do hoopoes sing?); that he must follow me round the room; that he -must eat out of my hand; that he must beat his breast against the bars -of his cage when I went away. - -Solomon did none of these things. He shut his beak tightly when I -wished to feed him, he pecked at me when I tried to open it, he ran -away when I attempted to catch him, he struggled when I had got him, -he hurled himself from my hand into the crate as soon as possible, and -he did not like me at all. - -By the third day Solomon had immensely developed. People who had -considerately told me that it was impossible to rear a hoopoe, now -foretold that he would live. He extended his mining operations to the -garden. I am not sure that he found any insects, but he did great -execution on the loose earth at the foot of the palm-tree. He looked -quite like a real grown-up hoopoe when he ran about the garden bed and -dug his bill in up to its roots; and in the evening he flopped off the -window-sill while I was feeding him, and had a grand race round the -room. - -That night I dismissed the fear of finding the little cold corpse in -the morning. - -But when I opened the shutters and looked at Solomon in the morning, -he was not awake; his head was tucked behind his wing. I took him out, -he looked round dreamily, and sank on to the ground. I got whisky and -water again, and fed him with a feather; he pecked and struggled at -first, but presently he allowed me to open his beak, and I saw that the -little pink mouth was getting very white. Still I gave him more, hoping -it would have the same reviving effect as at first. But presently -Solomon dropped his beak on the window-sill, and the drop trickled down -it again, for he had stopped swallowing. He laid his head down, and -stretched out his little black claws; and heaved gently once or twice; -and no more. - -As the Arabs say, it was “Finished Solomon.” - -[Illustration] - - -MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH - - - - -Transcriber’s Note: - -Attempts have been made to produce this eBook as a faithful reproduction -of the original publication, preserving spellings including “anyrate”, -“developes” and “skwug”; and the alternative spelling of “laurustinus” -and “laurestinus”. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUBJECT TO VANITY *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Subject to Vanity</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Margaret Benson</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Margaret Benson</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 21, 2021 [eBook #66780]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUBJECT TO VANITY ***</div> - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<h1>SUBJECT TO VANITY</h1> -<hr class="divider2" /> -</div> - - -<div class="x-ebookmaker-drop figcenter width500" id="cover2"> - <img src="images/cover2.jpg" width="500" height="793" alt="Cover" /> -</div> - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider2" /> -<p class="center p140">SUBJECT TO VANITY</p> - -<p class="mt3">Τῇ γὰρ ματαιότητι ἡ κτίσις ὑπετάγη, οὐχ ἑκοῡσα ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν -ὑποτάξαντα, ἐπ’ ἐλπίδι ὅτι καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ κτίσις ἐλευθερωθήσεται ἀπὸ τῆς -δουλείας τῆς φθορᾶς εἰς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τῆς δόξης τῶν τέκνων τοῦ θεοῦ.</p> -</div> - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -</div> - -<p class="center p180">SUBJECT TO VANITY</p> - -<p class="center mt3 lh"><small>BY</small><br /> -MARGARET BENSON</p> - -<p class="center mt3 italic"><small>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS -BY THE AUTHOR</small></p> - -<p class="center mt3">NEW YORK<br /> -DODD, MEAD, & COMPANY<br /> -1895</p> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider2" /> - -<p class="center lh"><small>TO</small> -OUR BETH<br /> -IN LOVE AND GRATITUDE<br /> -FOR<br /> -LIFELONG LOVE<br /> -AND CARE</p> -</div> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -</div> -<h2 id="contents">CONTENTS</h2> - -<table summary=""> -<tr> -<th class="tdr2" colspan="3">PAGE</th> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">I.</td> -<td class="tdl">APOLOGIA PRO FELE MEA</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#i">9</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">II.</td> -<td class="tdl">CLANDESTINE CORRESPONDENCE</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ii">31</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">III.</td> -<td class="tdl">IN THE BOSOM OF THE FAMILY</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iii">41</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">IV.</td> -<td class="tdl">CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iv">51</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">V.</td> -<td class="tdl">THE DESERTED LOVER</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#v">65</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">VI.</td> -<td class="tdl">JACK</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vi">75</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">VII.</td> -<td class="tdl">A REGULAR FLIRT</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vii">89</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">VIII.</td> -<td class="tdl">A FAITHFUL FRIEND</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#viii">97</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">IX.</td> -<td class="tdl">KIDS OF THE GOATS</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ix">111</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">X.</td> -<td class="tdl">COMMUNITY LIFE</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#x">123</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XI.</td> -<td class="tdl">FINISHED SOLOMON</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xi">135</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>9</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -</div> - -<h2 id="i">I<br /> -<span>APOLOGIA PRO FELE MEA</span></h2> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0009"> - <img src="images/i-0009.jpg" width="500" height="221" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="noi"><span class="dropcap">W</span>HY were cats created? I do not mean this as a sceptical question, -doubtful of any end in their creation; no answer about adaptation and -environment would be adequate, nor any statement of specific use. For -with all the higher animals—that is to say, with all the animals one -intimately knows—there is some beauty of intelligence, physique, or -character which renders them, as one must necessarily believe they -are, ends in themselves, not only means to the perfection of our very -egotistic species. The dog, for instance, has at <a id="anyrate"></a>anyrate moral beauty, -and the stag physical; but the cat, who so often loses her physical -beauty after the first year of her life, and who slinks about<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>10</span> with a -weight of strange and secret care on her shoulders, what has she? Who -ever knew a cat of really fine character, and yet why otherwise do they -suffer such bitter experience? Not experience merely of pans and pots -and cat-hunts, which only touch the physical cat; but of the real, -keen, emotional suffering of the moral cat, fierce pangs of envy, and -the burden of alienated affection? I think cats must be meant to be -good rather than beautiful.</p> - -<p>When Persis walked out of her travelling-basket, I thought that I -had never seen so pretty a kitten. She was about as long as she was -high, and as broad as she was long; her coat was of grey—or as this -particular shade is called blue—and white, soft, long hair; and she -had olive-yellow eyes. She would not have much to say to me just then; -but when I came into the room, where she had been shut up in the -evening, and saw the little, upright figure sitting on the table beside -a lighted candle, which my nurse had set there in case she should feel -lonely and unhappy in the dark, after a moment’s contemplation—for -Persis is shortsighted—she jumped down and rushed to meet me.</p> - -<p>She is very well-bred; of course her white is a mistake—she ought -to be blue all over; but she<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>11</span> has all the other signs of good -breeding—long silky tufts in the inside of her paws; ears so -beautifully feathered that all other cats’ ears look distressingly -naked; a little, dark smudge on her pink nose, to show that she knew it -ought to have been black; and now she is full grown, the most beautiful -tail I have ever seen—“like a squirrel,” children say.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0011"> - <img src="images/i-0011.jpg" width="500" height="490" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>She was not called Persis at first, but Hafiz. The popular rendering of -that as “Uffiz” was not very pretty; and while the salutation to “the -beloved Persis” was being read in the second lesson one Sunday morning, -it suddenly struck me that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>12</span> Persis would be a very nice and appropriate -name for a Persian cat, and the name “took.”</p> - -<p>Her manners mostly were charming, and with gracefulness like a -well-born lady she would stretch one hand from her basket to greet one -coming into the room. She was very affectionate; she would put her arms -round my neck in a way I have never known any other cat do, not even -her children. Like most other Persian cats, she would kiss me and lick -my hand. She had, I will confess, one rude trick: when she was in a -larky condition in the twilight, if she caught my eye, she would run, -with her head turned round and the side of her face on the ground, all -about the room, ending up by coming quite close to me, and jumping and -clawing in the air. The position was ludicrous, her head twisted round, -and her eyes fixed on mine so that she could not see what was in front -of her, and ran sometimes into legs of tables and chairs; her nerves, -too, in such a tense condition that if one startled her she would jump -high into the air, and then flee into a corner. She always reminded one -of the way in which a cockney street-boy makes faces if you catch his -eye.</p> - -<p>She was not always amiable, the one defect in her character was that -she was liable to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>13</span> “strange fits of passion,” and would pass from play -to anger on occasion without the slightest warning.</p> - -<p>She is the fiercest cat towards other animals that I have ever seen. -While she was yet a tiny kitten, I brought up a large semi-Persian -Tom cat to paint. The tiny kitten chased this big creature round and -round the room; if he got under a chair, she got on it, and reached -down a little menacing white paw to slap his face. He submitted meekly, -until, in order to see what would happen at close quarters, I brought -her quite near to him. She spit and swore at him, but thus brought to -bay he knocked her over with a sounding box on each ear, and she fled -under the table, where, with a tiny drop of blood on her face, she -bemoaned herself and appealed for sympathy, the picture of a helpless, -injured child. As for the other cat, once roused he went on growling -and spitting all morning.</p> - -<p>The only small quadruped I ever knew Persis not want to fight was a -rabbit. Some children on the place had a tame rabbit which was very -fond of cats. One day she met him out of doors. He saw her and came -running to play with her; she looked with a horrified face for a -moment<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>14</span> then turned and fled; she must have thought him a deformed sort -of cat; much as if children met a human being with huge pendent ears -and an uncouth way of walking who wanted to come and play with them.</p> - -<p>Persis was very musical. If one whistled to her she would come from any -part of the room, creep up as near to one’s face as she could, purr -loudly, lick one’s face in growing rapture; then, if the whistling -continued, she got over-excited, and had to manifest excessive pleasure -by biting. I am determined to tell a story which no one will believe, -but which is none the less true, that three or four times she has been -found standing on the music-stool and making dabs at the keys with her -forepaws; she, of course, had discovered before that a piano would -make a sound if walked on, and she not unfrequently practised in that -manner, but these three or four times I looked up, being surprised at -hearing the same note repeated, and found her standing as I have said. -However, no one need believe that, and it is their own loss if they do -not; and anyhow, now it is a matter of ancient history, for Persis lost -all care for the æsthetic part of life when she had a family to bring -up.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>15</span> -While she was still an independent lady she used to sleep in my room, -chiefly on my bed. It was a difficult matter to arrange at first, -because I did not want the kitten to sleep on my face, which was her -constant aspiration. Consequently, when I put out the light and settled -to sleep, placing her firmly at the end of the bed, a loud purr was -heard, and a little dark form proceeded to march up, stamping her paws -on the counterpane and drawing them out in rapturous expectation of a -pleasant evening.</p> - -<p>Finally we compromised: she was allowed to sleep half-way up, embracing -my arm if she liked. But I was rather glad when this habit was broken, -because she began not to leave me enough room. One of my brothers -thought he would try her in his room one night, but he had broken rest; -for first she made defiant runs at him from the end of the bed, then -in the middle of the night he was waked up by a pitiful howling, of -which he took no notice. Two hours later he was waked again by louder -howling, and then discovered that the cat had got out of one of his -windows, walked on a narrow moulding round to a shut window, and did -not dare to go back again. She was so overjoyed at being taken in that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>16</span> -she fell into the bath. After that she came on his bed.</p> - -<p>But I am wandering from the point of my story. Before Persis’ kittens -came she had some friends, but no rivals. She treated her friends in a -rather severe manner at first. One of them was a fox-terrier, called -Don. The first time she was introduced to him she nearly jumped out of -her skin with swearing and spitting. When he went out of the room, she -went round to all the places where he had been and spit at them afresh. -She has a fine scent; if new people have been in the room she always -goes round and smells the places where they have been. She smells every -new dress I have. The meek Don, who could kill a strange cat as soon -as look at it, submitted wonderfully to her whims; and when she flew -at him, beside herself with passion because he was enjoying the coffee -sugar at the bottom of a cup merely picked the cup up in his teeth and -trotted off. But she soon got accustomed to him. And then, distressed -at his appearance, tried to lick the black spots off his back; used -stealthily to wash the inside of his ears, ready always to rain a -shower of blows on his nose with the tips of her paws if he so much -as turned round. Then she<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>17</span> began to worship in a manner not common to -cats; with the sincerest flattery, she used to lie at his feet in the -same position that he was lying in; if, for instance, he was lying with -his legs stretched straight out below him, she would lie with her back -touching the tips of his toes and her legs stretched out in the same -way—an unnatural position for a cat.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0017"> - <img src="images/i-0017.jpg" width="500" height="267" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>Now her daughter, the image of Persis, will lie in the same way at -Don’s feet; but I have never heard of any other cat doing it.</p> - -<p>After this she became acquainted with a Gordon setter, and the -obstinate curliness of Di’s hair gave Persis as much occupation as -those black spots on Don’s back which never would come off. But she -was jealous of none of these, she knew herself to be—as a cat—so -infinitely superior to them. She<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>18</span> was jealous of nobody and nothing -until her kittens came.