OUR PUSSY. PAWS AND CLAWS: TRUE STORIES OF CLEVER CREATURES, TAME AND WILD. BY ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF "POEMS WRITTEN FOR A CHILD." CASSELL, FETTER & GALPIN: LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK. CONTENTS. PAGE PEEP THE FIRST. WHAT THE CAT DID 1 PEEP THE SECOND. CLEVER PARTRIDGES . . . . .10 PEEP THE THIRD. "WHICH is THE WISEST?" .... 20 PEEP THE FOURTH. THE SICK THRUSH . . , . .32 PEEP THE FIFTH. SWANS versus GEESE 45 PEEP THE SIXTH. THE WICKED CAT 56 PEEP THE SEVENTH. THE FAITHFUL GOOSE .... 65 PEEP THE EIGHTH. WHAT UNCLE FRED BROUGHT ... 76 PEEP THE NINTH. THE DUCKS AND THE DOG .... 88 PEEP THE TENTH. BISHOPS AND BIRDS . ... 99 PEEP THE ELEVENTH. THE STORY OF THE FAITHFUL COOT . 108 PEEP THE TWELFTH. STORIES ABOUT MICE . . . .117 PEEP THE THIRTEENTH. STORIES ABOUT DOGS . . . .128 PEEP THE FOURTEENTH. STORIES ABOUT PARROTS . . .140 PEEP THE FIFTEENTH. STORIES ABOUT FOXES . . . .148 PEEP THE SIXTEENTH. STORIES ABOUT CATS . . . .160 PEEP THE SEVENTEENTH. STORIES ABOUT RABBITS . . .168 PEEP THE EIGHTEENTH. THE SAUCY LAPWING . . . .176 m 063 LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. OUR PUSSY . . .... Frontispiece. PUSSY'S FAMILY g THE PARTRIDGE COVERING HER EGGS ... 13 THE DONKEY AND ITS FOAL ... 21 A GALLANT RESCUE .... . 25 THE THRUSH'S SONG 33 THE OLD THRUSHES ..... 41 THE SWANS AT HOME ... 49 THE DOG AND HIS FRIEND 53 AN INTRUDER PUNISHED .... 61 GOING TO CHURCH 69 THE SQUIRREL AND HIS CAGK ....... 77 THE SQUIRREL AT HOME 85 HECTOR AND THE DUCKS ........ 93 THE CLEVER MOOR-HENS 105 THE COOT'S NEST AFLOAT . . . . . . . .113 WOOD MOUSE . . . . . . . . . .121 THE PUPPIES AND THE SVA-L . . . . . . .129 "FOND OF FLOWERS" . . . . . . . . ' . 137 " WHAT'S O'CLOCK]" ... .... 141 TAKING HIS PICK ... ... . 153 FOXES . . 157 ANGORA KITTENS . . . . . . . .161 FEEDING BUNNY . . . . . . . . .169 THE HAPPY FAMILY . 181 PAWS AND CLAWS; OR, AT THE Of BlF(DJ3 J3EATJ3. PEEP THE FIRST-WHAT THE CAT DID, iMMA," said Lotty, "it is a delightful birthday when a person is seven years old, because of the presents ! Only see ! a writing-case and a silver thimble ! A person who wasn't seven years old could not expect such presents as those could she?" "Certainly not, darling," replied her mamma, "for T ' PAWS AND CLAWS. where would be the use of them if you could neither write nor sew?" "Well," said Lotty, "I've had beautiful presents from everybody almost, and there's only one thing makes me unhappy." "What is that?" cried mamma, Miss Lascelles the governess, Ellen, Jack, Tom, Winifred, and cousin Sophy, all at once ; for of course they were all shocked at the idea that little Lotty, the pet of the house, should not be quite happy on her birthday. " The cat has not given me anything," re- plied Lotty, gravely. "Oh, Lotty/' cried Ellen, "but she doesn't know !" " That's what vexes me," said Lotty, with tears in her eyes ; " I want her to know." " Animals have no sense," said Jack. " I'm an animal," answered Lotty, " and so are you." " Yes," said Jack, " I know that, silly ; but I mean beast animals. I'm not a beast, no more are you, I hope." " Birds and beasts have no sense," said Winifred, with PAWS AND .CLAWS. her superior wisdom of twelve years old, "so you could not expect her to understand about your birthday, dear." " And I wonder you mind anything a cross little thing like that does," said Tom; "a cat that keeps her kittens in a tree, and never lets us have a sight of them." " Keeps her kittens in a tree ! " said Sophy, who was paying her cousins a visit ; " oh, Tom, what can you mean ? " " She does, though," said Tom, " and papa won't let me have a shy at them ; but I advise her to take care when my big brother comes home for the holidays. She'd better look sharp then, I can tell her." " But how did she get her kittens there at all? " asked cousin Sophy. " I suppose she had eaten so many birds," said Tom, " that she got confused, and kittened in the bole of the tree, because birds have their nests in the branches, you know, and put their eggs there ; so she put her kittens up in the hollow part at the top of the trunk, and there they are to this day alive and kicking." " What a very odd cat 1" said cousin Sophy. " It all came of eating birds," said Tom.' 4 PAWS AND CLAWS. " But I'm sure," cried Jack, " if I was Lotfcy I should not care for such a cat as that not making me a present." " I am very fond of the cat," said Lotty. At that moment the children's papa came into the room. " We must look out for squalls," said he ; " the glass has fallen three- quarters of an inch since eleven o'clock last night, and we shall either have a storm of wind or a deluge of rain. The little folks will have to amuse themselves in the house, I expect." " Well, papa," said Lotty, " amuse- ments in the house are very nice, with games and telling stories. First we'll play Blind Man's Buff, and then Puss in the Corner." " I'd like to put our puss in the corner," said Tom, " nasty selfish thing. Serve her right for keeping her kittens up in a tree." " Why, there she is ! " cried cousin Sophy who was standing in the win- dow " trotting leisurely from the house, down the gravel walk, into the little wood. Come here, Tom, and tell me, is that where the kittens live ?' PUSSY'S FAMILY. PAWS AND CLAWS. 7 All the children ran to the window. " Sure enough it is !" said Torn ; " that's Cat's Hall, and I hope her ladyship and the young princesses will like the weather that is coming." The cat disappeared among the branches. " Now," said Tom, " she's had time to reach the tree ; now she's climbing up it ; and now she's teaching her little brats to say ' mieu.' ' The children stood in the window, still looking out, though the cat had disappeared from sight. Clouds were gathering in the sky, and they liked to watch them. "Oh, Torn!" cried Lotty, "here she conies again. The kitten's lessons don't take as long as oxirs. But what is it she's got in her mouth ?" " Is it a mouse ?" cried Jack. " Oh, it's much too big for either a mouse or a rat," said Sophy, " and it seems soft and limp. I do believe it's a bird I " Then Lotty began to cry. " I can't bear that a bird should be hurt on my birthday," sobbed she. " Ah, ah !" cried Tom, " this is the fine cat you are so fond of." But the cat had come nearer now, and the children all stared at her in astonishment. The tears hung on Lotty's eyelashes, but refused to roll down her cheeks, while she exclaimed in a breathless voice, *' It's a kitten I" It was quite true. It was a kitten. The cat came trotting along from the wood to the house in a business-like manner, with a good deal of self-possession, but at the same 8 PAWS AND CLAWS. time with rather an anxious look in her eyes ; and in her mouth she carried one of the most beautiful little tortoiseshell kittens that ever was seen. She went steadily on round the corner of the house, where the back door was ; and almost before the children had time to say a w^ord she appeared again, and trotted off towards the wood in the same business- like way that she had come from it ; but without the kitten ! The children one and all got softly out of a side window, and took a short cut through the kitchen-garden, which led them into the grove, before Mrs. Puss could reach it. There they hid themselves, and, to their astonishment, saw two kittens looking out from the trunk of a tree, and making very pitiful attempts to mew. The cat presently appeared, and, PAWS AND CLAWS. 9 seeing them waiting for her, climbed up to where they were, took one of them in her mouth, with care and difficulty descended to the ground, and set off briskly towards the house, carrying her precious burden all the way. Lotty had become so excited by this time, that the others could hardly keep her quiet. But, oh delightful moment ! the cat once more made her appearance, once more climbed up to her remaining child, seized it eagerly in her mouth, and carried it off safe and sound after its brothers. At this sight the children could not help setting up a loud cheer. Directly after this, big drops of rain came pattering down among the branches over their heads, and the children scampered off to the house as fast as their legs could carry them. They found the cat and the kittens safely ensconced by the kitchen fire, and little Lotty, caressing the former, whispered softly into her ear, " Oh, my dear cat, is this your birthday present ?" But the cat had not been thinking of Lotty one bit; a wonderful instinct had led her to preserve her children, for the torrents of rain which now descended, and which flooded the little wood, must undoubtedly have drowned the kittens if they had been left half an hour longer in their tree. PEEP THE SECOND-CLEVER PARTRIDGES. t fOU all think so much," said papa, "about the cat knowing it would rain ; now it seems to me still more wonderful that she should understand that w?^5^*j5J* f hei* kittens were in danger of being drowned if it did rain, and so bring them one after another into a place of safety." " Oh, papa," said Lotty, " but the cat loves her kittens." PAWS AND CLAWS. 11 Her mamma kissed her. " And you think, my darling, that love gives her the knowledge ?" said she. " Oh yes, mamma," said Lotty, raising her confiding blue eyes to her mother's face ; . "just like you, you know." "Well," said papa, "mamma and the cat are not the only creatures whom love inspires with wisdom; I could tell you some queer things about birds also." Lotty climbed up on to her papa's knee, and the other children gathered round him. "How nice the rain is!" cried Lotty. "Now we can't go out. Papa will tell us stories. What birds, papa ?" " The birds I know most about, Miss Lotty, are partridges." " And they are so pretty." " Yes ; and they are as clever as they are pretty. They are easily tamed ; and I have heard and read curious stories of tame partridges. I read about one that was so fond of his master, it was perfectly happy on his lap ; or when he was painting pictures with his right hand, the confiding little creature would nestle on his left arm and go fast asleep. He liked to be fondled ; and if his master left the room, would, on his return, run joyously to meet him ; but when he had changed his feathers and attained his full beautiful plumage, he would not permit himself to be handled at all, though, in other respects, he remained as sociable as ever. He knew everybody, liked some and disliked others. Sometimes a new piece of furniture would be brought into one of the rooms, or the position of one of the old pieces might be changed, and then who so busy as 12 PAWS AND CLAWS. Master Partridge ? He would flutter about and examine every alteration in the quaintest *nanner imaginable. But the oddest of all his freaks was this : if a bit of the carpet was not smooth, he would never rest till he had made it so by pecking and scratching ; so I do think he was a very good example to little boys and girls, who are not always quite as tidy as they might be ; and who, so far from smoothing the carpet down, have occasionally been known even to kick it up. In some other respects he did resemble children, for he was extremely fond of sugar and cake ; and if one of hia THE PARTRIDGE COVERING HER EGGS. PA\VS AND CLAWS. 15 friends appeared in a new or gay coloured cap or gown, he noticed it directly. He was also very affectionate, which I am happy to say some children are too. If any of the family returned home after an absence, even of months, this faithful \ bird became so excitred and agitated with joy, that his master was often obliged to shut him up in a cage. He would recognise the voice of the beloved truant, even before he or she had left the carriage, and then his ecstasy would begin. He slept by his master's bedside, and never disturbed him or got up himself till after calling time ; but woe betide his master if by chance he fell asleep again, when he had 16 PAWS AND CLAWS. been called ; Master Partridge then became indignant, and ut- tered a shrill cry in his ear, which he -kept for that occasion only, and which would surely have made the sluggard himself willing to leave his bed. Once a terrible thing happened the win- dow was open, something frightened poor Partridge, and he quite suddenly flew away. It was very seldom he used his wings at all, preferring much to hop and run, and never attempting even to go down-stairs. Oh, cannot you imagine the distress and commotion in the house, which being situated in a town made the case almost hopeless ! Poor Partridge ! they all thought they should never see him again ; and I will venture to say that some eyes shed tears on the melancholy occasion ; but joy often comes quickly after sorrow, and with great trouble and difficulty the dear little rover was found, and brought home, as much to his own delight as to the delight of his possessors. They put nets across the windows after this, to prevent the possibility of such an event occurring again. One day, his master's mother was busily working in her own room, when Partridge appeared in a tremendous fuss, ran up to her, pecked at her PAWS AND CLAWS. 