</p> - -<p>There are certain great facts in life which nothing can prepare you -for. No amount of reasoning, no previous imagination, will make you -in the least able to calculate your feelings. Such must be the moment -to very many when they realise that they will die; such is often the -moment when people or creatures realise that there exists a little -helpless living thing, theirs peculiarly, and yet not themselves. The -change that her child can work in a grumbling, egotistical woman is -incomprehensible,—could not have been argued by any logic; but far -more surprising the event must be to a creature who does not know what -is going to happen, cannot guess that her feelings will be moved in a -totally new way, and could not realise beforehand that such an event -might happen to her as it had to others. I tried to prepare Persis -once; I gave her a stuffed kitten on a penwiper to play with. She -looked at it with some interest, licked it a little, shook it, and left -it; treated it much as a rather careless child treats her doll, but -more amiably than she treated other animals. Nor could she dream that -little bits of fur,—much like that to the outward eye,—endued with -just enough life to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>19</span> tremble on their little weak legs, and utter tiny, -plaintive shrieks, should rouse her to such a passionate emotion as to -make her forget her own pressing bodily wants.</p> - -<p>We know very little more than she did about it, we know just the bare -fact that it always will be so, but why it <em>should</em> be so we know -no more than she. Who understands the miracle by which an utterly -selfish creature, whose natural instinct is to hate all other animals, -and, indeed, only to tolerate human beings because it can make use of -them, should be made to know and feel, in a short ten minutes’ space -perhaps, an overpowering, passionate, protective love?</p> - -<p>One morning Persis did not feel very well, in sign whereof she showed -a decided intention to occupy my bed. She was sent down to an empty -bedroom while a hamper of hay was being prepared for her; but when -her invalid couch was ready she was nowhere to be found; a search -discovered finally that she had put herself to bed in the room already, -under the counterpane. Still, she was thinking of nobody but herself. -Later in the morning I visited her,—when three little helpless, -shapeless, furry things were moving about her, and Persis was not -thinking of herself at all. One would not have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>20</span> believed an animal’s -expression could change so much; the overwhelming surprise, the intense -affection, were in her face as clearly as they could be in an human -face; for the time her egotism had gone, she was not a cat, she was a -mother. Formerly she had been shy of people, frightened of men; now, as -one after another came in to see her kittens, she showed no fear, and, -what was even more curious, no anger; she merely purred in pride and -entire confidence.</p> - -<p>They were wonderful kittens—two quite blue, one like its mother; their -eyes were shut, their ears were flattened down over their faces,—they -were little bodies which breathed and fed and grew.</p> - -<p>But they <em>did</em> grow, and their ears stood up and their eyes -opened,—dark and light blue,—and their heads got steadier, and in a -month they were little square solid kittens, who with much difficulty -could get out of the box in which they were placed. Getting out was a -process which involved the fullest exercise of all mental and physical -powers; for first they had to advance to the side, then one tiny paw -and then another was put over the side, and the adventurer was for the -time hung up by his shoulders. Then he worked himself on by the help -of much kicking behind and clawing against<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>21</span> the box, until the part -outside was just heavier than the part inside, and with a scramble, and -by the help of the centre of gravity, the whole kitten tumbled on to -the floor. It was a grand triumph of mind over matter. And still Persis -beamed on them, and on the world in general.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0021"> - <img src="images/i-0021.jpg" width="500" height="212" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>But as they grew began the first little rift within the lute. It was -difficult to help it. I put it to you—could one carry three kittens -and a cat about, like Henry III. of France, to exhibit to visitors. -If it was a choice between exhibiting kittens and cat, visitors would -surely prefer to see the kittens; and so it came to pass that the -children were carried into the drawing-room and handed round, while -in the empty schoolroom the “old” cat sat alone. It was only a couple -of months since she had been shown to visitors herself. Sometimes I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>22</span> -took her too, but that was not a great success, for everybody liked the -kittens best.</p> - -<p>And now the kittens began to be steady on their legs, and able to -run and play, and their horizon was no longer bounded by licking and -feeding and warming; and when they once began to play, their mother -seemed rather large and rather old to play with them. Persis did not -care to play with me or cheek me any more, but she liked to gambol -with the kittens. So she played mouse in front of Pasht, but Pasht -would rather play with her brother and ran off the other way; and -she pretended to be a tiger lying in ambush to wait for Marjara, but -Marjara wished to tie herself up in a soft heap with Ganem and bite his -ears, so the Old Cat stopped in her gambols and looked at them.</p> - -<p>Ganem was given away; and as he had been rather a favourite playfellow, -and the least favourite child of his mother, the family got on more -happily after that. Then I went away, and saw them no more for some two -months. When I came back, the Old Cat and Pasht were sent for.</p> - -<p>They made their journey in a large hamper, and were brought up to my -room. Pasht had grown lovely; soft mouse colour with topaz eyes; but -nevertheless the meeting was a real disappointment.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>23</span> Persis came out of -the basket and with no greeting to me, jumped down and went to look out -of the window. What could I do? I had to play with Pasht.</p> - -<p>I thought perhaps the cat’s temper had been upset by the journey, so I -left her alone, and some hours after came back to both of them. Persis -was lying and staring out of the window, and the kitten was occupying -the room; it ran at me, jumped and climbed up with loud purrs, and -rubbed against my face. I went to the window-sill, and still Persis did -not move; when she saw the kitten she growled a little; I put it down -close to her, on which she spit, slapped it, and fled.</p> - -<p>So things went on. When I came into the room the kitten always ran -to greet me: it was impossible to take no notice of such a soft, -confiding, mouse-coloured creature, yet all the while I was speaking -to it two great sullen, green eyes were fixed on us, watching us round -the room. If I came there to speak to the cat, she went quickly away, -if the kitten approached her she spit, and if it came nearer, hit out -at it. Evidently the change had come in Persis from a kitten to a cat. -She was a mere domestic cat, with a not very amiable temper, she cared -no more for human<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>24</span> beings, and had arrived at the queer alienation from -the young when they are grown up which comes to nearly all creatures; -she had had half a human soul once, but she had fulfilled the animal -functions, and she was an animal again.</p> - -<p>Yet one or two symptoms seemed to belie this view. Once or twice, -coming into the room, I greeted her first. Then she purred until the -kitten came near, when she got up and left us hastily.</p> - -<p>But it was difficult to see why this sullenness should so perpetually -prevail. She hardly ever forgot it. Her big green eyes had almost -always that sullen, lowering, miserable expression.</p> - -<p>Now and then, indeed, when twilight came on, she rushed in and out of -the room, alternately defying the kitten and flying from it; but not -the most unimaginative cat on earth can resist the excitement of the -growing darkness, when the eyes flash out in amethyst and topaz, and -the pupils dilate with dramatic terror and eagerness. But twilight -deepened into dark, and candles were lighted and fairyland stopped, and -the legs of the tables and chairs ceased to be tree-trunks in a jungle, -and Persis came back to life in the schoolroom, and despair clouded -back on to her brow.</p> - -<p>But the truth only began to dawn upon me one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>25</span> day. I took Persis into -my own room quite alone, and suddenly the sullen expression vanished; -I carried her in my arms and she began to purr; I put her down and she -walked up and down on the counterpane, stamping her paws and spreading -her claws,—Persis had all at once become a kitten again. She licked my -face and put two arms round my neck when I took her up. I brought her -downstairs, thinking our old relations were re-established; the kitten -came near, and Persis walked hastily away from me and took no more -notice of either of us.</p> - -<p>Then the kitten ailed and was sent away to be nursed, and with that -curious, confused idea that creatures have, the mother felt a lack -somewhere when the object of such strong emotion was removed, even -though the emotion was only jealousy. She hunted for the kitten all -afternoon. We found her in a part of the garden which she did not -usually frequent, and she ran away with a sense of guilt when she saw -us. But when evening came, and she was in the room alone with me and -there was no kitten, I was left in doubt no more as to what it was -which was moving her. She squeezed herself in by me on the sofa, she -kissed me and purred blissfully.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>26</span> -And so it goes on. I have not had the heart to banish the kitten -altogether, yet when she is there I can seldom get a purr or a look -from the cat. One day I persuaded her to let me stroke her under the -ears and the throat; this is almost like mesmerism to a cat, and if one -can persuade them to let one begin, one can do almost anything with -them; and so I was gradually bringing her to a happier state of mind, -when the friendly kitten, perceiving that something sociable was going -on, came up to share in it. They met face to face as Persis took turns -up and down under my hand. They looked at each other for a moment, then -she slapped the kitten in the face and fled.</p> - -<p>What am I to do? If I keep the kitten I cannot prevent this jealousy. -Persis lives in a condition of perpetual, jealous misery; if she thinks -the kitten is sent away, or that she is exclusively favoured, then only -does she emerge out of sullenness. And yet she is not really devoted -to me; she is only a complete egoist, and cannot be happy unless I am -devoted to her. After all, am I not bound to her? Was she not once my -sole and only cat, carried about, exhibited to company, hunted for -if she got lost? And yet Pasht is much fonder of me than Persis ever -was; Pasht will run after me,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>27</span> while Persis wishes to run away and be -fetched back. Pasht comes to meet me when I come into the room, cries -to be picked up, purrs as soon as I touch her; but when I do so, those -green, miserable eyes watch me, and Persis will allow no caress which -is not offered to her first.</p> - -<p>What shall I do?<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>28</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0027" style="width: 500px;"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>29</span> - <img src="images/i-0027.jpg" width="500" height="367" alt="" /> -</div> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>30</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -</div> - -<h2 id="ii">II<br /> -<span>CLANDESTINE CORRESPONDENCE</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>31</span> -<span class="dropcap">T</span>HE last week has been an arduous one; -I have had to chaperon Pasht.</p> - -<p>Pasht has experienced her first proposal. I suppose it is no wonder, -considering her age, that she was flattered; but I could wish that she -had fixed her affections on anyone less vulgar and under-bred.</p> - -<p>This was how I found it out. Pasht had been for many days very eager -to go into the garden. One morning we were playing croquet on the -lawn, and I paid no attention to the kitten, until suddenly I looked -up to see her lying on the path, her long thick hair fluffed out, her -sweet mouse-coloured cat’s visage resting on the edge of the grass, -her little chin rubbing against it, and her long squirrel tail lazily -sweeping and thumping the gravel.</p> - -<p>At first I thought it was only flirtatiousness in general, an attempt -to captivate the universe at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>32</span> large, when lo! out of the laurels -opposite to her flashed an ordinary, vulgar, ill-bred, short-haired -tabby cat, who stood there for a moment, looked at me and disappeared.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0032"> - <img src="images/i-0032.jpg" width="500" height="291" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>I was very much shocked, picked up Pasht and shut her up in the -schoolroom, when she instantly appeared on the window-sill and -reproached me loudly. But of course I did not take it seriously, and -thought that they would both get over it.</p> - -<p>I must explain the position (unfortunate in this respect) of the rooms -in which the cats and I live.</p> - -<p>It has four large windows looking on the lawn and the laurel -bushes—too high for a cat to jump down, but not too high for her -to practise little<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>33</span> wiles on the window-sill for the benefit of -appreciative spectators below. Just on the left hand of the door is a -long window, from which steps go down to the garden, and close by the -steps is a large <a id="laurustinus"></a>laurustinus, a most convenient place for ambushes -and clandestine meetings. Opposite the schoolroom door, again, there -is another door opening on to a back staircase, whence one gets into -kitchens, whose windows also give on to the lawn, and are usually open. -My bedroom is above the schoolroom.</p> - -<p>On the evening when I had abruptly stopped Pasht’s flirtation, a noise -arrested my attention as I was going to bed. It was the voice of a cat -saying “wwoww.” You know what it means when a cat says that? He is -paying compliments. The noise went on and on, round the schoolroom-end -of the house, until I went to sleep, but I heard no answer from Pasht.</p> - -<p>Pasht was hysterically affectionate when I saw her next morning; she -said “a - - - ow,” and clung on to my dress, and climbed up on to my -shoulder and refused to leave me, and walked about over my letters when -the ink was wet, and flapped her tail into my mouth, and altogether -played the fool, and pretended that she had forgotten her vulgar<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>34</span> -suitor of the night before and I heard no serenades outside.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0034"> - <img src="images/i-0034.jpg" width="500" height="457" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>But in the middle of the day I suddenly heard from my bedroom an -extremely loud voice saying “wwaughwow,” and looking down saw Pasht -standing on the window-sill of the schoolroom. I don’t know whether she -said it or not, for as soon as she saw me she looked up and took to the -more ordinary and ladylike expression of a general desire to go out in -the sunshine. Several times in the day I heard it again, but as soon as -I looked<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>35</span> round, Pasht turned an innocent face to me and said “miaow.”