17 dress, turned round and ran out of the room, then instantly returned as fussy as ever, and kept running backwards and forwards in this way, till the lady could not help getting up and following the excited bird to see what was the matter. He led her into the next room, and up to the window, before which he perched, and, lo and behold ! the net of the window had fallen down. The lady replaced it, when Master Partridge became as quiet as a lamb, and ran about no more. Now, Lotty, don't you think that was quite as wonderful as the cat?" "Yes, papa, and that Partridge was a little duck; but you said birds were like cats with their kittens, Master Partridge had not any, had he ?" The boys all screamed with laughter at the idea of a partridge with kittens ; but Lotty said very loftily that only boys could be so silly as not to know she meant eggs ; and her papa said that the wild partridges who had to take care of themselves had eggs. " Tell me about the wild partridges, papa." " The wild partridge makes her nest in any parb of a field she can find, a little hollow, or under a tuft of grass, and there she deposits -her eggs and rears her young ; and, oh, the care she takes of them ! A mother partridge has been known to bring leaves one by one and cover up her eggs, so that nobody might see them ; and every day after she had laid a fresh egg, she would bring more leaves and cover them all up again as close as ever. Then, when the young ones are hatched, she is quite ready to sacrifice herself for them ; in wet weather the mother bird has been found dead 18 PAWS AND CLAWS. with her dead brood under her, because she would not leave them ex- posed to the weather while she went away to feed her- self. If a dog or sportsman approach the little family, the mother pronounces a peculiar warning note, and the children at once dive into the grass and hide ; she, mean- time, pretends to be wounded, hops painfully to a little distance, and there perhaps falls down. Of course the invader follows her, when she again raises herself, and goes off a few PAWS AND CLAWS. 19 yards further still, thus she decoys him away from her treasures, and, when at a safe distance, suddenly rises above his head, laughs at her dupe, and takes a rapid flight home again, where, with a happy t cluck cluck,' the meaning of which they well understand, she once more calls them to herself. When a boy, I came upon one once, that imme- diately ran off with little cries of distress ; I followed, feeling sure she was going to her nest ; and as we went on she gave such piercing cries, that I could not doubt it was very near us, when, all of a sudden, she flew up above me and was gone ! What do you think of that for mother's love ?" PAWS AND CLAWS-, PEEP THE THIRD-" WHICH IS THE WISEST?" !~OTTY is such a little donkey," cried Jack, "she doesn't quite know the difference between kittens and eggs ha ! ha ! ha ! and she considers animals no end of great shakes, because they are fond of their own children. Now, if a cow covered kittens tip in a nest, or a mare ran about with robins in her mouth for fear they might be drowned if she didn't, I'd give them some credit/' " A mare with robins, and a cow w T ith kittens ! " replied THE DONKEY AND ITS FOAL. PAWS AND CLAWS. Lotty, very disdainfully; "I'm sure if I am a little donkey, Jack is a great goose." " Oh, you little donkey ! " cried Jack. " Oh, you great goose ! " re- torted Lotty. " But is it not odd," said Miss Lascelles, " that you call each other goose and donkey to show that you think each other foolish, and all the time donkeys and geese are remarkably wise creatures?" "Oh, Miss Lascelles!" cried all the children in chorus ; " donkeys and geese wise ! " " Yes, indeed," replied she, " while man is the reverse, for making such sensible animals symbols for folly." " Donkeys are much cleverer than horses," said Cousin Sophy, " and natu- rally they are more gentle and manage- t able. It is only knock- ing them 24 PAWS AND CLAWS. about, and treating them harshly, that makes them stubborn. I have heard my papa say that if there are horses and a donkey together in a field, the horses turn, as a matter of course, to the donkey for anything they want, not only for advice, but for leadership ; and the donkey, quite naturally, puts itself at their head, and takes them up to the gate and opens it for them, or brings them to the part of the hedge or fence where they can get through." "Opens the gate for them, Sophy!" cried Lotty, astonished. " Yes, indeed, Lotty ; I know that a donkey can open a gate, and a difficult sort of gate too. Last summer I was staying at grandpapa's, and there was a beautiful large white donkey I sometimes rode on. One day Uncle George was with me, and he had gone down the lane, and so round into a field where he wanted to mark some trees to bo cut down ; but the moment the donkey found his head was turned to- wards home, he set off at full gallop across the field, and ran away with poor me, for I was quite unable to hold him in. I pulled, and he pulled ; but while my arm was nearly pulled off, Mr. Donkey's mouth was quite unharmed. Oh, how glad I was when I saw that we were coming to a gate a great heavy gate, fastened by a wooden, bolt passed through two staples, and attached to the top of the gate-post by a bit of rope. Here, of course, we should stop, and I might try to turn back again. We did stop, but what for ? The donkey took hold of the rope in his teeth, and then calmly pulled the bolt back, leaving it dangling by the side of the post ; then introduced his cunning nose between the post and the gate, PAWS AND CLAWS. 25 pushed the latter open, and trotted through, and so into the yard, and so into the stable, where he came to a sudden standstill with me on his back, and gave a great he-haw of triumph." "Well," said Lotty, "after that Jack may call me a little donkey as much as he pleases." " But geese are clever also ; you said so," urged Jack, to Miss Lascelles, in a tone of anxious enquiry. " Geese," said papa in a loud voice, " have mind, imagi- nation, courage, constancy, and affection." The children all laughed, and gathered round him, crying out, " Prove it ! tell us, tell us, papa 1" while Jack danced about singing, " I'm a great goose ! I'm a great goose !" And Lotty, after a minute, joined his jubilant outcry by shouting with all her might, " I'm a little donkey ! I'm a little donkey!" Silence being at last restored, chiefly on account of want of breath in the two performers, papa proceeded thus : " Geese build large nests of grass and rushes, in which they lay their eggs, and then pull the beautiful soft down out of their own breasts and pack it .in among the eggs, so as to keep them always warm. The hen sits on the eggs, and the gander, as the cock is called, remains at a little distance, and defends her with the utmost courage and patience from all disturbers. Once a young game cock attacked a sitting goose, and not only hurt her, but succeeded in destroying one of her eggs. The gander gave him a sound thrashing, and then carried him forcibly down to a pond and ducked him there. Yerily, no other game cock attacked that l.idy. When a gander has defended his mate in this manner, 26 PAWS AND CLAWS. he returns to her, strutting along, holding his head up in the air, flapping his wings, and uttering shrill cries of self- satisfaction, while she receives him, as if she knew he was a hero, with all that respect and admiration with which the weak ought to regard the strong who defend them. These, 1 think you will allow, are traits both of mind, affection, and courage ; but there are many ways in which geese show that they have perceptions of no common order. Wild geese have quicker sense of hearing, seeing, and smelling, than perhaps any other creatures, so that it is extremely difficult to capture them, either by fair means or foul. Then again, who ever heard of v ^ ^ e ' an ^ i sn 'k it kind of them to sing so soon ? Why, any one can sing in the sum- mer, but in winter, you know, oh, that's quite a different affair." \gl^ " You don't like greedy things, do you, Lotty," asked Jack, gravely. " You know I don't, Jack," replied she ; " though, to be sure, boys are almost always greedy, and, of course, I do like you, because you're my brother." She spoke thoughtfully, as if the in- consistency puzzled her. "But, oh, my gracious!" said Jack, "talk of boys' greediness, why, it's nothing to birds ; and as to thrushes young thrushes, you know, little boy and girl thrushes they wear their old parents off their wings feeding them ; they do, indeed ! Why, I heard of a couple of old thrushes that brought snails and worms to their young ones two hundred and seven- teen times in one day ; there's greediness for you ! " " But it's nonsense," said cousin Sophy, jw mKiK \ ' c nfV fU PAWS AND CLAWS. "for how could anybody know? Don't you mind him, Lotty ; " for she saw that Lotty looked a little distressed. "A fellow watched them," said Jack, triumphantly " hid himself and watched them, and then printed it in a book, and I read it there." "It was a great shame of him, then, and very mean," said Lotty, ready to cry, " and I wouldn't believe what such a mean person said ; he'd do anything if he'd do that." "But, Lotty," said her mamma, "it's not the least greedy of the young thrushes, and they don't make their parents take all that trouble for them. The parents do it because they like it, and because they know the little young things require a great deal of nourish- ment ; all little young things do, or they would never grow into big old things. It's not only little young thrushes that must be fed very often ; and Jack's story does not show that the thrush children are greedy, but only that the thrush papas and mammas take care of them." "And thrushes are remarkably kind and 39 40 PAWS AND CLAWS. good-hearted birds. They show it in their whole appearance, in their songs, and in their manners and habits," said cousin Sophy. " I heard of two thrushes being seen perched on the branch of a shrub together, not very high THE OLD THRUSHES. PAWS AND CLAWS. 43 up, you know, so that people could watch them easily. And one of them was lively and brisk, and full of life and spirits, and the other poor thrush was sick. I do think it is so sad to see a sick bird, because they are naturally such gay little creatures, and seem meant only for happiness." "How do you know that thrush was sick, Sophy?" asked Lotty. " Oh, it drooped its wings and its head, and its eyes were dim, and its plumage did not look bright, and it did not fly at all. It did hop a little, but was quite unfit to get itself any food ; and it looked so sick and so sorrowful. It was a young bird, too, and so was the little bird that was well. Their slender forms, and the colour of their feathers, showed they were birds of the preceding summer." "And pray, Miss Sophy," asked Jack, "how does one bird being ill, and another bird in robust health, show that either bird is kind and good-natured ?" " Patience, Master Jack, I'm coming to that, if you please. The happy healthy little thrush spread out its pretty brown wings and flew away, leaving the poor sick little bird all alone. It is so sad to have wings, and yet not be able to use them ! and the creature moped sorrowfully by itself, half concealed by the green leaves about it. It did not mope long, however, for, see, here is a bird flying up to it; why, it is the same thrush that flew away a little time ago ! and what has it got in its beak ? a -worm ! The sick thrush advanced with little feeble hops to meet it, evidently understanding what was going to happen, and then, perched side by side, the two partook together of the feast, the strong thrush being 44 PAWS AND CLAWS. very gentle and tender to the weak one, and taking 1 excellent care that it had its full share, and could partake of the meal in comfort and with ease. It was evident that a warm and faithful friendship subsisted between the two brown birds. It was charming to see how patiently the invalid thrush waited for its kind companion, and how confidingly it hopped out of its sylvan retreat among the leaves, to meet the other on its return. No pleasure or sport, no business, no society of other birds, ever caused the true-hearted thrush to forget its suffering friend ; back it came, flying with the food in its beak, and what a happy flight that was for both might be seen by the pretty airs of love and enjoyment they gave themselves while feeding from each other's beaks. And then, the most delightful part of all was to see the sick bird recover under the fostering care of its friend ; to see the dim eye brighten, the ruffled faded feathers grow fresh and sleek, and the look of health come back to the ailing creature. At last a day arrived when, on the return of the strong bird, the weak one flew out to meet it. No more slow uncertain hops, but a joyous though perhaps timid use of the pretty fluttering surprised wings, that had almost forgotten what they were made for, and then the two birds flew away together." " Oh, cousin," said Lotty, " how very nice !" " Yes, and it was nice to see the strong rapid flight the once sick thrush was able to take. I assure you those who had watched its illness, and the anxious care with which it had been nursed, set up a cheer of triumph at the unexpected departure of the happy pair." PAWS AND CLAWS. 45 PEEP THE FIFTH SWANS VERSUS GEESE. THINK," said Lotty, "it is almost wicked to eat !> such nice birds as geese." " It's just because they are nice birds they are eaten," replied Jack. " Oh ! arn't they delicious with plenty of stuffing and apple sauce!" "In old times," said papa, "nobody ever thought of eating geese. They were considered so indigestible that they never were allowed to come to table. " Ducks, on the contrary, were thought quite differently about, and I have read of its being deemed sufficient to restore a whole household to health, if a little out of order, to set them to work eating duck." 46 PAWS AND CLAWS. "I say, mamma," said Jack, "the next time I'm to have a dose of medicine, let it be a roast duck, please." "And in those days," said papa, laughing, "'swans, which we should never dream of eating now, were considered the greatest delicacies possible. In Edward the Fourth's time, a law was passed, prohibiting any one but a king's son from keeping a swan, unless he had five marks a year." " Good conduct marks, papa?" said Lotty, " and only five!" " No, my pet. A mark was a piece of money equal to thirteen shillings and fourpence of our coin." Then the children set to work calculating, and decided that five times thirteen shillings and four- pence made three pounds six and eightpence. "And so," said Jack, "there were kings' sons in those days who hadn't got three pounds six and eightpence a year ! The paupers !" "And yet they might keep a swan!" said Lotty, quite awe-struck. " Talking of swans," said Miss Lascelles, after explaining how thirteen and fourpence in those days was a much greater sum than now, " when I was staying in Ireland last year, I made acquaintance with a beautiful pair. They lived on a tiny island in a miniature lake, just opposite the house where I was. The lawn sloped down to the water, and we used to watch the happy graceful creatures sailing about, and always PAWS AND CLAWS. 47 together. There was a yard near the house, where a great fire was kept lighted, to boil turnips for the cattle, and if the day was the least chilly, the swans would leave their lake, and come up hand in hand I was going to say, for their friendly way of keeping together produced that sort of im- pression to this fire, before which they would rest them- selves in a stately manner, and made no objection whatever to partaking of the turnips, or anything else they could get to eat. Sometimes they would stay basking before the fire for hours, but when it went out, they always returned to their island. Alas, for these innocent, happy, and affec- tionate swans ! In a wood that clothed the mountain which rose from the other side of the lake, lived Madhucrans " " Me M what, Miss Lascelles ?" asked Lotty, with wide open eyes. " Madhucrans, Lotty ; in English, Martens ; but as we are talking about Ireland, we may as well use Irish names. These Madhucrans, or Martens, are mischievous savage creatures. They are the only enemy that the pretty little squirrel has really to fear ; and I am sure you can fancy how great was the grief of everybody in the house when one morning it was discovered that a Madhucran had murdered one of the swans." " I should like to have had the hanging of the beast," said Jack. 48 PAWS AND CLAWS. " Yes, the murderer might have been punished, but who could comfort the poor widowed swan ? She used to wander about the country in the most pitiful way, searching for her beloved companion. The peasants who lived among the mountains, and came down to their work by sunrise, would tell us that at that hour they would meet the swan trudging wearily along, miles from her once happy home, looking everywhere for what she could never find. They dared not stop or touch her. No one would have dreamt of molesting her ; but the faithful swan became a well-known character through the country. This went on for some months, till the day a happy day for her, I am sure came when nobody saw her. Another day passed, and still she had not been met on the roads, nor was she to be seen on her lake. We went down to the water's edge, and there, on the little island, we beheld the poor pretty swan lying all alone, and quite dead. One of the labouring men crossed over the narrow THE SWANS AT HOME. PAWS AND CLAWS. 51 strip of water, and lifted her up. She was uninjured. No Madhucran had to answer for her life, except the one who had killed her mate. She had died of a broken heart. The man who held her, though only a rough peasant, started back, and the tears came into his eyes as he felt her poor thin body. ' Shure, ma'am, dear,' said he, ' she's only the weight of her feathers, the craytur.' Indeed, it was too true. The faithful swan had eaten nothing, pined gradually away, and died of a broken heart." But Lotty was crying. 52 PAWS AND CLAWS. "I think," said Jack, "we ought not to have stories of broken hearts and deaths on a girl's birthday." All laughed at this moral reflection ; and papa said, that as a companion to this mournful tale about a swan, he would tell them a cheerful one of a goose. " Geese are very much given to forming friendships," said he, "and not only with each other, but with men or other animals and birds. The heroine of the present history formed a friendship with a big dog. When the goose was young this dog rescued her from a fox, who had very nearly put an end to her life and my story in one gulp. And the grateful goose never forgot this service which the dog had rendered her. She forsook all her two-legged companions of the poultry- yard, and remained with the dog whenever she could, but THE DOG AND HIS FBIEND. PAWS AND CLAWS. 55 nobody understood her feelings, and at first she was driven away into the field, where she would spend her time within sight of the dog, keeping close to the gate, and preferring only to look at him to amusing herself with her own people. When this had gone on for some time, the farmer had com- passion on her, and desired that she might be unmolested, and allowed to do what she liked. So the happy goose sought her beloved friend, and never quitted him except when called to be fed, and then she would gobble up her food and return to the kennel as fast as her legs would carry her. This kennel she never attempted to enter, unless it rained, but was quite content to sit outside, and if the dog barked at people, she would cackle, run at them, and try to bite their heels. She followed the dog about the yard, and if he went into the village, ran by his side. At last the dog fell sick, and then who ever made a more faithful nurse than the goose ? She never quitted him day or night ; and would have been starved to death if the farmer had not had a pan of corn placed every day by the kennel." " Oh, papa !" cried Lotty, " did the dog recover ?" " Surely such nursing and affection cannot have been in vain," answered he. " Let us believe that the dog recovered, and please ourselves by imagining the joy of the goose when she saw him in health and spirits again." PAWS AND CLAWS. PEEP THE SIXTH THE WICKED CAT, PEAKING about your favourite," said mamma, "the thrush is not only kind to those of its own species, but to strangers, so it is a benevolent bird." "What does it do for strangers, mamma?" asked Lotty ; " does it nurse them, too, when they are sick ? " "It takes care of them when they are young," replied her mamma ; " and it is a fact that a little cock thrush, only six weeks old, brought up a brood of half-fledged larks, and not only that, but also fed a young cuckoo with the tenderest care, and seemed so anxious about it as well as so very kind to it. Alas ! Lotty, what a pity it is that cuckoos are not amiable birds, or birds that can be trusted. This ungrateful young person, as he got strong enough, turned against his PAWS AND CLAWS. 57 benefactor, and thrashed him soundly whenever he attempted to eat a morsel." "What a snob! "said Jack. " But what a darling little thrush !" exclaimed Lotty ; " and he only six weeks old !" " I feel rather jealous for some of the other birds," remarked cousin Sophy. " I have not a word to say against thrushes, but does any one ever hear a thrush sing without thinking of a blackbird, or a blackbird without remembering a thrush? Now, why are we to talk so much about thrushes, and not say one word about blackbirds, with their beautiful music and unpretending black costumes ?" " I know a story of a blackbird," said 58 PAWS AND CLAWS. Miss Lascelles, " and a very amusing one, too ; and Lotty will like it because it is about a cat, only the cat is not a very good cat, so perhaps she will not like it after all." " My cat is a very good cat," said Lotty, gravely, " and I know there must be bad cats in the world, so I shan't mind." " Very well," replied Miss Lascelles ; " then, bearing in mind that this was one of the bad cats that Lotty knows must be in the world, I shall not hesitate to tell you what, she did. She actually clambered up on to the top of a narrow fence, with the object of getting at a blackbird's nest, when it was full of the helpless little birds that could not fly away or save themselves. Just imagine the state the whole family must have been thrown into ! One moment safe and com- fortable, and forgetting there could be a danger anywhere for what can seem safer or more comfortable than a little soft round nest full of birds? and the next feeling I suppose very much as we should if, while PAWS AND CLAWS. 59 we are sitting so cosily round the fire, a large fierce hungry lion came and glared in at us through the window. The poor noble hen flew out of the nest almost within reach, in her desire to entreat her to go away and leave the children unharmed, uttering wild piteous screams, which only the heart of a cat could be hard enough to resist." " Of a bad cat," corrected Lotty. " Yes, certainly, Lotty, I freely admit it ; only the heart of a bad cat could resist the despairing cries of that mother bird. But I am sorry to say the particular bad cat with whom we are at present concerned only sneered at her. Then out dashed the cock, uttering sounds of rage, defiance, and grief, flying round and round the cat, and actually every now and then settling just before her on the fence, she being unable to make a spring at him, because the fence was so narrow she would have lost her balance and tumbled over had she done so. At last he took courage (of which, indeed, he had 60 PAWS AND CLAWS. shown no want before), and flying at the cat, settled himself plump down on her back, and pecked at her head violently with his beak. The cat must have been as much astonished as she was frightened, and as much hurt as she was either frightened or astonished. She could not see bim, because he was behind her, but she could feel him, and that pretty sharply, too. She struggled, and screamed, and tried to fight, but she had nothing to fight with, because the clever black- bird kept himself fixed on her back 5 so she just struggled, and screamed, and tried to fight, till she rolled over, and came lumbering down in the most ignominious manner on the ground, the brave blackbird following her and continuing to peck, till the cat had nothing left for it but to get up and run away. AN INTRUDER PUNISHED. PAWS AND CLAWS. 63 "And then what did the victorious bird do?" continued Miss Lascelles. "He perched upon the rail, and sang the most beautiful song, to celebrate his triumph, that you can possibly imagine. After that, he and his hen flew very cheer- fully back into their nest. Now, you will hardly believe me, that the next day the wicked cat came sneaking, and creeping, and crawling back to the top of the railing, and crouched herself ready to make a great spring at the nest, but truly Mrs. Pussy reckoned without her host. If the cat came again, the bird came again also, and she was taught, to her cost, that two can play at that game. Out flew the brave bird, dashed at once on to her back, and there pecked and flapped, and flapped and pecked, till the cruel cowardly cat again rolled over upon the ground, and then again ran away." "And did the cat give up, and become reformed?" asked Jack. " A reformed cat would be a funny sight.'* " I don't know about reform," replied Miss Lascelles ; " but the blackbird gave her no chance of doing mischief, for, presuming on his success, he actually took to hunting her about the garden, which he did so effectually, that, whether she was reformed or not, she was subdued, and never dared go near his nest again ; and when he had brought about this result, the dignified blackbird left off hunting, and took no further notice of the wicked cat." " Now," said papa, "let me tell you about a more amiable pussy. He belonged to a poor sick woman, who amused herself by keeping birds. Her clergyman was visiting her one day, and admired five young bullfinches she had in a cage, just old enough to sit on a perch. Presently she said 64 PAWS AND CLAWS. to him, ' You have not seen, sir, how fond my cat is of the birds. Caleb, come here.' " As she spoke, a big grey and white cat jumped off the oven behind her, and made himself extremely comfortable on her knee. '"( " ' Now, Caleb,' she said, ' these are birds, and I expect you to take care of them for me.' " Caleb pricked up his ears, and regarded the birds with grave attention. Then she took them out one by one, and laid them on her lap, and, as the clergyman said when he told the story, the famous old cat fondled them ore by one with his paw, drew them into his warm fur, and, laying his soft head against them, went fast asleep." " I'm very glad of that cat, papa," said Lotty, " and 1 wish all cats were as good, but I know they're not." " Not any more than all children, I'm afraid, dear Lotty," replied her papa. PAWS AND CLAWS. 