</p> - -<p>In the evening the gentleman began to woo again; I knew it was the -suitor this time, as Pasht was safely shut up. I listened at the door -of the schoolroom to hear if she was answering, but there was no sound. -She <em>is</em> a regular flirt.</p> - -<p>A party from the house went round the garden with croquet mallets, but -with no result.</p> - -<p>Next morning it became too clear that Pasht was encouraging her suitor; -he rushed away from the <a id="laurestinus"></a>laurestinus bush as I came out, and she was -sitting on the window-sill. I took her out for a short time in the -garden under strict supervision, but she would do nothing but flop into -graceful attitudes on the lawn. I really had not thought it of her.</p> - -<p>I took her in again, and argued the point a little.</p> - -<p>I told her that she was behaving in a very vulgar and forward manner, -and that no nice Tom would respect her. She merely looked up in my face -and said “a - - - ow.”</p> - -<p>Then I said I would not have made any objection if he had been a -gentleman, but he was so exceedingly common and ill-bred.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>36</span> -But she still looked with pathetic topaz eyes, and opened a little pink -mouth with a deprecating mew.</p> - -<p>I felt much as if, “with a little hoard of maxims,” I was “preaching -down a daughter’s heart.”</p> - -<p>And what was worse, it did no good. Every time the door was opened, -however much Pasht was pretending to be devoted to me, she suddenly -found she had urgent business in the kitchen, and flew downstairs; -and when I, knowing the nature of the little flirt, did not go down -to the kitchen at all, but straight out of the long window on to the -lawn and found her there, she looked up with the most innocent face -possible,—“Yes; after all, I see you enjoy the sunshine as much as -I do.” When, in spite of kicks and struggles, I carried her in, she -never once said “wwoww,” but merely gave vent to the emphatic mew which -means, “<em>I don’t want to go in.</em>”</p> - -<p>I took her an airing in my arms that day, but it was extremely -exhausting, and I covered my dress with long hair.</p> - -<p>And all that night the cat mewed.</p> - -<p>Another exploring party went from the house with shovel and tongs.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>37</span> -I couldn’t stand it any longer. Pasht was sent away to a very strict -boarding-school system at the farm.</p> - -<p>A week after, when the strange cat had ceased to howl round the house, -she came back again; but as soon as the schoolroom door was left ajar, -the urgent business in the kitchen claimed her, and Pasht disappeared -for many hours.</p> - -<p>Poor little Pasht, were you disappointed that no one met you in the -garden to flirt with, or wanted to bounce out of the laurel bushes and -exhibit his masculine beauty before you? Or, after all, is your little -heart as hard as I think it, and do you prefer a nice warm room, a lawn -to romp on, someone in whose lap to lie, who will gently ruffle your -throat and ears—do you really, deep down in your heart, prefer these -beyond all lovers whatever?</p> - -<p>Anyhow, when Pasht appeared at the long window, she had a gay, innocent -little air on, and she ran in saying, “You see, the fine weather -<em>did</em> tempt me to stay out rather long,—where is my breakfast?”</p> - -<p>Never mind, little Pasht; we will arrange an honourable alliance some -day with a gentleman of rank.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>38</span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>39</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -</div> - - -<h2 id="iii">III<br /> -<span>IN THE BOSOM OF THE FAMILY</span></h2> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0040"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>40</span> - <img src="images/i-0040.jpg" width="500" height="206" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>41</span> -<span class="dropcap">I</span>S it not true that there is a very general want of recognition of -family-life among domestic animals? It is a great mistake to suppose -they are incapable of it; often, as a matter of fact, they do not lead -domestic lives, for the simple reason that people will not let them. -If, for instance, you won’t keep a whole family of cats, how can you -expect them to develop domestic affections? We talk of their being -“domesticated,” but we mean that they are made a part of our domestic -arrangements, without being allowed to have any of their own; yet they -are quite as capable of it as we are. Of course their domesticity does -not last long, naturally<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>42</span> and necessarily not, because they have not -one family but a series of families, and one family must be dismissed -before the next is taken on; so domestic affection <a id="developes"></a>developes into -murderous desires. However, I must say that in all experiences I have -personally had of cats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, dogs, goats, and birds, I -have only known one murder, and that was by an uncle.</p> - -<p>Rector was allowed to have all his family about him. His wife was -decidedly under-bred. He was called Rector, in fact, because he would -not catch the mice, and had to have another less aristocratic but more -useful cat to help him. The curate was called Jenny. She was a low-bred -tabby. Rector could not help despising Jenny, and if anything vexed him -he used to bite her badly; but she was a very meek drudge, and took it -as a matter of course. Rector was white, with blue eyes, so we only -kept the white kittens, some of which were blue-eyed, and <em>not</em> -deaf; blue-eyed or not, Rector used to take them out walks in the -evening.</p> - -<p>The four—papa and mamma and two kittens—used to proceed together to -the mound near the pump, and Jenny then left them, to crouch in the -bushes,—this for a purpose of her own.</p> - -<p>Then began the game. Rector rolled the kittens<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>43</span> over and played with -them gently, until all three became a little excited; then, if Rector -got carried away, and bit or scratched his infant till it squeaked, -out bounced Jenny from the bushes to deal him a handsome box on the -ear; and, having thus admonished her husband to take better care of the -children, she retreated again to the shelter of the yew-trees.</p> - -<p>If you keep a whole family, you will find that there is not only -a parental, filial, brotherly, and sisterly relation, but also a -grand-parental. When Midge had some white kittens, Jenny, whose -under-bred offspring had been put out of the way shortly before, helped -her to nurse them, with as much pride and perhaps more solicitude than -Midge herself showed. It was a most charming scene. We went to see the -family soon after the birth of the kittens, and found Midge, in the -rôle of the interesting young mother, leaning back upon Jenny. Jenny -put a paw round her, while they surveyed—the mother languidly and the -grandmother proudly—the squirming white family.</p> - -<p>But it is not cats only who have these strong domestic ties; almost -every animal shows the same thing in a greater or less degree.</p> - -<p>We inherited, on changing our home, a beautiful<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>44</span> pair of swans. The -first year that they became ours they had four cygnets, and brought -them up extremely well. It is true that when they were full grown, the -cock-swan, if one may use such an expression, tried to kill them; but -that was only natural, they had become his rivals. They were variously -disposed of: one was taken up to a pond in London, from which, not -being properly pinioned, he escaped, and kept a cockney crowd for an -hour well amused on London Bridge by flying over it and swimming under, -after which he—or, as he could not possibly be caught, the abstract -idea of him—was presented to the Thames Conservancy.</p> - -<p>So far, this doesn’t seem to have much to do with the swan’s idea of -home, but, as some candid preacher said, “You may think this has not -got much to do with my text, but I’m coming to it presently.”</p> - -<p>The swans lived on in peace and happiness through the autumn and -winter, but in the spring, when they ought to have been nesting, some -wicked boy hit the lady swan on the head with a stick, and she sickened -and died.</p> - -<p>For some time the widower was left solitary; then we thought this was -rather cruel, and busied ourselves in getting a mate for him; and a -fine<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>45</span> young swan was procured. When lo! it was found that the old -fellow would not let his young companion come into the pond. We thought -it would “wear off,” and left the young one to its fate; and many times -we passed the pond to find the poor young thing squatting sadly on the -road, and the widower swelling up and down.</p> - -<p>Then we found there was a slight mistake, the young swan was a -cock-swan also.</p> - -<p>So we changed him, and got a real lady instead. This time he would -just let his companion come into the pond, but oh! she had a bad time -of it there; he pulled her feathers out, and he drove her away from -the bread; but it had to be gone through,—it was his way of showing -constancy, and it turned out all right. She is treated now with as much -respect as his first wife.</p> - -<p>But she was a very young wife; so, when she had hatched three eggs -into cygnets, her pride knew no bounds. The father, getting into his -dotage, encouraged her in her maternal follies. The cygnets were fine -healthy birds, but the two old birds took them out walking to such an -extent that one by one they died. No one quite knows why. Some say that -there was not enough grass by the pond, and the parents took them to -find<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>46</span> grass; and some say that parental vanity wished to display such -flourishing offspring; but anyhow, the fact remains that the cygnets -took walks with their parents till they died. There is nothing more -domestic than the family walk.</p> - -<p>But now contrast this domestic affection with the melancholy fate of -the inebriate swan.</p> - -<p>A clergyman’s wife kept one swan, and the swan, no one knows how, got -into the habit of going to eat malt at a public-house. If he had done -this within bounds it would not have mattered, but he got regularly -intoxicated, and every evening reeled homewards. His mistress tried to -reform him, but to no purpose; and she tried to shut him up, but he -got out; and she used to meet him coming home with rolling, uncertain -step and hanging head. She wept, for it was such a bad example to the -parish; but that had no effect on him. At last, one evening, he was run -over and killed while reeling home in a state of intoxication.</p> - -<p>Now, how far more melancholy is such an end than that of the three -infants killed by family affection! I would rather die three times over -from walking with my family than once from intoxication.</p> - -<p>What is the moral? Do not break up the family too early. The presence -of the children<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>47</span> (up to the age when he wants to kill them) will have -a softening and steadying effect on the manners of the father; while -who knows what stores of masculine experience he may not impart to his -children up to the time when they wish to fight him.</p> - -<p>Besides all this, it is really much more amusing.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>48</span></p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>49</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -</div> - -<h2 id="iv">IV<br /> -<span>CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE</span></h2> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0051"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>50</span> - <img src="images/i-0051.jpg" width="500" height="174" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>51</span> -<span class="dropcap">H</span>OW vividly one sometimes retains for years the memory of a chance -acquaintance—a person whom one has met but once, passed in the street, -talked to for half an hour, whose name one may not even know.</p> - -<p>A friend of mine was travelling in Persia, and as she and her brother -were resting in a caravansarai after a journey, they saw a Persian -gentleman beckoning to them from the garden. They went down to him, and -he asked them to come and have supper with him. They came, and found -the bread laid out, plate-wise, and the roast meat on it. They ate and -talked to him, and after their meal went on their journey. They never -asked for nor heard his name, nor he theirs,—they will<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>52</span> never meet -again; but that Persian gentleman will be as vivid to them until the -day of their death as a friend of years.</p> - -<p>Such memory of a mere passing chance acquaintance is not confined to -human beings. Sometimes one meets animals for an hour or two, sometimes -one accidentally lights upon them in a crisis of their lives,—such -even as their death,—and one suddenly and unexpectedly understands -and knows them. Some people and animals one never gets near. You may, -for instance, sit opposite people in church for years, know all their -Sunday dresses and hats, and how much they give in the offertory, -and be not a bit nearer to them in the end than at the beginning. -Such is the acquaintance one has with caterpillars; they are always -just the same; they eat and grow and become cocoons, and reappear as -butterflies, and there is no character from beginning to end. That is -partly why they are such excellent symbols.</p> - -<p>Then there are some animals that have no sense of intimacy; they -let you into all their domestic relations,—their committees, their -politics, and so forth, at once; for the reason that they have only one -side to their character. They have established a Platonic Republic; -they do their domestic<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>53</span> duties on the scale of the commonwealth, -have a universal nursery and government education. In spite of their -monarchical arrangements, they are real socialists at heart,—they -care for nothing but the good of the State. Even those that live in -a tiny community, two or three together, have no real individuality. -Have you ever found one of those tiny round nests, like ashes of paper, -which apparently grow on a stalk, and in which two or three yellow and -black tree-wasps live? It is the easiest thing in the world to scrape -acquaintance with those wasps; kill an ordinary housefly and give it to -them. They will take it from your fingers, and, without the slightest -shame at “talking shop” in public, will roll it into a neat, hard, -black ball, crushing up legs and wings alike, and stow it away inside -the nest.</p> - -<p>But the want of intimacy characteristic of many insects is not -characteristic of insects <em>as such</em>. I once attended a grasshopper -crisis. There was nothing professional about the grasshoppers; they -did not not “spend themselves in leaps ... to reach the sun.” They did -not think the least bit in the world about the sun, they were merely -private individuals—courting. Grasshoppers’ courting is an organised -affair. I saw it in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>54</span> Switzerland on a soft, sunny afternoon, when the -hotel population was divided between the Roman Catholic Church on the -right and the English Church on the left, and the steps of the hotel -between the two. As I dawdled along by a bank of bilberry just turning -red, the grasshoppers were singing loud among the stalks of heather; -suddenly I was aware that they were not singing aimlessly and jumping -without purpose, but that they were intently engaged. It was like the -old fairy-story, when a child falls asleep on a bank, and wakes to find -himself surrounded by fairies intent on preparation for the marriage -of the king. The large limp ladies were sprawling about ungracefully, -and in front sat their small, spry gentlemen singing away. Here was a -green gentleman serenading a brown lady, and I wondered at his taste; -presently she got up and ran away. Clearly that was part of the drama; -it was the genuine “flirtatious” instinct of avoiding a plain answer on -purpose to provoke pursuit; for the gentleman does not jump, but runs -after her to bring her back. When lo! a green lady is seen crossing -the path, also coyly escaping from a suitor, and the faithless swain -is captivated all in a moment by the green charms, and deserts his -brunette to pursue<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>55</span> her. Further on—astonishing sight!