65 PfifcP THE SEVENTH-THE FAITHFUL GOOSE, |jk OTTY reminded her mamma of a stroll they had once taken in St. James's Park. Perhaps some L of you know what a pretty place that is, and how the lake is full of water-fowl of every kind, v from the stately white swan to the tiny Indian ducks. Beautiful little creatures of all colours dart about under the shadow of the trees, or come up to be fed by the children who crowd the banks, bringing crumbs and cakes to treat their pets with. " Of all the parks I do think that was the nicest! " declared Lotty. " Do you remember, when quite tired out, I came and sat down by your side, mamma, and you told me a 'bird* C6 PAWS AND CLAWS. story? I wish you would tell it me now again, and we might all listen." And so the tale was told. Would you like to hear it ? " The scene of my story," said mamma, " is a little village in a wild, thinly-inhabited country. There is a church in it, old-fashioned, small, and rustic, which is attended by the few Church families scattered about ; but most of the people are Presbyterians, and their meeting-house is nearly two miles from the village. There is no parsonage house, and no resident clergyman ; but the rector of N takes care that there is an afternoon service in the quaint little church every Sunday. When the old clergyman died, the new one took up this afternoon service as one of his appointed duties, and found the drive of a few miles into the fresh pleasant country a rest rather than a fatigue. Mr. Saunders liked the little church and its surroundings, and was interested in the rustic congregation, with whom, at present, his acquaintance was small. One member of this congregation attracted his atten- tion more particularly a blind woman, who entered the church, regular as clock-work, just a minute or two after himself, and while he was still engaged in looking out the places in his Bible and Prayer-book a blind woman, neatly though very poorly dressed, with a mild resigned face, to which her sightless eyes lent a pathetic expression, and who quietly felt her way through the door, and knelt down at the nearest seat, always alone, not even a child, not even a dog to guide her steps ; always entering the last, and leaving the first of any ; for as the clergyman rose from his knees, after the final blessing, his eye always rested on the figure of the PAWS AND CLAWS. blind woman gliding out of the church. He became so accus- tomed to the sight of her quiet face close to the door, and to her regular entrance and de- o parture, that he would have missed them sorely, had she, on any occasion, not been there. But the blind woman was a faithful attender at holy worship, and her humble seat was never vacant. " One Sunday Mr. Saunders was delayed on the road. His horse cast a shoe, and he was obliged = PAWS AND CLAWS. to drive slowly, so that he did not reach the church till ten minutes past the appointed hour. He was a good deal surprised, and a little scandalised for he was a man who liked to have all things in order by finding a large goose contentedly grazing among the soft thick herbage that deco- rated the churchyard. Hurried though he was, he stopped to ' hish ' and ' chivy ' the goose, but he stopped in vain. The bird raised its beak from the ground, and rearing its head up into the air, regarded him with an expression of mild reproach, and then calmly re- sumed its meal. Mr. Saunders had no time to turn goose- driver, so, contenting himself by vowing vengeance against it, and determining that after service it should be at once driven away, he entered the church. Of course, as he was late, the blind woman was there before him, and the thought crossed his mind before he began the prayers, that he might at any time venture to set his watch by her, she was so punctual. " The service over, and Mr. Saunders in the churchyard again, his first thought was of the goose ; and his deter- mination to make it leave its quarters rather faster than was agreeable to it gave him a mild sort of vindictive pleasure ; for, as I have said before, he was a man who liked all things to be done decently and in order, and he considered it out of PAWS AND CLAWS. 71 nil order, and quite indecent, that geese should graze within the sacred precincts of his churchyard. But hjs enemy had escaped him. The goose was gone. " ' Well, I should like to have had the driving of it out,' said he to himself; 'but never mind. I suppose it was an accident a thing that never occurred before, and, in all probability, will never occur again.' " The following Sunday Mr. Saunders had a thought of the goose as, walking-stick in hand, he entered the little gate, but no goose was there. " ' Of course not,' said he, 'it was a mere accident.' " He took his place in the desk just as the blind woman entered the church. " ' I must find out where that poor thing lives, and pay her a visit,' thought he ; ' I have time now to look after my more distant parishioners, but she must reside in one of the cottages close by the church, or she never could come here by herself/ " Mr. Saunders was not in the habit of going into the vestry during the service, but to-day he had left his sermon on the table there, and, as he luckily recollected this, before he ascended the pulpit he went into the vestry to fetch it, after the service was completed, and while the hymn was being sung. It was a hot oppressive Sunday afternoon. He felt tired, and opened the outside door to refresh himself for a moment before he re-entered the church. First he looked up at the sky, and then he glanced round among the quiet graves, and there, just before him, not five yards from the vestry door was the goose ! He felt really angry. PAWS AND CLAWS. " 'It is too bad,' he said, 'it is really too bad ! There is something very wrong somewhere,' with which words, as vague, yet as full of meaning as the oracles of old, he was obliged to go back and preach his sermon. " After service he hurried out as quickly as he could, but, of course, not as soon as most of the congregation, for they had not to take off surplices, and he was again too late the goose was gone. " ' It comes after the service has commenced,' said he, ' and leaves the minute it is over, so that it may trespass in safety. It is an intolerable bird ! ' " In the course of that week Mr. Saunders came over to the village, and, calling at one of the cottages nearest to the church, asked if the blind woman lived there. No, the blind woman did not live there; she lived more than a mile away, in a thatched house on the other side of the river. " Very much astonished, the clergyman followed the directions given, till he came to a long narrow plank, with only a railing on one side, that crossed the river. He walked over this bridge, protesting to himself as he did so that the blind woman could not live where he was going, as it would be impossible for her to come all that way to church by PAWS AND CLAWS. 73 herself every Sunday. After tapping at the door with his walking-stick, he entered a neat though poor room, where he was kindly received by a widow and some children. " ' Does the blind woman who attends church every Sunday live here?' he inquired. " ' Yes, that she does ; but she's sitting out in the field. She loves the sunshine/ " ' You never come to church ?' " ' Noa ; but we go to our own place. "We be Presby- terians chapel people, you know.' " c But, my good friend, are you not afraid to let that poor creature come all the way by herself; and across that bridge too ? it is frightfully dangerous.' " The woman laughed softly. ' Sure, the goose takes her,' said she. " 'The goose takes her!' repeated the bewildered clergyman. " ' Yes. Sure, she's safe enough when the goose takes her. The goose beats any Christian I know for sense, let alone gratitude. Didn't she save its life when it was a wee gosling, and nurse it as if it had been a child ? and hasn't it been like a child to her ever since ? Every Sunday it comes at the same minute, and gets her skirt in its mouth, and leads her along, and puts her next to the rail, and keeps guard between her and the water, and so each step by the the way, till it has her safe at the church door, and then it grazes about in the churchyard, the creature, till she comes out again, when it's ready to receive her, and bring her home just the same. She's safe enough, your reverence, when the goose takes her/ 74 PAWS AND CLAWS. "'Well, well, well!' ejaculated the clergyman, as ho walked off towards the field where the blind woman was sitting with her long-necked friend ; ' and it's, that dear bird I wished to drive out of my churchyard. Just to think I should this day learn a lesson from a goose! Well, well, well ! Wonders will never cease ! ' ' " That is a lovely story, mamma," said Lotty ; " but there is one thing I do want to know so very much. Did the clever goose ever take that old woman anywhere else?' 1 " Tell us just what you mean, Lotty," said her mamma. " I want to know what that goose did on week-days," replied Lotty, very earnestly. "Did it come every morning and try to take her to church, when there wasn't any church to go to, and did she have to send it away ? or did it know about Sundays ? Oh, mamma, do you think it knew anything at all about church ? " Lotty's mamma kissed her. " I wish I could tell you, my darling," said she; "but God has not allowed us to know all about what animals think and feel. We can only guess it from what they do ; and that is one reason why we ought to be so very kind to them, because we never can tell that they may not feel and understand more than we fancy they do." "Dogs know all about Sunday," said Jack, sturdily. " They must be wiser than a great many boys, then," observed cousin Sophy. "Well, but they do, though," retorted Jack. "I knew a fellow that used to go mad for joy, and jump and dance and bark like bricks if he thought you were going to take him out for a walk on a week-day ; but on Sundays he wouldn't even PAWS AND CLAWS. 75 take the trouble .to wag his tail at you, though you might come into the room rigged out for walking, and try to take him in as much as you liked." " But nobody would try to take in a dog on a Sunday," said Lotty ; " a nice dear good honest dog ! " " I like that ! " cried Jack. " And if a nice dear good honest dog, any size to speak of, happened to come into the room this minute, and you weren't very intimate with him, wouldn't you just run away !" Lotty looked round rather uneasily. " These were not stories about dogs," said she, " they were stories about birds. And though I am very fond indeed of some dogs, all dogs are not as safe as birds are ; and birds seem to suit girls." "Geese do, certainly," remarked Jack. "But I want to tell one small short thing about a dog. Mamma, it's that little beagle of Captain Trevor's. They've made a pet of her ; and she's such a knowing little beggar ! She'll have nothing to say to the servants, but snarls and snaps even at that tre- mendous butler of theirs, till he's afraid for his life of her, but she's as soft as silk to a lady or a gentleman. The other day Mrs. Jermyn went to stay there, with no end of a swell lady's maid, twice as smart as her mistress. Mrs. Jermyn pats the dog as she passes, and the dog 's as civil as possible ; so Mrs. Jemima if that's her name thinks she'll do as much. Up she goes, mincing and curvetting in her furbelows and her flounces : 'Oh, you dear little thing ! ' Dear little thing, indeed ! Snapped off her thimble-finger in a moment ! " " Oh, Jack, Jack, Jack !" exclaimed Lotty, in distress. Well tried to, then ! " said Jack. PAWS AND CLAWS. PEEP THE EIGHTH-WHAT UNCLE FRED BROUGHT. 4% AT that moment there was a knock at the door. Everybody was surprised, and everybody said " Come in ! " So the door opened very softly; and when a tall man with a kind face made his appearance, every- body called out with delight, " Oh, Uncle Fred ! " and everybody made a start to run forward and meet him. But ho raised one hand up in the air, while he kept holding the other behind him in a queer way, and said, in a solemn manner, " Stop, I am not alone." So everybody stopped, looking surprised and expectant. THE SQUIRREL AND HIS CAGE. PAWS AND CLAWS. 79 Then lie advanced a few steps further into the room, still holding his hand behind him. "Why, Fred," cried papa, "who is it you have brought with you ? and why does he stay outside ?" " My dear brother," replied uncle Fred, with mild serenity, " I believe it is not you who are queen of the day." Then everybody laughed at the idea of papa being queen of anything, and everybody pushed Lotty in front of every- body else; and there she stood, blushing and smiling, and lifting up a pair of friendly blue eyes to uncle Fred's face. "How do you do, Uncle Fred?" said Lotty. Uncle Fred instantly made a low bow. " I hope," said he, " I have the exquisite felicity of finding your majesty in the enjoyment of robust health?" " I am quite well, thank you, Uncle Fred," replied Lotty, blushing and smiling more than ever. " I have taken the liberty," continued he, " of bringing your majesty a small personal attendant, a little lord in waiting, perhaps he may be called/' "Oh, Uncle Fred !" cried Lotty, breathlessly. " The gentleman is of the Woods and Forests department, and may also be said to belong to the Board of Admiralty," remarked uncle Fred, with profound gravity : " he is a wood- ranger, and, when circumstances favour, is an excellent sailor besides." " Who is he ?" cried Lotty. " What is he ?" cried cousin Sophy. " Where is he ?" shouted Jack, retreating behind his uncle as he spoke, and instantly setting up a shrill "hurrah !" 80 PAWS AND CLAWS. Then uncle Fred suddenly brought round the hand that he had all this time been holding behind his back, and displayed to the astonished and delighted eyes of the company what ? a beautiful little squirrel sitting in his cage, and looking as happy as a king. Lotty coloured scarlet, and looked, first at the squirrel and then at uncle Fred, but said not a word. " I hope your majesty does not de- cline to accept the services of the small lord PAWS AND CLAWS. 81 in waiting I have taken the liberty of presenting to A- you," said her uncle. "Oh, Uncle Fred ! " was the excited answer, "is it really for me?" "Really and truly," said uncle Fred. 82 PAWS AND CLAWS. " It's too much happiness," said Lotty, with a great big sigh, that came from her very heart. Then there was a good deal of kissing between uncle and niece, and much admiration of the squirrel from the assembled company. Uncle Fred at last opened the door of the cage, and out came the little gentleman, treading gingerly, and looking about him in a quaint dainty manner. . The next minute Ije had run up the curtain, and ensconced himself, with an air of perfect contentment, as if he found himself quite in his element, on the cornice and drapery just below the ceiling. " I can't tliinlf" said uncle Fred, discontentedly, " why they always do that. As sure as you let a squirrel out in a drawing-room, it rushes up among the tops of the curtains. They can't have been originally upholsterers, surely!" Everybody laughed at the idea of a squirrel being an upholsterer. " It's the love of being high up," said mamma. " In their own woods they run to the tops of the trees." " It's to get into a place of safety," said papa. "As if anybody would hurt a squirrel!" cried Lotty, indignantly. " It's to show his superiority over us," said Jack. "And why shouldn't he?" cried Lotty, with spirit, "if he is a superior ?" " I don't see that he's a bit better than my rabbit ! " cried Jack; " in fact, he's just like a rabbit, only he's got a longer tail ; but if he has, his ears are shorter, which makes all even." PAWS AND CLAWS. 83 " There's no use in talking to such a boy as that, is there, Uncle Fred ?" said Lotty, with dignified contempt, " The rabbit would be very glad of such a tail," replied her uncle, laughing ; " there's not a more useful tail going than Master Squirrel's. It acts like an umbrella and parasol in one, protecting him from either heat or cold, and, when extended, it is extremely useful in assisting his long leaps from the top of one tree to another." " Squirrels are the most nimble creatures in the world," said mamma. " If they hear a sound, and take it into their heads there is a suspicion of danger, in a moment they are at the top of a tree, and then they extend their tails to their full length, and leap from that tree to the top of the next." " I read an account of squirrels in a book," said cousin Sophy ; " they are the most innocent, gentle, active, and in- dustrious creatures possible, as well as being so extremely pretty ; and they sit up on their hind legs, and use their fore paws like hands." " The little darlings !" cried Lotty. " Oh yes, the little darlings," said Jack ; " why, my rabbit does just the same ! " " What does it eat ?" asked Lotty, ignoring Jack and his rabbit. " Seeds, young shoots of trees, fruit, nuts, acorns, every vegetable food it can get, dependent on the season of the year," said cousin Sophy ; " and then it is very wise, and lays up great stores of all these things for the winter. It conceals these in different parts of its tree, and never eats them except when no fresh food is to be found ; and it builds PAWS AND CLAWS. itself, in the tree, a large roomy, soft, strong nest, that can protect it from hot suns and violent storms, with only a little opening at the top, by which it creeps in and descends to this comfortable chamber." "And does nobody ever hurt it?" asked Lotty. It is a frolicsome, happy creature," replied uncle Fred/' and appears to be univer- sally beloved, with one fatal exception." "And what is that?" " The marten." THE SQUIRREL AT HOME. PAWS AND CLAWS. 87 "What!" cried Lotty, "the wicked marten that killed Miss Lascelles' swan ? " " I don't know about that," replied uncle Fred ; "I was not aware that Miss Lascelles had a swan, or that a marten killed it; but I do think it is very cruel of the marten to take possession of the poor squirrel's nest, because it is too lazy to make one for itself, and then, not contented with this act of housebreaking, to murder the industrious little creatures who had so skilfully and so cleverly made them- selves a comfortable and happy home." "But do they often do this?" said Lotty. " Let us hope not," said her uncle ; " indeed, they hardly can often, or there would not be such a number of squirrels in the world as there are, would there ? " "Hares are much cleverer than squirrels though," re- marked Jack; "hares can be taught anything. Do you know, a fellow told me that hares have excellent ears for music, and that as they sit up on their hind legs, and use their paws as hands, they can be taught to beat a drum. Ha ! ha 1 ha ! wouldn't you like to see such a little drummer here? I should." " But one thing being nice and clever doesn't make other things not," said Lotty. " I hate that way of talking ! it's an uncomfortable way." " Squirrels can't be taught anything," repeated Jack. "Why should they?" replied Lotty. "I don't want to teach my dear little squirrel anything ; I'm not so fond of being taught things myself!" and she looked fondly at the little creature as she again thanked uncle Fred for his nice present. 88 PAWS AND CLAWS. PEEP THE NINTH-THE DUCKS AND THE DOG. > jHEN the squirrel had returned to its cage, and been a great deal more admired and petted and talked about, so that it became just possible to think a little now and then about something else, cousin Sophj said, quite suddenly, " We spoke plentifully of the merits of geese ; but do you know, I think we were very unjust to ducks, for we never mentioned them ; and I can't in the least see why geese should be made so much of, and ducks utterly neglected." " We did mention ducks," retorted Jack. " We said they were good physic, and I wished to be ill, and dosed on roast duck." "They waddle so," said Lotty ; "I'm not very fond of PAWS AND CLAWS. 89 them ; and they eat such lots of slugs, which is rather nasty of them, is not it ?" " But that makes them such excellent gardeners," said mamma. "Ducks excellent gardeners!" said Lotty, with wide open eyes. 90 PAWS AND CLAWS. "Yes, indeed, most excellent; their great web feet are so light, they do no mischief, and they could not scratch with them if they tried ; and then they eat up all the slugs and creatures that would otherwise eat up my flowers and nice early vegetables ; so they are first-rate gardeners." " Very well," said Jack ; " then, when I'm a man I'll never hire a gardener unless he's a good hand at eating slugs. When he asks me, ' What about wages ? ' I shall reply, ' What about slugs, my man ? how many can you eat in a day ?' ' They all laughed at this, for Jack puffed himself out, and looked so pompous while he spoke ; only Lotty did not laugh, but remarked quite gravely she did not think boys ought to be allowed to say such horrid things, and she wondered what the use was of being disgusting. " But what I believe," said cousin Sophy, " is, that ducks can form friendships and be affectionate, and all that sort of thing, just as well as geese can." "And on what grounds do you believe that, Miss Sophy?" inquired uncle Fred, with so polite a bow, that Jack imme- diately got up and imitated it. " Well,'" said Sophy, " I read of a clergyman who kept a very fierce and noisy watch-dog " " More shame for him !" said Jack. " Hush, Jack ! " said mamma. PAWS AND CLAWS. 91 a This dog, whose name was Hector," continued cousin Sophy, " barked furiously, and his bite was as bad as his bark, and nobody dared no stranger, I mean venture within reach of his chain, or, but for his chain, could have dared go into the yard at all." " People always pretend strangers are such cowards," said Jack ; " it's very unfair. Why, were strangers, if we're in a new place ; but that would not make us cowards, would it?" " I)o be quiet, Jack," said mamma ; " how is Sophy to tell her story if you keep always interrupting ? " " The fact is, nobody would ever dream of saying Jack was a duck of a boy, though plenty of people might call him a goose," said uncle Fred ; " and so he does not like to hear ducks praised a fellow feeling makes us wondrous^kind." "But do tell us, cousin," petitioned Lotty, " what this fierce dog had to do with ducks." "Why, just this," replied cousin Sophy. " There was a brood of little ducks in this yard that doated upon Hector, and trusted him more than anything; and whenever he began barking to frighten somebody or other, they seemed to 92 PAWS AND CLAWS. take it for granted, not only that there was danger and mischief abroad, but that he made a noise to warn them of it ; and not only that either, but also that he was their best guardian, and his kennel their safest refuge; so the moment he began barking and tearing at his chain, and terrifying everybody to get out of his reach, then off set this brood of HBCTOB AND THE DUCKS. PAWS AND CLAWS. 95 little ducks, and waddled straight up to him, and either nestled themselves about his great feet, or went into his kennel, and then seemed as contented as possible." " And did he never eat them up?" asked Lotty. "Not he indeed. At first he might be surprised and puzzled, and appear as if he hardly knew what to do, but he soon got accustomed to the little flock, and whether their confidence in him won upon his feelings, or how it was, I won't pretend to say ; but he never injured them in any way, and was always the best of friends with them." "Well," said Lotty, "I can't think how the ducks knew such a fierce dog as that would not eat them up, or why he did not do so." " But no duck ever led a blind woman over a plank," said Jack, triumphantly. "No; why should it," said Lotty, "when a goose did? They can't all do just the same, and they would be stupid if they did ; but ducks have often done things geese have not." "What?" asked Jack, sturdily. " Oh, well, I don't quite know quantities of things ; but why must we always blame one thing if we praise another? Oh, Jack, don't go on about ducks as you did about squirrels ; do let us like everything that is good, and only not like the bad things." " Oh, that is so like a girl," said Jack. " Now I'll tell you of something a duck did," said uncle Fred. " Some accident had deprived it of its companions, and it attached itself to the farmer's wife, and never would 96 PAWS AND CLAWS. leave her, keep- ing as close to her heels as a dog could do, so that she was afraid it might get crushed in the doors when it "waddled after her everywhere; and so, having nothing of its own kind to love, it concen- trated all its affection on her, till a brood of ducks was added to the poultry-yard, and then by dint of being constantly driven out of doors, it at last PAWS AND CLAWS. 97 consented to transfer its affections from one woman to half a dozen ducks." " But that wasn't nice of the farmer's wife," said Lotty : '' she oughtn't to have driven out the duck that loved her, ought she, mamma ? " " It is nice to be loved, even by a duck," replied her mamma, smiling, " but then you see, Lotty, it must have been inconvenient to have a great fat duck waddling after you everywhere all over the house, and you having to hold the door open after you have gone through, for fear you should crush the affectionate old dawdle." "I should like it," replied Lotty, gravely. G 98 PAWS AND CLAWS. " Now, Master Jack," said uncle Fred, " what do you say to a grave venerable goose who herded only with ducks, and would have nothing to say to his own species ?" " And what made the old gaffer such a goose ? " asked Jack, gruffly. " Was it from that love of inferior society that we boys are always being warned against ? " " No, not a bit of it," replied his uncle, laughing ; " it was from a much better feeling than that. The venerable old party had ages before been hatched by a duck, and never forgetting the fact that but for her he would never have been a goose at all, he for her sake cultivated a warm friendship for all her race." " Nice old thing," said Lotty ; " I like that ! " " You won't approve so much of the swans of St. John's College, Cambridge, I'm afraid, Lotty," said uncle Fred, " The dons of that highly respectable college eat, or go through the form of having brought to table every Christmas, the cygnets belonging to a pair of swans, that in their turn belong to the college. Much to my amusement, one year after this pair of swans had lost their own young, they adopted a fine Aylesbury duck, which for a whole year they took swimming about with them, and on which they bestowed every attention that a couple of swans could show to a duck. They even went so far as to rake up its food for it from the bottom of the water, so that it never had itself to dabble in the mud, and it was always cleaner, and whiter than any other duck ; but oh, Lotty, what will you say when I tell you that in the following year, after the swans had cygnets of their own to attend to, they not only did no more for the poor duck, but would not allow it to approach them. PAWS AND CLAWS. 99 PEEP THE TENTH-BISHOPS AND BIRDS. OW listen," said uncle Fred, "I am going to tell you the most wonderful story that anybody has yet told to anybody else, about anything whatever." The children all collected round him. " Of course we shall listen of course we shall be delighted to listen," they exclaimed; and Jack added, " Catch the air getting it, that's all ! " and he put his hands behind his ears, and bent them forward. " Never fear, my boy, your ears are long enough," said uncle Fred ; upon which they all laughed. " Ladies and gentlemen," commenced uncle Fred, " I beg leave to state that I am going to tell you an anecdote of a moor-hen !" 