—is a young -ladies’ school, just “come out”; fourteen or fifteen green and brown -ladies, shy and awkward, scrambling down the bank and all talking -together.</p> - -<p>I never saw such courting before or since, but I shall never lose the -feeling of intimacy, for I know now that grasshoppers are not always -little machines arranged with the greatest amount of muscle for the -smallest amount of weight, or wound up to trill on in the sunshine, as -mechanically as a watch ticks, or even created to be a burden,—but -they are tiny creatures, full of emotion and insect loves, putting -their best energy into their whirring song to claim the admiration of -the languid, lovely creatures that lie lazily listening.</p> - -<p>But sometimes one arrives at a sudden personal relation to a wild -creature, too often ended abruptly by its escape or death, and its -kinsfolk are never afterwards to one as little as before. One has -regarded it as a member of a class; henceforward one regards that class -as composed of individuals possessed of strong personal desires, needs, -emotions, not merely obeying what we call “instincts,”—meaning thereby -the mechanical impulse to eat, grub, make nests, care for young. To -take an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>56</span> extreme instance, perhaps you think that moles are altogether -uninteresting, merely existing for the sake of lightening the soil and -destroying the wire-worm, and, in case of undue increase, fit to make -a cap for the mole-catcher and a little skeleton to swing from a tree. -But perhaps some day you will see in the stubble, after the hay is -cut, a little black form running confusedly round and round; catch it, -and hold in your hands the soft, velvet-coated body; feel the funny, -groping snout pushing through your fingers, on the chance—however -different their touch is from the damp, delicious earth—that it will -be able to find some place where it may grub a hole and escape; realise -that you might make a pet of this small, soft thing, and then please -recognise its wild desire for liberty, and let it go.</p> - -<p>But there are some animals which, although usually recognised as “wild -animals,” seem to have no fear whatever, except when they are being -chased; once they are in the hands of a human being they are completely -self-possessed. A friend of mine sat in a field when the hay was being -carried, and saw a little field-mouse playing about; she pursued and -nearly caught it, but it finally escaped. She came back to where she -had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>57</span> been sitting to fetch her umbrella, and under it was found another -little field-mouse asleep, which she caught without difficulty, carried -back, and put into a box with holes in it.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0057"> - <img src="images/i-0057.jpg" width="500" height="302" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>She brought him in to tea that afternoon, and even at this, his first -meal, he sat up like a kangaroo on his long hind-legs, and ate bread -and milk out of a spoon. He absorbed alarming quantities of it, fell -instantly asleep, woke up after a few minutes and ate a great deal -more; but the next morning the poor little beast was found gasping, -apparently dying; and when his box was opened he would not run away. -But he presently recovered as suddenly, and again devoured much food, -and so went on through the day, though his gasping fits returned at -intervals. Next morning he died. Is it that we find these creatures<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>58</span> -generally when they are ill?—the least touch seems to make them die. -Certainly I remember once or twice, in those joyful days when sitting -in a hayfield meant the height of bliss, that our very gentle and -amiable collie, excited by an “animal” smell, would grub open a nest of -little field-mice, and stand by delighted and smiling at his discovery, -while we came up just in time to see three or four expiring infants. He -could hardly have killed them, for he only wanted to look at them. Yet -they died.</p> - -<p>What was it, I wonder, that killed Maximilianus? Maximilianus was a -very small shrew, and we found him running about the garden; he was -just about as long as his name. He was not the least frightened, and -we carried him about for half a day; but we found nothing he could -eat, until at last we came upon a very large, fat, orange-coloured -centipede. Maximilianus seized upon this with the utmost delight, began -it vigorously at one end, and ate it up like a radish as far as the -middle. Then he died.</p> - -<p>We had once a visitor in the shape of a squirrel, who came uninvited, -made his abode with us for some months, and finally departed, taking -“French leave.” My mother was his guide, philosopher,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>59</span> and friend. He -slept in a pocket of her apron (this was in the seventies), whence -he came out to fly up the curtains and drop down, venture on to the -breakfast table, and experiment on her tea with a tiny paw. He always -ran up the curtain when he was scolded; as for instance when my father, -going to the sideboard to cut ham, found the squirrel’s head just -coming out of it, having eaten its way through from the other side. -Then, after being received in the bosom of our family, after sharing -meals with the household, after attending lessons and even prayers -(when he ran up the back of a kneeling housemaid), the <a id="skwug"></a>skwug suddenly -disappeared without warning. A few days after, my mother was walking -in the wood, when a squirrel ran up to her, put its paw upon her foot, -looked her in the face, then turned and ran away. It was never heard of -again.</p> - -<p>Sometimes you find animals which, though not very near and dear to -human beings, have a great influence on other animals. Our donkey -died the other day. She was a remarkable and original animal. Though -she was a fixture, taken at a high valuation from our predecessors, -her demeanour was such that we called her Jack, and thought she had -retired to a well-earned repose.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>60</span> Then we found she was not quite two -years old, and a lady. We were always good friends, but not specially -intimate. She and her mule-foal might come to the window for bread -and salt when the horses were not allowed on the grass; but for weeks -together she did not avail herself of this privilege, till one day a -snort was heard from outside, and the donkey’s nose was seen flattened -against the glass. Once, when my mother was walking with a friend of -hers,—not an acquaintance of the donkey,—Jack, for I cannot help -calling her so, solemnly accompanied them all the afternoon, walking -between them. But such occasional walks, and the fact that she was -amiably willing to follow anyone quite impartially for a handful of -oats, constituted the extent of our intimacy with her. Not such was her -relation to the other animals. As exclusively as my goat walked with -the cows, Jack walked with the horses. She did not, of course, consider -herself so superior to her company as the goat. She made many friends -among the horses; you might not have known it, perhaps, but neither -as a general rule would you suspect the friendship which men have for -one another by their way of behaving. If a man meets a great friend in -company, he either takes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>61</span> no notice of him or stands near him without -saying anything. Jack used to stand about with the horses without -saying anything, but they liked to have her near.</p> - -<p>One morning Jack was found dead of fatty degeneration of the heart. -“I’m sure the horses miss her,” said the bailiff’s wife; “I look at -them standing in the yard, and I can see they miss her.”</p> - -<p>Jack was buried in the orchard, and her little mule followed the body -as far as the garden-gate. But there they shut the door, and the one -mourner was left outside.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>62</span></p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>63</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>64</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="v">V<br /> -<span>THE DESERTED LOVER</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>65</span> -<span class="dropcap">E</span>VER since I was a very small child I had longed to possess a pair of -budgerrygars. There was a tradition of three live ones once in our -family, in proof whereof my nurse could point to a little stuffed -bird in its case. I used to gaze with longing at that beautiful green -and yellow creature, with the speckled back and the black and blue -feathers in its neck, sitting with a foreground of quaking grasses -and an eternal blue sky behind. There existed also, but rarely seen, -a little cardboard box containing a few of these same mysteriously -beautiful blue and yellow and green feathers, with here and there a -long strong tail or wing quill. Yes, there had been budgerrygars among -us once; there were even real live ones now in the possession of those -happy Italian women who sit at the street corners, but for me—while -I was still a child—they were inmates of that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>66</span> imaginary Paradise of -unattainable things, wherein might be found little wax cages of birds, -and the fluffy hollow ducks which live in confectioners’ shops and are -sold for ninepence.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0066"> - <img src="images/i-0066.jpg" width="500" height="605" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>After I was grown up, a friend gave me one of these ducks; I have it -still, and the halo still surrounds it. When I was grown up, too, some -one gave me a pair of budgerrygars; and there<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>67</span> followed a tragedy which -was not bargained for in the price paid.</p> - -<p>They came down from London in a tiny cage,—a travelling cage. -Budgerrygars do not mind lack of room, it makes it all the easier for -them to sit quite close, as if they were glued together. They were -lovely little things, with their pearl-grey beaks,—wonderfully sharp -and strong those beaks are, as I know to my cost,—but they could -use them gently, and you would see one turn with a soft croon to put -straight a ruffled feather on its mate’s head.</p> - -<p>The little gentleman had caught a cold, not much of a cold at first; -he only panted slightly as he sat near the little lady and ruffled his -feathers; but she cheered him up, and smoothed the feathers down, and -they sat side by side and looked at the world with little meaningless -grey eyes.</p> - -<p>Their new large cage was a great excitement, and it was immense fun for -them to walk over the top, using their beak as a third leg, and that -the most reliable. And their spirits ran so high that they began to -shriek unmusically at each other when they found themselves at opposite -corners of the cage.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>68</span> -I am afraid we were not as careful as we ought to have been with -the little gentleman. They were so funny and pretty that they were -carried from room to room; and the cage must have been in a draught, -for the little gentleman began to puff and breathe rather hard, and -his feathers were persistently ruffled, and the little lady could not -smooth them down any more, even if she had tried.</p> - -<p>Sympathy to the ailing, the feeble, and the weak is a very modern -virtue; strange, as civilisation shows us what an unprogressive virtue -it is. The lame and the blind were “hated of David’s soul”; animals -and savages and men of early civilisation agree with David. Now and -then you find a dog which will bring a broken-legged friend to the -hospital, a cat which brings its half-starved neighbour to eat its own -dinner,—souls of philanthropists on pilgrimage, dead or yet to be; -but the stag’s instinct of goring the sickly ones, and the wolf’s of -tearing the wounded, are the ruling instincts. The lady budgerrygar -took David’s side in the matter. She did not wish to bite her spouse, -or peck him, or pull his feathers out, but he began to be hated of her -soul.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0069"> - <img src="images/i-0069.jpg" width="500" height="693" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>One day she would not let him sit by her on -the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>69</span> -perch; he could hardly get up to it, yet he would have done so for the -sake of sitting close to her, for the sake of putting a stray feather -straight in her ladyship’s top-knot, of feeling the little pearl-grey -bill travelling softly over his head with -a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>70</span> croon of affection; but -she would not have it, she drove him away from her. So he sat on the -lower perch, or on the bottom of the cage; he did not scream or croon, -he just puffed his feathers out and panted. Did David repent in respect -of the blind and lame when he said, “My lovers and friends hast thou -put away from me”?</p> - -<p>What strange rebellion against fate moved in the soul of the little -budgerrygar, what necessity of finding a lonely place to die in, what -sad desire of escaping from the mate who would no longer care for him? -It is all very well to talk of “instinct” and dismiss the case, but -how do you suppose the abstract idea of loneliness in death nerved -the failing wings and feet to seek the door of the cage, made him -squeeze through the door, such a little way open; how did it attract -him across the room and through the half-open door,—away—away—as -far as he could go from his faithless love? Did this abstract idea act -on the little budgerrygar like a machine, and move and nerve the wings -for such a flight? Or was there distress in the heart, and anguish in -the little animal soul, when he found himself ill at ease and ailing, -deserted and repulsed?</p> - -<p>It is a work of skill and time to induce a healthy budgerrygar to leave -its cage; but this quixotic<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>71</span> spirit found his way out of the cage for -himself, and found his way out of the room, and he must have flown -until he dropped dead. For we found a little heap of gay green and -yellow feathers in the passage,—stone-cold and stiff;—he had been -dead some hours.</p> - -<p>Budgerrygars are very sociable birds, they cannot live alone. The -little dead bird could not. So we got a new mate for the lady, whom she -received warmly, and the pair lived quite happily ever after.</p> - -<p>But I should like to know, in the whole scheme of things, what is the -recompense for the little deserted lover.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>72</span></p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>73</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>74</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="vi">VI<br /> -<span>JACK</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>75</span> -<span class="dropcap">F</span>EW people know how different one bird is from another of the same -kind. Of course we can see when one canary is green and one yellow -and one crested; but few people know that some canaries have blue -eyes, some brown, and some grey; or how different one canary is in -intelligence and character from another.</p> - -<p>Jack was a remarkably intelligent canary; one always felt him to -be immensely superior to oneself. When he consented to sit on his -swing and allow me to swing him, he always seemed to say, “This is a -very childish game, but it appears to amuse you, and I am by nature -indulgent.” He was often very angry with me and pecked me, but I was -sure I deserved it. The only blemish I ever found in him was that -he was rather unscrupulous and ill-tempered, but then he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>76</span> was so -exceedingly superior that he had to find fault with the canaries and me -sometimes.</p> - -<p>Jack was very bright yellow, with a slim, trim figure. When he was -about two years old a little wife was given to him. She was almost -white, and they looked very pretty together. Her name was Thyrsis. -We tried to call them Corydon and Thyrsis, but “Jack” suited him so -well that we were not able to change it, so they remained rather -inharmoniously “Jack and Thyrsis” to the end of their lives.</p> - -<p>I always used to turn Jack and Thyrsis out of their cage when I was -cleaning it. One morning I did not see that the window of the room -opposite was open. They flew round the room together, then coming to -the open door they darted out of it, into the next room and straight -to the window. One instant they rested on the window-sill, then like a -flash of sunlight and moonlight they were out into the sunny garden and -trees beyond. All that day I haunted the garden, too anxious to cry, -carrying their cages about, in the vain hope that they might be hungry -or thirsty and want to come back; once I thought I saw a flash of gold, -but night fell and still the birds were out. The next day we sent the -town-crier round shouting out a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>77</span> reward of five shillings for them, and -the day following Thyrsis was brought back to me in a paper bag, much -exhausted but not materially worse.</p> - -<p>I did not hear of Jack for five months.</p> - -<p>Then a boy who lived near and kept canaries heard for the first time of -my loss, and he sent me a canary which some months ago had come through -the open window and settled on his own bird’s cage. Of course it was -Jack. He had not forgotten his way of coming towards me with wings -outspread, uttering the funny scolding noise from which he got his name.</p> - -<p>Now by this time Jack and Thyrsis were come to years of discretion, and -it was thought that they ought to build and have young. So they were -provided plentifully with horsehair and cottonwool, and given a small -round basket in one of the cages, and we put their two cages together, -opening the door between.</p> - -<p>They were very much delighted with the wool, and played with it a great -deal, but they seemed to have no idea of the proper use of it; if we -put it into the nest for them, they merely pulled it out again.</p> - -<p>This became so hopeless, and I was so anxious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>78</span> to try to rear little -canaries, that a friend promised me another hen. She, however, forgot -what our circumstances were, and sent us a pair, who were promptly -named Jock and Mummy. I would not have Jack defrauded of his wife after -all, so Mummy was taken away from Jock and given to Jack instead. There -is not much to tell about poor Jock. He was a middle-aged gentleman, -subject to chronic asthma, and could never in that state of health have -undertaken the cares and responsibility of a young family. His cage -was always hung up near the fire, and when he was worse than usual I -gave him a tiny drop of sal-volatile in his water. He was a contented, -cheerful bird, and lived as long as with his age and asthma one could -expect.</p> - -<p>Mummy was a crested bird, pale yellow with a green crest, rather -pretty, but in mind utterly vulgar. Of course she was far more -effective than the refined Thyrsis had ever been. She knew all about -nest building, and began at once; while the cynical and gentlemanly -Jack looked on. The pair always reminded one of an aristocratic -philosopher who had married his cook.</p> - -<p>But one must give Mummy the whole credit of the nest; she put the moss -and hair and wool into<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>79</span> it, she squatted herself down in it, turned -round, fluffed herself out to make it hard and round and compact; and -at intervals went to keep up her strength by taking her “dishing-up -beer” in the shape of hempseed.</p> - -<p>Then she laid eggs quite satisfactorily, and they came out quite -satisfactorily, and one by one all the nestlings died—<em>not</em> -satisfactorily. On examining the little corpses, we found that they had -died of starvation. Jack was found guilty at the inquest, for a first -principle of domestic life among canaries is that the father feeds the -birds while they are very young. What was the reason, then, that he had -so disgracefully neglected his duty of feeding them, while his devoted -wife sat on the nest to keep them warm? There must be something more -than grandeur and cynicism to make a gentleman allow his children to -die of starvation.</p> - -<p>At last we found out the reason—Jack was flirting with his first -love! Thyrsis’ cage was hung in Jack’s sight, and instead of feeding -his infant children, or attending to them in any way, he clung to the -corner of his cage all day and serenaded Thyrsis. We put Thyrsis out of -his sight; Mummy laid a second set of eggs, and Jack attended to them -as if he had done it all his life. It is true<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>80</span> that he threw the eldest -out of the nest on to the floor of the cage, but there is great excuse -for that; a gentleman of refined and fastidious feelings must have had -a dreadful shock when he first saw an unfledged canary and realised -that that repulsive creature was his progeny. With all his cynicism, -he could never have imagined that anything so loathsome existed. I -don’t see what else he could have done,—I should have done it myself -in his place. From whatever point you look at them, unfledged canaries -are altogether and absolutely hideous; their brownish-pink skin is -scantily covered with hairs, little bits of flesh wave helplessly about -where their wings and legs are going to be, they have two large dark -swellings where their eyes are going to be, and the only thing that -is defined about them is a huge mouth which is almost always open and -yelling. I had to pick the canary up from the bottom of the cage, and I -still owe Jack a grudge for it, though I cannot in justice blame him.</p> - -<p>Little canaries, when they are fledged, are as pretty as before they -are frightful. These three little birds, when they were fledged, were -all different and all beautiful. One was like her mother, yellow and -green and crested; one like his father, all<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>81</span> yellow; and one a sort -of mixture, green and yellow and without a crest. Now a curious thing -happened: the father chiefly devoted himself to feeding the little hen, -who was like her mother; the mother (who begins to feed the birds when -they are getting fledged and do not need warmth so much) fed the little -cock like the father; and I have sometimes seen these two of their -superfluity feeding their neglected brother. He throve well on the -little attention he got.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0081"> - <img src="images/i-0081.jpg" width="500" height="251" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>I brought up several nests-ful. We had Tweedledum and -Tweedledee,—Tweedledee’s name was subsequently changed to “Jewel” by -a little cousin to whom I gave it, and who considered it a priceless -treasure,—and Daffodil, the neglected nondescript, and Vicary, and -Roumenik, called after the Wallachian country-place of some friends<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>82</span> -of ours; and others whose names I forget. Roumenik was the only one I -kept, he was the last hatched, and was called “the Baby” until he died -at the mature age of eight years.</p> - -<p>There was one wonderful chicken who did not live to have a name. He -was very precocious, and died young. This was how it happened: the -misguided Mummy laid an egg in January, and in consequence, as I have -always believed, of the weather being so much too cold when it was -hatched, the bird could never get fledged; when it had already begun -to be active and of a roving disposition, it still had no feathers on. -Even sprouting wing-feathers might have broken its fall a little, on -the many occasions when it tried to get out of the nest and fell on its -back on the bottom of the cage. One day it had a fall more serious than -usual, and till evening it sat on the edge of its waterglass with its -head hanging down and its neck apparently dislocated. In the morning -I found it dead in the waterglass. So I do not know to this day which -accident it died of.</p> - -<p>But meanwhile a sudden stirring of domestic instincts came to Thyrsis, -and she was stimulated to rival Mummy’s nest-building. I gave her a -little basket and materials for a nest, and she set to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>83</span> work and built -a very good nest, and sat in it for six weeks, till her claws grew long -and her legs grew weak, and there was of course no sign of an egg. -Then I took it away from her, for I was afraid she would be ill with -sitting, and it would never be the least use. Poor Thyrsis! under other -circumstances she might have proved herself, if less vulgar, quite as -effective as Mummy in building and breeding. When I had had her about -seven or eight years she died quite suddenly. Was it of a broken heart? -Had Jack’s too late attentions stirred in her the emotion of love, as -he clung to the corner of his cage, singing to her and leaving his -babies to starve?</p> - -<p>There is just one more canary I must mention, for it had a curious name -and history. It was called after one of my relations “Uncle Arthur”; -that is to say, it was called so by myself and my brothers; for it was -supposed to be called “Arthur” by my mother and “Mr. Sidgwick” by the -outside world.</p> - -<p>Uncle Arthur was Jack’s brother, but Jack had a monopoly of the -intelligence of the family. Uncle Arthur had been half starved when -he first came to me, and it had affected his intellect. Perhaps I had -better mention that it was not from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>84</span> any supposed similarity in this -respect that he was named after my uncle. He was idiotic in strange -ways; for instance, I have known him try to bathe in a draught, from -which he got inflammation of the lungs. For a long time, also, I -found it was quite safe to take him out of doors without clipping his -wings, for he was too foolish to know how to fly. One day, however, -he astonished me by suddenly flying up into the top of a tree, which -proved that his apparent powerlessness was the result of idiocy; for -when he happened, as thus at intervals, to hit upon the right way of -using his wings, he could fly quite well, though in a rather curious -manner and with a pigeon-like noise. He never seemed to want to build -nests, he never even serenaded any of the hen-birds of Jack’s family. -He had a very happy, limited life. When he was already getting old -I gave him away. I am sorry to say that his death was compassed -accidentally by his new mistress; she was so much disgusted with him -because he would not wash [he had probably forgotten how to], that she -washed him one day herself with soap and flannel. Uncle Arthur died of -it.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0085"> - <img src="images/i-0085.jpg" width="500" height="431" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>Jack outlived all the rest. Towards the end of Mummy’s life all -illusion about her passed away;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>85</span> -he got irritated and used to pull feathers out of her, though he tried -to make up by much affection between times. But it was not Mummy’s -fault. She was frankly vulgar from the beginning, and Jack, with his -keen perception of character, ought to have known it.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>86</span></p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>87</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>88</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="vii">VII<br /> -<span>A REGULAR FLIRT</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>89</span> -<span class="dropcap">G</span>YPSY was so called because he was bought off a gypsy-cart. A friend of -mine was attracted by his wonderful voice, and gave a half-crown for -him. Others were attracted by his voice too, with results more fatal.</p> - -<p>He was in his first year when I had him, and it was not until the -second year that his feathers and his fascination attained their full -proportions. Gypsy was a mule, a cross between a goldfinch and canary. -His back was dark green, he had a yellowish breast with dark splashes -on it, black wing feathers, and two patches on his cheeks the colour -of gooseberry fool; and he had a reddish golden crest, which he could -raise a little when he was excited.</p> - -<p>The next summer was beautiful weather at Oxford, and I took Gypsy there -when I went to College, though I cannot say that he aided study.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>90</span> If I -read, he got up a quarrel with the leaves of the book, and flew at them -as I turned them over. If I wrote, he fell into a passion with my pen, -and ran across the wet ink on my paper to peck it. And his love-affairs -were very distracting.</p> - -<p>Gypsy’s cage used to be put all day on the window-sill; and I began -after a time to be aware that he was liable to be seized by sudden -agitations, when he fluttered backwards and forwards in his cage, with -a quick, excited note. A few days more and the cause of this agitation -became apparent; for a little goldfinch, a hen goldfinch I suppose, -came and sat upon the window-sill.</p> - -<p>The intimacy rapidly improved; the goldfinch would come into the room -and sit on Gypsy’s cage; it made friends with a siskin and a bullfinch -in the next room, and would roost in an empty cage there at night.</p> - -<p>Gypsy’s wing-feathers were clipped, so that I could let him walk -about out of doors. When I took him into the garden he called to his -friend, and the goldfinch dropped down by his side to take a walk with -him. Other goldfinches came sometimes, but only one constantly and -fearlessly when I was there. One day I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>91</span> remember Gypsy walking down the -path in front of me accompanied by three friends.</p> - -<p>But it was not long before there was a signal of danger. The house we -were in was having some rooms added on to it, and there were workmen -about. One day when I was sitting in my room and Gypsy was having an At -Home, there was a little sound outside, and a limed stick was gently -shoved towards my window-sill. Of course I remonstrated, and of course -I was told by the workmen that they had done it entirely for my sake, -because they thought that I should like to have the bird in a cage,—I -could have caught the bird ten times over if I had wished it.</p> - -<p>But this, I fear, must after all have been the end of the love-lorn -bird; for it disappeared suddenly, and I never saw it again.</p> - -<p>For a long time Gypsy had no society but mine and the canaries. He did -not care for canaries, and he was mostly in a passion with me. But -after some time a pair of goldfinches was given to us, much attached to -each other and otherwise uninteresting. One day I put Gypsy in their -cage to see what would happen. In three minutes a complete change had -been worked in that happy home. Gypsy was sitting with the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>92</span> little -lady on her perch, whispering sweet nothings into her ear, while her -disconsolate spouse sat by himself on the perch below, meditating -pistols for two and coffee for one.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0092"> - <img src="images/i-0092.jpg" width="500" height="433" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>I will do Gypsy the justice to say that he admired himself quite as -much as anyone else admired him. When he was held to the looking-glass -he did not fight his reflection as some animals do, he fell deeply in -love with it, and whispered to it in a tiny, sweet, wooing voice, until -it was obscured by a little circle of damp breath on the glass.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>93</span> -Some one may ask why, if Gypsy was so universally attractive and so -extremely susceptible, I did not provide him with a wife to himself. -Simply because it would have been no good; Gypsy was a mere flirt; he -never would have had nests and eggs and brought up families like other -birds; he was a mule-bird, and they cannot be domestic.