100 PAWS AND CLAWS. " What is a moor-hen, uncle ? " asked Lotty. "A hen that lives on the moors, of course, stupid ! " said Jack. " What, a common hen ? " asked she ; " but how does it get there as a habit ? " This Jack found it safer not to answer, so uncle Fred said, " If you require correct information, Lotty, don't attend PAWS AND CLAWS. 101 to any communicated by the individual with the long ears. A moor-hen is, in fact, a water or marsh hen, and makes its nest among rushes, reeds, or brushwood of any kind, by the side of lakes, ponds, moats, streams, or even rivers, if they are slow and still. It loves dabbling about in such places, though it by no means despises dry land for a change. In disposition it resembles children I have known, being at once timid and tame, that is to say, when swimming about with a 102 PAWS AND CLAWS, peculiar joyous jerk which is its habit on the water if a stranger comes near, it glides noiselessly and in a quiet, altered manner in among the rushes or leaves, and hides under the shelter of the bank. And yet, though so easily startled and alarmed, kindness wins its heart at once, and it becomes as tame and confiding as possible. " What does it do when it gets tame and confiding, Uncle Fred ? " asked Lotty. " Different moor-hens have, under different circumstances, done different things," replied he, with great gravity, " and I will tell you a few of them if you like : for instance, some have joined the domestic poultry in the yard, and fed with them ; and at one house, where I suppose they were very tenderly treated, they used to come into the hall, and pick up crumbs there, and if disturbed by any person they used quite quietly to retreat outside, gazing wistfully back, and return- ing when the coast was clear again. Others have made themselves perfectly happy paying visits to enclosed lawns, and associating with dogs, pheasants, and peacocks; and I have also heard a curious story of a pair who were several seasons observed in a moat near a house in Staffordshire. They always flew away every spring, but all that could be done to make them feel happy and at home was done, and at last, one year a thorn-bush covered with ivy having fallen into the water, they actually made their nest there, and did not fly away at all, but busied themselves comfortably in hatching their eggs instead. Now, Lotty, can you imagine the pleasure of the lady of the house, who had always been kind to them, and fed them by throwing things to them, on PAWS AND CLAWS. 103 the water, when a few days after the young birds were hatched, the old couple brought them all across the lawn up to the drawing-room window where she was standing, and introduced them to her with the greatest politeness. She immediately got some wheat, and fed them, and every day afterwards the old birds brought the young ones up to the window to be fed. Year after year this pleasant intercourse continued, till there was quite a colony of moor-hens esta- blished in the moat, and making their daily visits to the drawing-room window, and one bird in particular attached himself so much to the lady, and had so much confidence in her, that if worried or put upon by any other bird, it always flew to her for protection. The whole flock made friends with everything about the place ; even the dogs they were intimate and happy with, though if a strange dog appeared they scudded off in alarm." " How very nice !" said Lotty, " and how happy for the lady to have that bird think her such a friend. But is that the story, Uncle Fred?" " No, Lotty, that is not the story ; in fact, I am almost afraid to tell the story at all ; only as it is originally told by a bishop, it must be true/' " By a bishop !" exclaimed Lotty, awe-struck. "Yes, indeed, by a wise and good man, the late Bishop of Norwich. He had a very high opinion of moor-hens, not only on account of their being confiding and affectionate, but because they are so clever and observing, that they almost appear to possess reasoning faculties ; at least so says the bishop ; the words are his, not mine. A friend of his kept 104 PAWS AND CLAWS. pheasants, -which were fed out of boxes made on a particular construction. They had lids which were always shut except when the pheasants were called up, and invited to alight on a little rail in front. Then the weight of the pheasant depressed the rail, and as the rail went down up went the lid, and the birds could feed ; but as soon as the pheasant flew away, up went the rail and down went the lid again." " How uncommon funny ! " cried Jack. " I say, I should like to make just such a box ; and what a clever bishop ! " "Yes, Jack, so he was," replied his uncle, "and he did plenty of good things, though I am afraid inventing that box was not among them. However, there were the boxes and there were the pheasants, and one day a pheasant was happily feeding at its box, very little aware that all the time a moor- hen was sitting in snug retirement, making its observations. Such, however, was the fact, and as soon as ever the pheasant flew away the moor-hen hopped eagerly forward and took its place. But, alas ! moor-hens are much smaller and lighter birds than pheasants, and this poor little personage found, to its disappointment, that the rail did not go down, and consequently the lid did not go up. So what do you think it did then ? No student in natural philosophy could have acted better than the little moor-hen, for it began jumping up and down, so as to give additional impetus to its weight- Its ingenuity was crowned with perfect success, and the clever creature found it was on the right tack ; but still the lid did not open comfortably and safely, and the bird could not venture to feed." " What a sell I" said Jack. PAWS AND CLAWS. 107 " By no means. Moor-liens are not so easily ' sold ' as that," answered uncle Fred. " Ofuess what it did." " I know," cried Jack ; " it went away and ate itself very full, and then it came back twice as heavy, and down went the lid pop !" " Well, no, it didn't do that ; ingenious as I admit your plan to be, it is not ingenious enough for a moor-hen ; for does it not occur to you that if it wanted to enjoy the de- licacies prepared for pheasants, it would not be the best way to attain this object to eat a hearty meal first ?" " Bless your heart, Uncle Fred," cried Jack, " that doesn't signify a bit; appetites will stretch so, if there's a reason for it." "Do be quiet, Jack," said Lotty; "it's a bishop's story, and a bishop wouldn't like a greedy bird. What did it do ?" " Why, Lotty, it went away when it found that even jump- ing did not make it heavy enough, and it brought another bird back with it, and showed it all about it, and what it was to do ; and the two got on to the rail together, and they were just as heavy as one pheasant, and up went the lid pop, as Jack says and they enjoyed a hearty meal, which I do think they deserved." " That they did !" cried cousin Sophy, " and they also deserved the honour of having a bishop for their historian." " And to be called bishop's birds !" cried Jack. "I don't know," said Lotty, thoughtfully; "after all, they were only clever that they might get somebody else's good things ; that isn't like a bishop, I'm sure. I should think the goose that led the blind woman to church is more a bishop's bird than the ingenious moor-hen. At any rate, I like it better." 108 PAWS AND CLAWS. PEEP THE ELEVENTH -THE STORY OP THE FAITHFUL COOT- WONDER whether a coot is the same as a moor- hen?" asked Jack of his uncle Fred. " There's no such thing," replied Lotty, disdain- fully ; " you can't take us in that way. Coot, indeed ! That's just some of your horrid slang, like ' cove ' and ; but we know better than that." "But, indeed, Lotty," laughed uncle Fred, "there is such a thing as a coot, and a very nice sort of thing it is too." " Is it nice to eat ?" said Lotty, wonderingly. " No, not nice to eat, though they are often sold for that purpose, but they are very nice little water-birds, pretty, and 'coon PAWS AND CLAWS. 109 friendly, and wise, and very like moor-hens in many of their habits, Jack ; though altogether a different bird." " Coot," said Lotty, thoughtfully. " Well, it does sound queer, doesn't it, Uncle Fred ? I did think it was just Jack's slang." "Yet no less a person than Sir Thomas Binne, two THE COOT. hundred years ago, was interested in watching coots, and noticino- their habits." said uncle Fred. " Listen to what he o s.ays about them: ' Upon the appearance of a kite or buzzard, I have seen them ' that is, coots, you know, Lotty ' unite from all parts of the shore in great numbers, when, if the kite stoops near them, they will fling up, and spread such a flash of water with their wings, that they will endanger the kite, and so keep him off, again and again, in open opposition.' ' "Hurrah!" cried Jack; "a flash of water, I like the 110 PAWS AND CLAWS. notion. Why, by earnest splashing, I could spread a flash of water myself." " And did Sir Thomas Binne really say that two hundred years ago ?" sighed Lotty. " How odd it seems ! There were coots then, and coots now, just the same, and we so different, arn't we, mamma, from what children and people were then ?" " Well, yes, I suppose we are more changed than the birds are," answered her mamma, rather surprised. "However," said Lotty, "it proves that coots really are birds, and not like coves or coons ; for Sir Thomas Binne would not have troubled himself about them, I suppose. But, mamma, it is odd that we grow different and birds keep the same. I remember what we read in my History of England ; how people used to live in castles, with little little slits of windows, and great towers ; and we live in houses, with large windows, all one pane of glass, and no towers at all, which I'm very sorry for. And I suppose, mamma, coots build just the same nests now that they did two hundred years ago ; and then their feathers keep just the same. And oh, how different my frocks and hats are from the pictures you were showing me in that old book, about what you called costumes. Now, I do think all that is very odd, mamma, don't you ? Is it only we who change ? Do all birds and beasts keep just the same ?" " That is a disputed point, my love," replied her mamma, smiling ; " but I think it is quite safe for us to conclude that they do. It is education and civilisation that change us, you know, my pet ; and birds and beasts know nothing of those, except inasmuch as we show them. Domesticated animals are taught all manner of things, and do assume PAWS AND CLAWS. Ill different habits from those of their forefathers in a wild state." " Mamma," said Lotty, " is Jack a domesticated animal r" " Well, hardly, I think sometimes," replied her mamma, laughing heartily. " I should hope not, rather 1" cried Jack, indignant at the idea. " Domesticated animal, indeed ! that's all very well for girls, who can't do any better. But I say, Uncle Fred, I made such a scrimmage among a lot of coots the other day ; I went close up to where they were, and I jumped up and down, and halloed; and didn't they scurry and flap, and stretch their heads and necks straight out, and patter their feet about on the water !" "Well done, young naturalist!" replied his uncle; " you have accurately described the habits of the birds when disturbed." " Can nobody tell us a story about a coot ?" asked Lotty ; " it's rather dull talking much about anything without a story, isn't it ?" " They make their nests like moor-hens," said Miss Lascelles, " among rushes and sedge, and anything that they can find at the edges of lakes, ponds, or rivers ; but they seem to be fonder of the water, and to care less for the land, than moor-hens do. They have the same power of diving and keep- ing their bodies a long time under water, with only their bills up to breathe ; but they are stronger on the wing, and though they don't seem to like doing it much, they can take great flights, and rise to a considerable height." " Yes," said Lotty, " but that isn't a story. I never caro much about ' they ;' I like the he's and she's, that I think are 112 PAWS AND CLAWS. real, and do things of themselves ; the ' theys ' so soon get tiresome." . " Lotty is unreasonable," said uncle Fred, laughing, " to expect a story with a coot for the hero or heroine ; and yet I do believe I can oblige her." " Oh, Uncle," cried Lotty, "pray do !" " Imagine, then, a good little hen coot sitting in her nest over her eggs, this nest having been most carefully made, after the manner of coots, on the edge of a river. Do you know how a coot makes its nest, Lotty ? Well, I will tell you. It is large, and rough, and very strong; formed of rushes and other pliable materials, and always on the edges of rivers, or lakes, and sometimes of little islands : and to prevent its being carried away by winds or tides, it is loosely attached to the rushes or osiers it is placed among loosely, because if too tightly fastened, it would not rise with the rising water. But once there was, as I said before, a good little coot, who, having built THE COOT'S NEST AFLOAT. PAWS AND CLAWS. 