</p> - -<p>Gypsy had one last flickering of flirtation. I took his cage out one -day into a London garden, and sat with him under a tree, and he sang -loud; suddenly I heard a sound very unfamiliar in London, the voice -of a bird which was hopping about on the tree above. I looked up, and -through the leaves I could see that it was a little goldfinch; but it -was shy and flew away.</p> - -<p>These mule-birds die generally very suddenly; and Gypsy died without -apparent sign of illness at about the age of ten years.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>94</span></p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>95</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>96</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="viii">VIII<br /> -<span>A FAITHFUL FRIEND</span></h2> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0097"> - <img src="images/i-0097.jpg" width="500" height="443" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>97</span> -<span class="dropcap">W</span>E were called into my mother’s room one day, and shown a hamper -which had just arrived. The hamper was strangely agitated, like that -hasty-pudding in which Tom Thumb sheltered, and when it was opened out -rolled a puppy! It was a collie puppy, long haired, black, with tan<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>98</span> -cheeks, a white tip to his tail, white collar and paws, and wholly -fascinating.</p> - -<p>It was really a charming puppy; at present too young to sin; too young -to do anything but roll about and be petted.</p> - -<p>He was named Watch, “for,” said the friend who gave him, “he is a sheep -dog, and you are a pastoral family”—a very pretty reason, but I think -she was also influenced by the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">horlogerie</i> of our namesake.</p> - -<p>Time passed, and Watch grew older and uglier. His neck lengthened, -until his ears looked like ridiculous ornaments on the top of it, his -legs grew long and lanky, his coat grew thin, and he grew naughty. He -did not indeed eat up slippers, which is the favourite employment of -story-book puppies, but he did pull most of a cold Sunday dinner on to -the lawn, lick the butter out of the dish, and leave joints of mutton -and beef on the grass. And he had another very original, reprehensible, -natural impulse—he wished to garden. His method of gardening was to -dig up saplings from a carefully-planted hedge of yews. He knew it -was wrong, but he could not help it. When he was seen thus employed, -he fled back and sheltered himself in his stable. He was just in that -state of mind and body which answers in human beings<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>99</span> to the condition -of rapid growth and dissatisfied temper, when sleeves retreat up the -arms, and frocks and knickerbockers up the legs, and the family seems -to be in a conspiracy for making things disagreeable to you.</p> - -<p>So it seemed best that he should be sent to a shepherd for training. -He went, and three months passed, and we looked daily for his return; -when one morning, I was sent for to the door, where I saw, held in a -strap, a beautiful, bashful, silky collie, small and well-proportioned, -with long tail and ruff, and silk-fringed legs, ready to hide his face -against the first friend with affection. I could hardly believe it was -Watch—he was full-blown, come out!</p> - -<p>That he should sleep in a stable any longer was a manifest -impossibility. Watch was established as a house-dog.</p> - -<p>He was wonderfully quick and obedient; he learnt to shut the door, play -the piano, shake hands, catch things from his nose, and lie dead, in -no time. He was so gentle that one could put little animals under his -charge; the canary would stand on his head, and a kitten run between -his paws. One of our blue-eyed white kittens, granddaughter of the -formidable cat Rector, attached herself warmly to him.</p> - -<p>But there were one or two circumstances under<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>100</span> which he was not docile. -Soon after he came home we took him for a walk in the fields near the -town. He followed quietly; when, suddenly, he spied a flock of sheep -feeding, and up went the white tufted tail like a banner; nothing could -hold him; no threats restrain him, until from hedge and ditch he had -collected the whole flock into marching order. Much severe treatment -was necessary before we could induce him to relinquish his profession. -Then often as we went through the fields, Watch following with an eager -eye, longing to be off after a scattered flock, an old north-country -shepherd would sidle up and “pass the time of day,” and gently turn the -conversation until he could say, “I suppose that dog of yours is not -for sale?” He was right, Watch was not for sale.</p> - -<p>He could not, it is true, quite resist the instinct of the chase; and -often one saw him flying down the garden in pursuit of the white kitten -Midge, while her old-fashioned, under-bred, good-hearted tabby mother -followed to protect her. But nothing happened; he rolled over and over -with Midge, and Jenny jumped upon the soft heap, and dealt out boxes of -the ear when Watch’s head got uppermost. Then they all got amicably up -together, and went off quite good friends. Once, I am sorry<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>101</span> to say, he -did break the leg of a rabbit, but he was more surprised than any one -else at it. I found him another time, having caught a blackbird; he was -very much surprised and delighted, but puzzled as to the right course -to adopt next; so he made short runs at it, and pretended to bite it, -and wagged his tail very much, and asked me to come up and look at it.</p> - -<p>As for the goat, he was a most excellent good comrade with her. He -exercised all his sheep-driving skill to fetch her when she lagged -behind. And it takes as much skill to fetch one goat as fifty sheep. -When she behaved well, he consented to go in double harness with her. -The double harness was made out of tape dyed purple with Judson’s dyes. -There was an old madman who lived in a house opposite the field where I -generally drove them. He was very fond of watching the performance.</p> - -<p>But now I come to a part of Watch’s character which I cannot present in -such a favourable light. He was jealous.</p> - -<p>Of course we did not find it out at first. He was not brought into -comparison with other dogs, only with inferior animals, and he -would naturally not be jealous of them. We are not jealous of our<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>102</span> -friend’s cat and dog, but of our friend’s friends. Watch was not -jealous of our cats and birds, and goats and guinea-pigs, but of our -dog-acquaintance. Occasionally he showed slight uneasiness when a horse -or a baby was much noticed; they were rather too high in the scale of -creation—nearly at the level of dogs.</p> - -<p>But one day there had been a dog show near us, and after the booths had -been taken down, and the exhibits gone, one poor spaniel was discovered -who had lost his friends, and appealed to us for sympathy; so we -invited him to afternoon tea in the garden. Watch came to tea as usual; -but when he saw the other dog, he suddenly became demonstratively -affectionate. This was quite appreciated; but the other dog was not -therefore neglected. So Watch bit him. This was not appreciated at all. -We told Watch so, but he only sat down and turned his back to us, and -gave the family five minutes for repentance; and as they did not fall -on their knees, and beseech his forgiveness, he solemnly marched away -into the house and lay in his master’s study, quite alone, sulking. I -am sorry to say, too, that he conceived occasionally the most violent -antipathies to the most delightful and well-intentioned people. There -was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>103</span> a friend of ours, devoted to dogs in general, and to him in -particular, whom he would not allow to touch him; he would not take -food from her hand; once, when he had accepted from some one else the -food he had refused from her, he stopped eating it because he heard her -laugh. Once he was the victim of uncontrollable fascination. A girl -came to tea, at whose greeting he growled; then he lay down in a corner -with his eyes fixed on her. She went on talking and taking no notice of -him, and he came out into the room, little by little, looking at her, -till he finally sat straight in front of her, with his eyes fixed on -hers; and there he remained until she went away.</p> - -<p>Watch had become identified with the family, to the extent of being -called “Watch Benson” by many friends. His English vocabulary was -wonderfully large. I remember the surprise of one gentleman who came -to talk business with my father. Watch was in the room, and, hearing -our voices outside, suddenly started to the door, which was shut. “Why -don’t you go out of the window, then?” my father said, quite quietly, -and Watch in a moment ran to the window and jumped out.</p> - -<p>I never quite knew what Watch’s position was towards religious -exercises. I think he approved<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>104</span> of them, but disapproved of our -exclusiveness about them. So he pretended altogether to despise -church. He was depressed on Sunday morning, came to the garden gate to -congratulate us when church was over, and pretended to be sleepy when -the time for evening church drew near. But I think that was because he -was not allowed to go; for he took up a very different position about -prayers; he insisted on coming; he had his own stall in a window; -though occasionally, when strangers were there, and he could not be -turned out, he suddenly decided to leave it for the softer rugs in the -middle of the chapel. There was one memorable occurrence, when the 26th -chapter of St. Matthew was read, and Watch got more and more excited -as he heard his own name repeated more and more emphatically, until at -the final, “I say unto all, <em>Watch</em>,” he ran eagerly out into the -middle—such exciting, personal prayers!</p> - -<p>But he made a great point of attending; for when we changed our -house, and came to the conclusion that his presence would no longer -be appreciated, his efforts to attend prayers were quite pathetic. -Sometimes he scratched at the door, or pushed it open, and marched in -in the middle; sometimes he slunk in when we went into the chapel, and -sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>105</span> ran in first and tried to hide. He had a vague idea in his -mind, that it was some special privilege, some special identification -with the family.</p> - -<p>Now that we were in London half the year, Watch could not be with us -constantly. For one thing his dirty paws were such a mortification to -him, and we thought he would die from the amount of soot he licked -off. And he could not go walks, for he would stand smiling at us in -the middle of the street, with a tram, two omnibuses, a cart, and four -hansoms, bearing down upon him. So he went to stay with friends, or -down to the farm in the country.</p> - -<p>That last was often necessary, but not a great success. Watch was -very exclusive; he never would go walking with servants, except when -everyone else was—not out, for he might have met them—but away -from home. The one exception was when the servants were nurses with -children. He was fond of children, and did not think it <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">infra -dig.</i> to play with them. In the same way he despised everyone at the -farm, and had to be treated in a very special manner, quite different -from all other dogs. “Why can’t Watch live like any of the other dogs?” -one of the children asked. “Oh, my dear, Watch is much too good for -us,” his mother told him, with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>106</span> a deep sarcasm. No other dog could -come on the rug when Watch was lying there. The cat might come and was -welcome, and liked the benevolent old gentleman. Just as one would not -like anybody to come and take half of one’s armchair, but might be -rather flattered if a cat or a little dog jumped up to settle itself -there. Cats were only cats, and fit subjects for philanthropy, but -other dogs were his own ill-bred relatives. As some one summed it up, -“Watch doesn’t care for dogs.”</p> - -<p>The other dogs could not be expected to appreciate this, and Watch’s -airs provoked at last one outburst from King, the steady old -patriarchal collie of the farm. King flew upon him one fine day to -have it out, and all the other dogs, seeing that King “had taken out a -free ticket,” as the bailiff phrased it, flew to avenge their private -grievances. Watch was very nearly killed, but he kept his airs to -the last. Such strong arguments were brought to bear upon King, that -ever after, when Watch crossed the yard, King retired promptly to his -kennel. He could not trust his own self-control, and fled temptation.</p> - -<p>Poor King! he had a sad end. He and a young golden collie called Pat -went out together in some woods—poachers, I fear. Towards evening Pat -came back in a fearful state of agitation, trembling.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>107</span> The dog must -have longed for words to tell what he had seen! But they guessed it. -The gamekeeper was known to have a grudge against King, and he was -never heard of again from that day to this.</p> - -<p>Watch had a very different end. He grew old and blind. He had to live -altogether at the farm now, but he did not mind that. He had two great -friends. One was the bailiff’s daughter, and one the niece of the -landlady at the “Cricketers,” over the way. The first nursed Watch, -the second he went to see every day. But the niece got married, and -Watch never crossed the road again, but transferred all his affection -to Katie. He was nearly blind now, quite deaf, and very rheumatic. He -had not much emotion left; it soon wearied him. I remember while he -was still at the house, that when we all came home at the end of the -holidays in two detachments, he greeted the first-comers effusively, -and then retired under the sofa, and took no notice of the second batch -until they had been in the house about an hour; then, his emotions -being rested, he came out and greeted them too with affection.</p> - -<p>But two loves remained to the end; his love for Katie and his love -for milk pudding—and Katie<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>108</span> generally gave him the milk pudding. He -hobbled about after her as long as he could, and sat in her room. Once -they thought him dying. He lay on Katie’s bed, and Katie was away—was -coming back that evening. His head lay on the pillow and his eyes were -closed, and they thought him dead, when Katie came upstairs and spoke -to him; and the life came back to him, and she fed him, and he lived a -few days more. Then he died, this time with Katie close to him.</p> - -<p>He is buried by the gold-fish pond under a cedar, and he has a -tombstone and an epitaph, “<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Esne Vigil</i>.” And the other day I -passed by, and freshly-gathered daisies were lying on it. I think Katie -must have put them there.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0108"> - <img src="images/i-0108.jpg" width="500" height="251" alt="" /> -</div> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>109</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>110</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="ix">IX<br /> -<span>KIDS OF THE GOATS</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>111</span> -<span class="dropcap">T</span>HEY were Zoe and Marcianus Capello (but she was no kid), and Capricorn -and his brother, and Chat and Tan. I did not possess them all at the -same time; in fact, I never had more than three at one time, and that -was because Marcianus Capello had twins.