115 her nest, and laid her eggs in it, as all good little coots ought to do, met with a terrible misfortune." " Did the eggs break ?" cried Lotty ; " that is what 1 should always be afraid of, if I were a hen." "No, no," said her uncle, "there is little danger of that; hens know how to manage so that their eggs do not break, and indeed, they ought to be ashamed of themselves if they did not. Our little coot took excellent care of her eggs, as you will acknowledge, when you hear what happened. There came a dreadful storm ; it rained, and hailed, and it blew. Oh, Lotty, how it blew ! The wind rushed about as if it was a mad living creature, and tore down branches from the brave old trees, that made an excellent fight against it ; while the rushes and the grasses, timid little things, laid themselves down flat at its approach, and submitted themselves to it, and so rose up again all unhurt when it had passed. They rose up unhurt, but what of the poor nest, but lately so snug, and so happy, and that, for the reason I have before given you, was only loosely attached to them ? What of it ? Why, the wind tore it mercilessly away from the rushes that had supported it, and dashed it out into the middle of the stream, with its living burden of a pretty little coot sitting on seven or eight smooth white eggs ! Of course the little coot could have scrambled out of her nest, and crept in among the sheltering things by the side of the water, and lain there quite safely till the storm was over. Of course she could have done this, and of course she didn't do it, for if she had, what would have become of her eggs ? No, the good little bird, she never thought about her- self, or about her own comfort ; and so she just stayed in her 116 PAWS AND CLAWS. nest, and on her eggs, and kept them as warm and as dry as if there had been no storm at all." "I wish I could have kissed her!" cried Lotty, with delight. " And then, when the storm was over, the coot was not like a man in a boat, who could steer it back to the shore, and knew what to do with it, and how to manage it. She was only a poor little bird, intended to live in a nest secured to the rushes by the side of the river, and who was, in very truth, all abroad, when she found herself floating about on the water instead. She knew no way of getting back to the place from whence she had come, but she knew who better ? how to cover her eggs, and keep them warm, and hatch them. Yes, in her dismantled nest, floating about here, there, and everywhere, just as the tides and the winds chose to take it, the coot kept steady to her maternal duties, and finally hatched as fine a brood of little coots as any one could wish to see. And now, Lotty, do not you think it must have been a happy moment in the life of that coot, when her young family were strong enough to leave the nest for the water, and she conducted them through the river to the shore? What curious recollections in after life that bird must have had, of how she hatched that brood; and when she was a grand- mamma coot, can't you fancy how the grandchildren cootlings would flock round her to hear her tell what happened before they were born ?" PAWS AND CLAWS. 117 PEEP THE TWELFTH-STORIES ABOUT MICE. I H, dear!" cried Lotty, suddenly, "what is that noise?" It was an odd noise, to which they all listened, now that she had drawn their attention to it. A noise made up of a good many different things of a little nibbling sound, a little rustling sound, and a little scraping sound. "Hush!" said uncle Fred; and in the midst of the silence that followed the word, a small mouse ran up almost to Lotty' s feet, in among them all, looked up into her face, and then ran out ao-ain. o "Oh, the little pet!" cried Lotty, in excitement at the 118 PAWS AND CLAWS. unexpected interrup- tion, " I do believe it knows this is my birthday ! " "Not it," said Jack ; " it's a con- ceited beggar, and wants us to talk about it instead of about coots and other wise animals." "And why should not we?" answered Lotty, reproachfully. " I am sure mice are very nice things, and there must be plenty we could say about them." " For instance," who, an old book says, usedtohold a burning candle be- tween its feet at the time its mas- ter and his guests were at supper." "I don't be- lie vein that mouse, though, "said papa. "Oh, papa, what a nice can- dlestick!" cried Lotty, " do let us believe in that mouse; please do!" " Believe in anything you like, my dear," replied he; "but you must allow me to dis- said uncle Fred, "we might speak of the Ger- "Sr 5 man mouse, PAWS AND CLAWS. 119 believe anything I like also ; and I must take the liberty of repeating that I don't believe in that mouse." Well," asked uncle Fred, " will you believe in singing mouse that was said to chirp, if sweetly as a nightingale, at least better sparrow ?" won't ! " said Lotty ; " how disagreeable ! why wont papa believe in mice ? " " I believe in singing mice," said Miss Lascelles. " I slept for a week once in a room it was in a house in Tenby, in South Wales and there were a whole colony of singing mice in it. I never was so puzzled at anything in my life. In the middle of the night, the prettiest little faint chirping, just like that of a bird, used to begin, but it was a long time before I found out it was really made by mice ; and they were so tame too; they would come out of a little hole under the fire- place (it was in summer, so there was no fire) and run all about the rooms, singing as they went ; and they would frisk up and down my dresses that hung on hooks on the door close to the head of my bed, so that I could see them quite distinctly, and hear them too." "Well, Miss Lascelles, seeing is believing, and, in this case hearing is must in future Lotty clapped her hands with glee. believing also ; so, for your sake, I believe in singing mice." 120 PAWS AND CLAWS. " Oh ! " she cried, " I am glad ! I do so dislike not believing in nice things, just because they are extra nice." " Yes," cried Jack, " or in nasty things either, I do like them extra nasty ; or queer even, I like them extra queer. Now, there's a picture I've seen of a cat all alive and kicking, hanging up, or rather down, by its hind legs, like a hare in a poulterer's shop, and a lot of mice on a shelf abo^e it, peeping gingerly over at it. There must be some jolly story for that picture, I'm sure." " Perhaps the sly cat has caught his claws round the peg, and hangs that way to disarm the fears of the mice, and then WOOD MOUSE. PAWS AND CLAWS. 123 when the little fellows have become incautious, and, getting above it, rather inclined to triumph over the uncomfortable position poor puss finds himself in, poor puss will twist him- self suddenly round, and catch the unsuspecting and deceived mice in his front paws, and there worry them, as alas, alas ! my Lotty, cats love to do." "Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Jack "that will do uncommonly well for the story of the hanging cat, Uncle Fred." " When I was a little girl," said Miss Lascelles, " some- body gave me a couple of pretty white mice in a cage, and in this cage they reared a charming little family of six." " And so you had eight white mice !" cried Lotty. "Yes, Lotty; but, alas! nothing is secure; not even the whiteness of mice. One evening I had, as you say, eight white mice, but I had also one mischievous brother, and he opened the door of the cage, after I had gone to bed, and let all my white mice out. Now why or wherefore those mice chose to run up the chimney I am quite unable to say ; I only know that they did so choose, and not only that, but they chose to run down again ; and after the first shock of misery in the morning when I found the mice, I had to endure a day of 124 PAWS AND CLAWS. weeping, when, one after another, eight black and draggled mice made their appearance at long intervals, and each one seeming a more pitiable object than the other ; and then, Lotty, there was the washing of them " " I think," said Lotty, rather timidly, " I should enjoy washing a mouse, Miss Lascelles." "That brother must have had a jolly day, seeing the animals! "cried Jack, licking his lips, " I do envy that boy!" " If you want to make pets of mice," suggested mamma, " the common brown mice, like the one that ran up to Lotty and knew it was her birthday, are the best. They are cleverer and much more easily tamed than the white mice ; no one, I think, can doubt the intelligence of mice, who see the extreme curiosity with which they examine everything in a room, and find out new articles among the furniture to which they are accustomed, not seeming to rest contented till they have discovered the uses for which they are intended ; at least I PAWS AND CLAWS. 125 don't know any other way in which to account for the very careful manner in which they examine everything." " Do you believe that, papa ?" asked Lotty, with a good deal of anxiety, to which papa replied evasively that he held himself bound to believe anything that mamma said; and Lotty smiled broadly, and was delighted with the reply. "But of all mice," remarked uncle Fred, " I think that Lotty would prefer the field-mouse. I do suppose that they are the smallest quadrupeds in these islands. Now, what do you think, Lotty, of a creature whose tail is very nearly as large as itself, and yet that tail only measures two inches ; a creature, in fact, that measures, from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail, exactly four inches and a quarter?" " So that its body is only two inches and a quarter long, and its tail two inches !" cried Lotty. " Not really, Uncle Fred ; you are saying it only to please us." " By no means, Lotty ; laudable as that motive might be, 126 PAWS AND CLAWS. I am not actuated by it, but am telling you the simple truth. And these dear little creatures build the most wonderful nests. I think I must tell you about their nests, Lotty." " Not nests like birds ?" " No, only nests like mice ! But I am going too fast. Having mentioned the size of the creature, I should first tell you about their weight, Lotty. What do you think of two of these little animals weighing exactly as much as one halfpenny ?" " Oh, the little light darlings !" cried Lotty; " how I should like to see one !" " They are not so easily seen, though ; they hide under the grass, and press them- selves down on the ground; so that men have played cricket in a field in which there was not a square inch of grass without a mouse in it, yet have been quite unconscious that the field was so tenanted at all." " But what were you going to tell us about their nests ?" asked cousin Sophy ; PAWS AND CLAWS. 127 " such little things and weighing nothing at all cannot require very big houses to live in." " Well, with regard to their nests," said uncle Fred, " I can't say that I have ever seen one myself, but there is a celebrated account of a field-mouse's nest in a charming old- fashioned book written by a Mr. White about a place called Selborne, in Hampshire a book which I hope you will one and all of you have sense enough to read and taste enough to be delighted with when you are old enough to really enjoy it." " This celebrated nest," said uncle Fred, "was found in a wheat-field, hung on the top of a thistle ; but it is not uncommon to find these nests suspended from blades of grass or straws. This one was plaited in the most curiously neat manner ; it was compact and round ; as round as a cricket-ball, Jack, and about the size of one ; and it was im- possible to find an aperture by which the inside might be approached ; impossible, at least to the eye of man, but not to the eye of mouse, for that the mother mouse constantly entered it somehow, in order to feed her children, there can be no manner of doubt." " To feed her children !" cried Lotty, with eager eyes. " Yes, Lotty, to feed her children, for inside this wonderful nest were eight baby mice securely and completely packed. Through the interstices in the skilful delicate plait they could be distinctly seen, though they could not be reached, and so closely were they packed, and so admirably made was their home, that it could be rolled about the table, just as if it had indeed been a ball, without injuring the structure or dis- turbing the inmates." 128 PAWS AND CLAWS. PEEP THE THIRTEENTH.-STORIES ABOUT DOGS. I FTER all," said uncle Fred, "there is neither bird nor beast can compare in intelligence to a dog." " What's the use of crying up donkeys and geese," cried Jack, if, after all, we are only to return to our old friend the dog ?" " Take the commonest thing that any dog can be taught to do," said his uncle, " and that a dog worth his bone does without teaching there is my old mastiff, Lion ; if I put my glove, or my whip, or my handkerchief, or any- thing down before him, he guards it with the greatest care, THE PUPPIES AJSD PAWS AND CLAWS. 131 won't let a creature touch, it, and could not be tempted to leave it by the most savoury mess that ever made mortal dog lick his lips ! where will you find a donkey or a goose that would do that ?" " And he looks so solemn and important, with his nose on the ground and his eye fixed on the treasure;" cried Lotty. "I do love to see him." " The queerest thing I ever saw in all my life," said Jack, chuckling as he spoke at V the mere recollection of it, " was three dogs all frightened at a snail." " Oh, but that's nonsense !" said Lotty; " dogs can't be afraid of snails ; it's too silly !" " They were'nt quite dogs, perhaps," admitted Jack, " but they were very big pups, and will very soon be grown-up fellows at the rate they were going on at, and I saw them myself, all three, before their kennel, in attitudes of alarmed surprise, and with the funniest expressions in their three faces possible, and it was all at a snail, who, stretched at full length with his 132 PAWS AND CLAWS. shell on his back, was charging up towards them as pertly as if he knew they stood in awe of him." " They must have been pretending," said Lotty, who appeared to have great faith in the sagacity of dogs. "Did you ever see a Scotch collev ?" asked uncle Fred. / " Oh yes, Uncle ! " replied Lotty; "that's a sheep-dog. Nurse tells me about them, and says they are wonder/ally clever." " So they are. I quite agree with Nurse ; they are wonder- fully clever. I never shall forget the first colley dog I ever saw. It was when I was paying a visit to your uncle Charles in Ireland, and we were coming home over the mountain from shooting, and stopped to speak to his shepherd, who was going home too, but first had to collect the sheep. Your uncle had just bought a new colley dog, and the man was boasting how admirably he did his work. ' Well,' said your uncle Charles, ' make him collect the sheep, then, and we shall see ; J so off" went the dog to a dozen sheep, at some distance, on the hill, but instead of bringing them over to us, he flew first at one, PAWS AND CLAWS. 