</p> - -<p>Zoe was the first. When she came to us she was a little white kid, just -taken from her mother; she was very pretty, with a dark mark down her -back and two little tassels of hair on her neck. But, as I say, she was -only just taken from her mother, and the first evening was full of much -trouble and care, for we could not find anything she would eat, and -we thought she would be starved. She would not be fed, moreover, with -milk, and we were in despair until we thought of trying if she would -eat the tender sprouts of may. It was early spring, and for a day or so -all her meals were taken in our<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>112</span> arms, as we held her up to nibble at -the hawthorn hedge.</p> - -<p>But she soon grew less fastidious, and, as goats do, would eat -anything, from garden flowers, laurel leaves, and cabbages, down to -paper and bread. She was tethered in the field, and this was very -necessary, for if she was free she would follow us everywhere, would -go walks with us out of doors, and would come into the house after us. -The chief difficulty with kids is superabundant affection; they wail -pitifully when one leaves them alone, and cannot be persuaded that -their presence is not always desirable. Some friends of ours—they were -Quakers too—used to dress up a stick with a waterproof and hat to -keep their kid company. It satisfied her completely; but was it quite -consistent with the Friends’ idea of truth?</p> - -<p>Zoe nearly had a bad accident once, in consequence of her fondness -for coming into the house. I was sitting on the steps at the door -and playing with her, when suddenly she bounced away from me and -ran into the drawing-room. I pursued her, and she, knowing she was -wrong, ran farther, saw a way of escape, and jumped straight through a -large plate-glass window. I thought she would be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>113</span> cut to pieces, and -in agonies rushed outside, where I found her making the most of her -opportunities by devouring our best rose trees under the window.</p> - -<p>Zoe lived with us for a year. Then I was kept indoors by a bad cold and -throat, and I heard that the kid was sympathising with me by having a -bad throat also. But alas, poor Zoe! her throat was much worse than -mine, and though we strapped a little blanket on her back to keep her -warm, and though the gardener and the cowman poured gruel down her -throat, when she could hardly swallow, she got thinner and weaker, and -one morning she died. I sobbed audibly all through prayers that morning.</p> - -<p>Then a friend of mine told me that some cousins of hers were anxious -to part with a goat they had, and Marcianus Capello, otherwise called -Marcap, arrived. She was not at all like Zoe; she was a large, dull, -elderly, brown and white goat. She did not want to make friends at all; -she chiefly wanted to eat. But there was one great advantage about -her, for a few weeks after I had her she gave birth to two little twin -billygoats—two fluffy black-and-white creatures with huge legs.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>114</span> -Marcap was, like Zoe, tethered in the field, and it was supposed that -filial affection would keep the kids near her. The kids had a fine -time in consequence. One morning one heard a rattling over the roof of -the nursery, and found the kids were playing King of the Castle on the -house-top. Another time they came skipping out of a yard where building -was going on, covered with lime to the tops of their legs; and for some -little time we were terribly afraid that the smallest kid would lose -his eyesight, as he had splashed lime up into his eyes, and that they -both would come out of it with skinny hairless legs. A procession, -of my nurse holding a cup of milk and water, myself and my youngest -brother (who was too naughty to be left alone), could be seen crossing -the field three times a day to bathe the kid’s eyes.</p> - -<p>When the kids were old enough to do without their mother, we gave -Marcap away. I did not mind parting with Marcap; I never should have -got fond of her, for she had no idea of intimacy. But to part with a -kid was a different matter; it took us a long time to decide that it -would be better to keep the biggest and strongest kid, Capricorn; and -we gave away the little one.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>115</span> -Capricorn proved just a little more warlike than it is quite convenient -for a kid to be, if you are in the habit of taking it out for walks. -In the first place, if he met a flock of sheep in a field, he would at -once begin to drive them away, running and butting after them. In the -second place, if he met cows, he would invariably have a pitched battle -with them, unless he was dragged away by main force. I have seen him in -the middle of a ring of cows, knocked down by them, and getting up to -butt them again. Thirdly, if he met a donkey, even in a cart, he would -go for it, which sometimes caused the drivers of the cart to swear. -Lastly, if he met children, he would try to awe them by standing on his -hind-legs. His wickedness gradually developed with his growth. Before -he was grown up he was a very affectionate kid. Once, when I turned -back in a walk, the rest of my family had the greatest difficulty in -inducing Capricorn to go with them. He got on very well with our wise -collie. Watch was useful in fetching him up, if he lagged behind in a -walk to carry out some of his evil designs. I had a little cart for -Capricorn, too, and made him pull up stones for a rockery we were -making; this was a good outlet for his energies, and he had less time -to be wicked.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>116</span> -But he finally got too fierce for us to keep him any longer. If I was -running down a hill by his side he would try to hook me with his horns, -and he was not at all to be trusted with children. I gave him away -reluctantly, and it was some consolation to hear that he nearly killed -his new master, who came upon him suddenly in the dark. Since then I -found out that it was not individual wickedness, but, so to speak, -class wickedness, and that it is rarely safe to keep a billygoat when -he grows up.</p> - -<p>Then for some time I had no kid. After a while a lady near who kept -goats gave me two kids.</p> - -<p>These were very pretty kids; one was quite white, the other fawn -colour, and very graceful. They would follow me everywhere; but, as I -could not keep two, Chat, the white one, was given away.</p> - -<p>It was considerably easier to take Tan walks than it had been to take -Capricorn; for Tan did not want to fight every beast or child she met. -Watch was useful in fetching her as he had been with Capricorn. Long -afterwards, when the acquaintanceship between them was a thing of the -past, to say, “Watch, fetch the kid,” would bring<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>117</span> her hurrying up to -us. Tan was the only one of my goats who ever learnt a trick, but I -taught her to shake hands in exchange for leaves or oats.</p> - -<p>Then we moved from the place where we were living, and I left Tan -behind me for a child of the family who were coming into our old house. -I heard no more of her for a year, and then they wrote to me to say -that Tan was pining, and they wished that I would send for her. So she -came up by train, and the first moment she saw me she remembered me, -and we shook hands.</p> - -<p>Tan is still alive. On misty summer mornings, one sees her pass the -windows heading a herd of cows; she is much too proud to walk with -sheep; and though she will condescend to go with cows, she keeps -herself to herself, never talks to any of them, but preserves a proud -and solitary position. On rare occasions a sudden burst of friendship -or curiosity will induce her to come into the house with me.</p> - -<p>But my friendship with Tan, I must confess it, is not what it was; -perhaps it might never have waned if I had not consented to the year’s -separation. But although occasionally we bleat to each other from a -distance, though we shake hands over<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>118</span> a few oats, she no longer runs -to meet me if I come near, she no longer cries out with a wailing -bleat when I go away, she no longer has to be tied up to prevent -her following me. And I do not think it is age that has made this -difference, I think it was worked by that year of separation.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0118"> - <img src="images/i-0118.jpg" width="500" height="353" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>Passing through the farmyard on a cold day, I found Tan in the corner -where the dead leaves had blown up, and lay a foot or more deep. She -was standing in the deepest part of the heap, which came up to the top -of her legs, and had secured herself, as it were, a good hot bottle for -the night.</p> - -<p>In conclusion, I would say that there are no pets more enchanting -than kids. They will give you<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>119</span> as much amusement as kittens or -puppies; while they are as intelligent as grown-up dogs, and even more -wildly devoted. But there are two things you must never expect of a -goat,—neither the least unselfishness in their affection, nor the -smallest spark of benevolence.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>120</span></p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>121</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>122</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="x">X<br /> -<span>COMMUNITY LIFE</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>123</span> -<span class="dropcap">O</span>UR old cowman Callaway was Cornish; he taught me to milk; he took a -fatherly interest in my animals; he talked Cornished English, and I -understood about a quarter of what he said. He had a wife who worked in -the house of a neighbour of ours, and a very elegant daughter. I never -could imagine how her hats and jackets and dresses got into the hovel -in which the family lived; however, I suppose they must have got into -it, for they certainly came out.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0123"> - <img src="images/i-0123.jpg" width="500" height="261" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>The wife’s employer’s daughter kept guinea-pigs;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>124</span> and Callaway promised -to get us a white one. In due time he appeared with it. But to our -delight, when the box was opened, out came two little white creatures, -with shining red eyes, not weak bluish-pink eyes, but real good red -ones like little jewels. They were named Ixtlilxochitl and Atahualpa, -and installed in a wooden house with a wired-in yard under the laurel -trees of the drying-ground. Here they rapidly became naturalised; -burrowing under their wire fence, they found the way to the long, -fresh grass beyond, and enjoyed as much liberty as they wished till -nightfall, when the wooden slide of their house shut them safe from -dogs and rats and cats.</p> - -<p>I had many sympathisers in my amusements. Not only was there Callaway -the cowman, who became house-builder to the community, but my old nurse -used to take the guinea-pigs a breakfast of soaked bread every morning; -and we had a butler sagacious about animals, to appeal to as a highest -authority on all difficult questions. So when, one morning, I opened -the slide, to find two new white things about as big as large mice -gaily running about, the first thing I did was to run to the servants’ -hall and summon the butler to advise in this difficult and delicate -situation. Ixtlilxochitl was sent to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>125</span> a new hutch, hastily erected for -him, and Atahualpa kept house for the babies.</p> - -<p>This was very good for the development of Ixtlilxochitl’s character. -He became very tame, learnt to sit up with his forepaws on my finger, -and to “lie dead” on his back with his little pink hands and feet in -the air; guinea-pigs’ forefeet are really small pink hands, with short -claws on the fingers, and a rudimentary thumb.</p> - -<p>Guinea-pigs grow up very soon; they have no helpless infancy at all. -I have heard of a guinea-pig eating bran twenty minutes after it was -born. I know we used to carry the infants about and let them run up our -sleeves till they stuck, and had to be pulled back by their hind-legs; -and though I would not recommend this practice, they never seemed to -take any harm from it. Then, when they are about three months old they -become heads of families. At first the family only consists of one or -two members, but they increase in number until each family numbers -seven or eight. You may expect a new family once every six or eight -weeks. There is a nice sum in geometrical progression! And after this -general statement of the matter you will hardly expect me to give -you a history of each individual, though I made a chart of their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>126</span> -genealogies. I will, however, give a short biographical notice of the -most interesting characters.</p> - -<p>The first two were Ulfias and Brastias. Ulfias was a nice, comely -guinea-pig; he took after his father, and had brown whiskers. Brastias -had pink ears, which were generally much bitten, and fierce red eyes; -he was an ill-conditioned, cross little beast, and a great fighter. -Moreover, he was a murderer.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0126"> - <img src="images/i-0126.jpg" width="500" height="305" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>It is the funniest thing in the world to see guinea-pigs fighting. -They stand on the tips of their toes and raise their noses, until they -present the chin only to their adversaries; then they begin to dance -round, always chin to chin, gnashing their teeth; when they see a good -opportunity they fly in and bite. It is a scientific way of fighting, -like wrestling or fencing—quite different from the indiscriminate -plunge of a cat, who rolls round in a heap with her adversary.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>127</span> -After these two came Enid, Elaine, and Geraint. Enid was the first to -have a baby, and she had only one—a fat round one, which grew and -prospered until one day when he suddenly disappeared. We searched and -hunted with anxious hearts, but with no result. After a time we wanted -to move the hutches to a new place, and when we took up that in which -poor Enid and the baby lived, there was a hole under it—a rat’s hole, -and at the end of the hole, as we peered down, we saw a little white -thing—the skin and bones of a baby guinea-pig. Enid never had another -baby; she grew sad and thin and pined away, and at last she died.</p> - -<p>Then Elaine had a baby—two; but one was deformed, completely paralysed -in his hind-legs, and I felt that the kindest thing to do would be to -destroy him. So I took out a bottle of laudanum, and prepared to begin -the hari-kari. Poor little guinea-pig! it was already very ill, and I -could with difficulty get its little rabbit-like mouth open. What a -tiny throat! could it swallow even enough poison to end its panting -little life? When I laid it down again there was very little change, -and I did not know what to do; then the pink nose, the hands and feet, -began to have a slightly blue tinge.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>128</span> I could not disturb it again to -open its mouth, so I poured a little more laudanum on its mouth and -nose, and the limbs got bluer, and the breathing became harder, and at -last ceased. It was a dreadful thing to do. However, on the whole, it -was less dreadful than drowning it. Once I had to drown a bat.... We -will draw a veil over that.</p> - -<p>However, to proceed with the guinea-pigs. The baby that was not -deformed was a very nice little pig—small but comely. He grew up and -was called Jim.</p> - -<p>There is an individuality about guinea-pigs, not explicable but to be -apprehended intuitively. Jim was quite individual. You would have known -that if you had only seen him sitting upright at his mother’s side to -nibble out of the hay trough.</p> - -<p>The guinea-pigs lived in a large estate fenced in by wire; inside the -yard were various settlements, bedrooms, all with free access to the -yard, and usually to the ground beyond, for they made holes under the -wire and disported themselves outside. They had a beautiful rack to -hold their hay, saucers for bran, and were given a breakfast of soaked -bread every morning. At breakfast-time shrill whistles might be heard -from the guinea-pig<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>129</span> yard. Most people think guinea-pigs have only -one noise, but in reality they have, quite clearly defined, three -fundamental notes, of desire, contentment, and anger. They whistle when -they are hungry, make what are called “guinea-pig noises” when they are -well content—for ordinary conversation, and they gnash their teeth -when they are angry.</p> - -<p>About this time, when the colony was not too large, I used to take them -out for picnics.</p> - -<p>Opposite the front door, at the corner of the lawn, there is a large -escalonia tree; on warm summer evenings it sheds a delicious fragrant -smell from leaves and flowers. Opposite this there is a stile made to -get into the fields. The stile is made in such a manner as to be a very -comfortable seat. Here, under the escalonia, I used to turn out the -guinea-pigs for a day in the country, while I read a book on the stile, -and Watch was put to guard them; if any little pig strayed too far, he -saw where it went to, and helped me to find it again.</p> - -<p>But, in time, the colony grew too large for this, and at last it began -to increase with a rapidity that alarmed me; for, as you see, it is not -a case of the simple geometrical progression of creatures<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>130</span> which have -the same number in every family; but, as guinea-pigs get older, each -family gets larger, so that it is like a sum in compound interest, at -an accelerating rate of interest. I began to be frightened when the -“five Mitchinsons” were born, and the next family was larger still.</p> - -<p>In fact, they would have eaten us out of garden and farm, if it had not -been for what political economists call “violent checks”; these violent -checks were kidnapping, nepoticide, and massacre.</p> - -<p>Kidnapping was the first check. Our house was being added to, and there -were various workmen about, and one morning when I visited the hutches, -Daisy and Ally Mitchinson were missing. There is no more to say about -it; they were never seen again. I felt like a mother, who, having -complained of the burden and size of her family, is deprived of one of -them.</p> - -<p>But that was not the worst. Atahualpa was still flourishing, although a -great-great-grandmother. One morning I found reason to seclude her from -the rest of the community, and by an arrangement of hutches, I shut off -a little yard for her by herself.</p> - -<p>I came back a few hours later, and I found Brastias had displayed -himself in his true colours<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>131</span> at last. He had leaped the barrier, and -was standing with gory mouth and fiery eye, over the carcase of a baby -guinea-pig. In another corner of the hutch was Atahualpa, behaving with -the supremest indifference to six more.</p> - -<p>That day I gave away sixteen guinea-pigs. But I believe that we should -have had a repetition of Bishop Hatto, if it had not been for the last -check—namely, massacre.</p> - -<p>We were overrun with rats, and rat-catchers were sent for. One morning -two men came up with their dogs. The men were looking at the rat-holes, -and arranging a plan of campaign, when suddenly they found that the -dogs were not with them. Across the wall which separated the cow -stables and haystacks from the garden and guinea-pig yard, they heard a -doleful noise. They ran round, and found that the dogs had been doing -their duty nobly, and all the guinea-pigs but two lay dead on the -ground.</p> - -<p>The victims were buried in a large grave, and my brother found a -suitable slate and wrote a Latin epitaph on it. He put it up as a -headstone, and enjoyed the proceeding very much.</p> - -<p>But I did not enjoy it. I had not the heart to keep guinea-pigs any -more. I gave away the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>132</span> two survivors, and the hutches mouldered away, -and cucumbers grew over the yard, and only the genealogy and the -tombstone were left as memorials of that very large family with the -white coats and jewelled eyes.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>133</span> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>134</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="xi">XI<br /> -<span>FINISHED SOLOMON</span></h2> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0135"> - <img src="images/i-0135.jpg" width="500" height="182" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>135</span> -<span class="dropcap">K</span>ING Solomon was journeying through a thirsty land—sand beneath his -feet, sand around as far as a man could see, above the pitiless blue -sky. No tree could grow here, and no rock was there to cast its shadow -on the sand. “What shall shield me,” said the king, “from the fury of -this sun?” Then was heard the sound of light wings beating the air, for -all creatures knew the voice of the words of King Solomon; and there -came through the air a cloud of hoopoes, and they spread their barred -wings, and closed them together, wing to wing, and they shielded King -Solomon. So, when the toilsome journey was over, the king called the -hoopoes, and said, “O hoopoes, what<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>136</span> will ye that I give you for your -service done to me this day?” And the hoopoes said, “O King, give us -crowns of gold”; and the king gave the hoopoes crowns of pure gold.</p> - -<p>But men hunted the hoopoes through the length and breadth of the land, -and they killed them for the sake of their golden crowns; then the -hoopoes cried to King Solomon, for King Solomon knew the voice of all -beasts and birds, yea of the creeping things also, and the hoopoes -said, “Take away our crowns, O king, for men kill us for the sake of -our golden crowns.” And Solomon took away their crowns. “Yet,” said he, -“it shall be known what the hoopoes did for the King,” and he gave them -crowns of golden feathers.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>So says the <cite>Book of the Enchantments of the King</cite>, and that is -why my hoopoe was called Solomon.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I was riding through a village near Thebes in the evening, and among -the groups of children who held out grimy hands and cried “Backsheesh”; -and the half-blind boys who made the somewhat startling statement, -“Finished Fazzer, finished<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>137</span> Muzzer, I yam berry hongerry”; I saw at the -door of a mud house three children, one of whom swung towards me a bird -he held by the wings,—and I recognised the helpless, half-dead, fluffy -mass for a hoopoe.</p> - -<p>I refused to give them the wages of sin, and they were too much -surprised to attempt to hinder the departure of the hoopoe. Indeed, if -they had kept it much longer, it would have departed without assistance -by the silent road, for one claw had been tied back to its leg, and it -had been swung in that manner till its tormentors happened to think -that they had better try the wings instead; its crown of feathers had -been pulled out; and when I got back to the hotel, it shut its eyes -and fell forwards on the point of its beak as if it was about to die. -The string had been tied so tightly that it was with difficulty that -we got it free from its bonds, and then we plied it with whisky and -water. That was no easy matter either, for it would not open its mouth, -and one had first to get the long beak open, and then to hold it so, -while from a feather dipped in the refreshing beverage a drop trickled -down the pink throat; then the bill was shut, and one watched to see -if the feathers of the throat would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>138</span> ruffle and give sign that the -drop was passing down. The method succeeded, for presently the little -forked tongue was shot out to suck up the liquid, the little brown -eyes opened, and the hoopoe, taking in the situation, hurried into the -corner of the window-sill, and supposed that he was hiding himself by -laying his long bill up the wall.</p> - -<p>It would certainly be necessary to provide the hoopoe with a -habitation, were he only the guest of a day; so a crate which had -contained pottery was found, its straw was arranged nestwise, and the -bird was bestowed in it, much to its own satisfaction.</p> - -<p>But the diet was a problem. Its natural food was live insects. I went -so far as to kill a housefly, but it was a very disgusting process, and -the fly was not at all well received; moreover, I was not sure whether -the hoopoe was of an age to receive, shall I say <em>peptonised</em> -food from his parents, or whether he preferred the raw material. -But as the best compromise, including the carnivorous and the -more-or-less-peptonised element, I decided on hard-boiled egg; that had -to be administered in the same way as the whisky, with drops of water -to help<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>139</span> it to run down. After this I put the hoopoe into the crate for -the night.</p> - -<p>I frankly confess that I expected to find a stiff little body there in -the morning, but instead I saw a bright brown eye fixed upon me, and a -smooth, compact, though crownless little hoopoe, sitting in the straw.</p> - -<p>If the hoopoe was going to live, other things became necessary—first -and foremost, a name.</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0139"> - <img src="images/i-0139.jpg" width="500" height="383" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>The name suited him exactly. From the time that he was called Solomon, -he <em>became</em> Solomon. We never spoke of him as the hoopoe; indeed, -it is with great difficulty that I have avoided so far using his name. -Now I have told you when and why he was named; henceforth, then, he is -Solomon.</p> - -<p>But, secondly, Solomon must have exercise, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>140</span> fresh animal food. It -would be better, both for the sake of digestion and economy of time, if -the two could be combined, and I spent most of my time in effecting the -combination in one of the garden beds.</p> - -<p>The beds in the hotel garden are excellently convenient for feeding and -exercising half-fledged hoopoes; they are lowered three or four inches -below the level of the paths, for the purposes of irrigation. Thus -when, once a week, the water is turned in, the beds become a series -of pools, until the water has gradually soaked away through the rich -black mud. Further, the beds are surrounded with a bushy little plant, -so that when Solomon tried to spring over the edge and escape me, his -wings were not strong enough for the purpose; he sprawled on the bushy -plant, wings spread and legs kicking, and was easily captured.</p> - -<p>But it was Sunday, and the hour drew towards church time. Solomon must -go home and be fed before I went to church. Accordingly, I went to -catch him, but there was one thing I had forgotten. At the corner of -the bed was a drain through which the irrigation was effected. Quick as -thought Solomon ran in there, and was out of arm’s length in a minute. -What was to be done? The bell<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>141</span> was already ringing to church; decent -and godly people, with their prayer-books in their hands, were walking -down the garden path; and there was I plunging round the drain in -search of an ungrateful, half-fledged, discrowned hoopoe. I dared not -leave him there, to be the prey of the numerous and ravenous hawks and -crows.</p> - -<p>But suddenly, as a <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Deus ex machina</i>, Mahmoud the gardener hove -in sight; so I called to Mahmoud, and Mahmoud called to Ibrahim, and -Ibrahim brought a dry palm leaf, and we put it in at the opposite end -of the drain, and made a very terrible shaking noise in the inside with -it; and there hurried out a very long beak, supported by a very small -bird at the end of it; and Solomon was captured in time for church.</p> - -<p>When I came back from church, Solomon’s crate was empty. We trod -carefully over the room for fear of squashing him flat, like a -botanical specimen; we looked under the sofa, under the chairs, and -Solomon was not there. Then a little scuffling noise on the balcony -attracted our attention, and there was Solomon with a guilty look in -his face. We lined the inside of his crate with stiff newspaper.</p> - -<div class="figleft width120" id="i-0146"> - <img src="images/i-0146.png" width="120" height="85" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>But when I came back from lunch I saw a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>142</span> ridiculous silhouette far up -the half-lighted passage. There again was Solomon! He had carried on -mining operations on the paper during lunch, and had escaped again. -Another crate with narrower bars had to be procured. Of course he -instantly put his head through and got it fixed, and I had to seize him -by the beak and push him back.</p> - -<p>Now, by all the laws of animal literature, Solomon ought to have been -devoted to me by this time. If he had studied the <em>Whole Duty of -Birds</em>, he would have found out that he must wake me at dawn (I -cannot feel sure that I should have appreciated that); that he must -flutter his wings with joy and chirp when I came into the room, even -if he did not feel equal to opening his little bill and pouring forth -a grateful song (do hoopoes sing?); that he must follow me round the -room; that he must eat out of my hand; that he must beat his breast -against the bars of his cage when I went away.</p> - -<p>Solomon did none of these things. He shut his beak tightly when I -wished to feed him, he pecked at me when I tried to open it, he ran -away when I attempted to catch him, he struggled when I had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>143</span> got him, -he hurled himself from my hand into the crate as soon as possible, and -he did not like me at all.</p> - -<p>By the third day Solomon had immensely developed. People who had -considerately told me that it was impossible to rear a hoopoe, now -foretold that he would live. He extended his mining operations to the -garden. I am not sure that he found any insects, but he did great -execution on the loose earth at the foot of the palm-tree. He looked -quite like a real grown-up hoopoe when he ran about the garden bed and -dug his bill in up to its roots; and in the evening he flopped off the -window-sill while I was feeding him, and had a grand race round the -room.</p> - -<p>That night I dismissed the fear of finding the little cold corpse in -the morning.</p> - -<p>But when I opened the shutters and looked at Solomon in the morning, -he was not awake; his head was tucked behind his wing. I took him out, -he looked round dreamily, and sank on to the ground. I got whisky and -water again, and fed him with a feather; he pecked and struggled at -first, but presently he allowed me to open his beak, and I saw that the -little pink mouth was getting very white. Still I gave him more, hoping -it would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>144</span> have the same reviving effect as at first. But presently -Solomon dropped his beak on the window-sill, and the drop trickled down -it again, for he had stopped swallowing. He laid his head down, and -stretched out his little black claws; and heaved gently once or twice; -and no more.</p> - -<p>As the Arabs say, it was “Finished Solomon.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter width500" id="i-0144"> - <img src="images/i-0144.jpg" width="500" height="211" alt="" /> -</div> - - -<p class="center mt3">MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH</p> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop divider" /> - -<div class="tn"> -<p class="center">Transcriber’s Note:</p> -<p class="noi">Attempts have been made to produce this eBook as a faithful reproduction -of the original publication, preserving spellings including “<a href="#anyrate">anyrate</a>”, -“<a href="#developes">developes</a>” and “<a href="#skwug">skwug</a>”; and the -alternative spelling of “<a href="#laurustinus">laurustinus</a>” and -“<a href="#laurestinus">laurestinus</a>”. -</p> - -</div> -</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUBJECT TO VANITY ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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