133 and then at another, and then at a third, and bit at them fiercely, till they ran off in an opposite direction tho- roughly frightened. We could neither of us keep from laughing. * Hullo ! ' cried uncle Charles, * why, Briny, is this your fine sheep-dog?' * Shure, thin, it is, your honour/ said Briny, placidly, ' and ar'nt those three unc.rf (strange) sheep, that had no business at all at all wid your honour's ? and isn't Bran a 134 PAWS AND CLAWS. fine dog any way, to drive them off and fetch your own here ; ' and, truly enough, as he spoke, the nine sheep approached us, brought comfortably over by the sagacious Bran." " Was Bran a pretty dog, Uncle Fred ?" asked Lotty. " I hardly know what you call pretty, Lotty. He was not pretty like those little spaniels who stand begging on their hind legs, and coax you for everything, but he was a fine liiiiiiiM handsome fellow, and worth his weight in gold." " Just the difference be- tween girls and boys ! " said Jack sotto voce. " I saw another colley dog while I was in Ireland," continued uncle Fred, " and that was in Westmoreland Street a broad grand street leading down to the river, with Carlisle Bridge at the end of it. The streets of Dublin are broader than I ever saw in other towns, and on the occasion I speak of Westmoreland Street presented a very curious appearance, for it was full of sheep ; I siippose there must have been a great fair somewhere, and these sheep were perhaps being taken down to the river to embark for England. Irish mutton, especially the little mountain, is not to be despised, I can assure you." " No, that it is not !" put in Lotty's papa, with a solemnity worthy of the occasion. PAWS AND CLAWS. 135 " Well, all these five hundred sheep were being managed, and beautifully managed too, by one colley dog. The sheep, of course, had possession of the place, and the omnibuses, cars, and cabs wound in and out among them, but the dog ran without ceasing behind the great regiment, and at its sides, and by bestowing a pinch here and a poke there, when pinch or poke seemed wanting, and by the utterance of constant sharp but not unfriendly barks, kept the big regiment in the most compact order. The sheep did not appear either frightened or uncom- fortable ; but they under- stood who was their master, and obeyed him ; and the most curious thing was, that he kept them all in the road, and never for half a second let one of those sheep stray on to the foot-pavement, where they must have been dreadfully in the way of pedestrians. Now, how in the world, did that colley dog, bred on mountains, and only an occasional visitor to towns, know that the road and not the pathway was the proper place for his sheep ?" " Oh, I wonder how he could know it !" said Lotty, earnestly. " However it might be," replied her uncle, " it was as pretty a sight as I ever saw." "And are colley dogs only delightful with sheep?" asked Lotty, " or do they care for their masters ?" 136 PAWS AND CLAWS. "Do they care for their masters !" cried uncle Fred, "Ah, Lotty, indeed they do ! I saw a colley dog the other day of whom I heard a most wonderful story, for the truth of which I can vouch, as I heard it from the lips of his own master, who, by-the-bye, though a big man and a soldier, did not tell me the tale without a rather suspicious moisture in his eyes. He was an officer in a regiment quartered in Dublin (all my colley-dog stories somehow seem to be Irish), and finding his sheep-dog rather in his way, as it was not, I suppose, quite convenient to keep sheep in that city, he made a present of it to a friend who was going to Jersey. His friend departed, FOND OF FLOWEKS. PAWS AND CLAWS. 139 and took the dog with him ; but on board the packet, during a rough passage, they were not together, and the man and the dog saw nothing of each other till they landed, and then the dog immediately ran away." "Ran away?" " Yes, ran away, and lived wild on the island; disdaining to come near men and their habitations, and supporting himself as well as he could without their assistance. Stories were sometimes told that the dog had been seen here and there, and even his new master, if master he could be called, occasionally believed that he caught a glimpse of him ; but if he did, the dog cut him dead, and would have nothing to say to him. This state of affairs lasted for a fortnight, when the Dublin steamer went home again ; and, if you will believe me, Lotty, our colley dog went home in it ! " " What, by himself, Uncle Fred ?" " Yes, by himself, poor fellow. He lived wild, as I tell you, on the island for the fortnight that the vessel lay in the harbour, and the morning it prepared for sailing, the dog came on board, and settled himself without a word, or I suppose I should say, without a bark, in his old quarters. Arrived at the Dublin quay, he jumped on shore, and went straight to his former home, where he trotted into his real master's presence, and laid his faithful nose down on his knee." " Oh, Uncle Fred, how his master must have loved him !" " Yes, Lotty, when he told me the story, he said nothing should ever induce him to part with that dog again." 140 PAWS AND CLAWS. PEEP THE FOURTEENTH.-STORIES ABOUT PARROTS. $T BALKING of dogs, Sophy," said her aunt, "have you still got your little dog Frisk?" " Yes. Poor old Frisk ! I have still got him, and he is as great a pet as ever." Galpin : London, Paris, and New York. Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpiris Publications. Illustrated Volumes for^Children and Young People Continued. Second Edition. Cloth, 53.; gilt edges, 6s. 6d. The Child's Book of Song and Praise. With 250 Illustrations and 33 Pieces of Music, with Accompaniments, and con- taining a charming Collection of Hymns and Poetry. "The 'Child's Book of Song and Praise,' in arrangement, selection, illustration, paper, print, and cover, is beyond measure attractive. The tunes are really children's tunes, little melodies that run on with a truth and natural continuity ; something to be remembered, and that can be remembered. " Athenteunt. Cloth lettered, is. 6d. Stories of the Olden Time. Being a selection of some of the chief historical episodes from the Chronicles of De Joinville and Froissart. Arranged by M. JONES. " A series of pleasantly-told episodes in history. Books of this kind have a very useful effect, as they convey information in a form which gives it a chance of being perused by young readers with sufficient interest to be remembered afterwards." Standard. Price is. 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Cassell, Fetter 6 Galpin: London, Paris, and New York. 6 Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpiris Publications. Books for School Prizes and Rewards. Second Edition. Cloth, price 53. Notable Shipwrecks. Being Tales of Disaster and Heroism at Sea. By "UNCLE HARDY." 320 pp., cloth gilt, gilt edges. "A most captivating book for boys." Guardian, Second Edition. Fcap. Quarto, cloth gilt, 53. " Half- Hours with Early Explorers. By T. FROST. Containing Narratives of the Adventures and Discoveries of the Early Explorers. Profusely Illustrated. "A most fascinating volume, illustrated by a large number of extremely beautiful woodcuts." Daily News. Cloth gilt, 33. 6d. The True Robinson Crusoes. A Series of Stirring Adventures. Edited by CHARLES RUSSELL. With Twenty full-page Illustrations. Cloth gilt, gilt edges, 53. Wonderful Adventures. A Series of Narratives of Personal Adventure experienced among the Native Tribes of North America. With numerous Illustrations. New Edition. Cloth gilt, $s. ; gilt edges, 6s. 6d. Cassell's Robinson Crusoe. 406 pages, and One Hundred Illustrations. Royal 8vo. " Splendidly illustrated, of a handy size, and readable type." Manchester Examiner. New Edition. Cloth gilt, 53. ; gilt edges, 6s. 6d. Cassell's Swiss Family Robinson. 374 pages, royal 8vo, with One Hundred and Forty Illustrations. " This is by far the best edition we have seen of this popular interesting book for young readers." The Rock. Cloth lettered, is. each. Story Books for Children. Each containing Coloured Illustrations. Hid in a Cave; or, The Lost Child. The Holidays at Llandudno. The Broken Promise. And other Stories. Flora Selwyn. A Story for Girls. Grandmamma's Spectacles. Little Black Cap. And other Stories. Cassell, Fetter 6* Galpin : London, Paris, and New York. Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpiris Publications. Books for School Prizes and Rewards Continued. Cloth gilt, 53. Chapters on Trees. A Popular Account of their Nature and Uses. By M. and E. KIRBY, Authors of " The World at Home," &c. Illustrated. Ex. crown 8vo. "As delightful as a novel, yet brimful of sound information. The book is beautifully illustrated." Newcastle Chronicle. Third Edition. Cloth gilt, 53. At the South Pole. A Book of Voyages and Travels for Boys. By W. H. G. KINGSTON. With Forty Engravings. Crown 8vo. "A very capitally written book, thoroughly interesting." Scotsman. Cloth gilt, 33. 6d. The Story of Robin Hood. Illustrated with Plates printed in Colours, and adapted for Young Children. "A gay little volume, bright with coloured prints." Guardian. s~ rr _ Third Edition. Cloth gilt, price 33. 6d. On to bea. A strikingly interesting Story, containing sound moral teaching and practical advice for Boys. By W. H. G. KINGSTON. With Illustrations printed in Colours. "A very capital book for boys." John Bull. Picture Teaching Series Of Books for the Young, by JANET BYRNE, Author ot " Scraps of Knowledge." Picture Lessons on the Life of Christ. Illustrated, is. Picture Reading. With 333 Illustrations. 6d. Picture Geography. With full-page Illustrations. 6d. Tenth Thousand. Price is. each. Cassell's Children's Treasuries. A Series of Picture Books for Children. Uniform in size and price, each con- taining Forty-three full-page Pictures and accompanying Stories, Poetry and Music. The Children's Joy. Pretty Pictures and Pleasant Stories. The Picture Treasury. Tales for the Little Ones. My Sunday Book of Pictures. Sunday Garland of Pictures and Stories. Sunday Pictures for Little Folks. Cassell, Fetter & Galpin : London, Paris, and New York. Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpiris Publications. Books for Rewards in Sunday-Schools. Fourth Edition. Cloth bevelled, gilt edges, 53. The Child's Bible Narrative : Being a consecutive arrangement of the Narrative and other portions of the Holy Scriptures, in the Words of the Authorised Version. With Twenty-four full-page Illustrations. " Will form a very appropriate and valuable present to a child of almost any age." Christian World. "This handsome volume will probably take a high place among school prizes and family presents." Record. * # * The CHILD'S BIBLE NARRATIVE is also issued in Two separate Volumes. The Child's Old Testament Narrative. Cloth limp, 2s. 6d. The Child's New Testament Narrative. Cloth limp, is. 6d. Cloth gilt, 35. 6d. Great Lessons from Little Things. A Series of Practical Lessons on Bible Natural History. Illustrated throughout. 176 pp., extra fcap. 4to. "The lessons are simple, interesting, and instructive, and are admirably adapted to be read aloud to children in the family circle." Midland Counties Herald. Cloth lettered, is. 6d. The Gate of Gold. By H. G. B. HUNT. With Four Coloured Illustrations. Cloth lettered, is. 6d. Truly Noble. - A Story. By Madame DE CHATELAIN. With Illustrations. Cloth limp, 6d. Marion Lee's Good Work; or, How a Little Girl BUILT A CHURCH. By the Author of "A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam." With Illustrations. Cassell, Fetter 6* Galpin ; London, Paris, and New York. Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpiris Publications. Reward Books in Sunday- Schools Continued. Cloth limp, 6d. each; cloth bevelled, gilt edges, is. each. The "Little Gems" Series. " Their subject-matter is as sterling as their appearance is attractive." Birmingham Daily Gazette. Shall we Know One Another? By the Rev. Canon RYLE, M.A. Twenty- fifth Thousand. The Voice of Time. By J. STROUD. Containing a Meditation on a Verse of Scrip- ture for every Hour of the Day. Twenty- fourth Thousand. Home Religion. By the late Rev. W. B. MACKENZIE, M.A. Sixteenth Thousand. The Grounded Staff. Third Edition. By the Rev. R. MAGUIRE, M.A. Pre-Calvary Martyrs, and other Papers. By the late Rev. J. B. OWEN, M. A. Second Edition. Words of Help for Every-day Life. By the Rev. W. M. STATHAM. Third Edition. All Men's Place, and other Selections from the Sermons of the Rev. 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Each book being complete in itself. Price 6d. each. 1. The Maiden's Crown. 4. 2. The Wife's Crown. 5. 3. The Orphan's Crown. 6. The complete Series now ready in One Volume, cloth lettered, is. 6d. "Full of life and interest, with good moral teaching." Sunday-School Teacher. The Father's Crown. The Little Girl's Crown. The Poor Man's Crown. Cassell, Fetter 6 Galpin : London, Paris, and New York. io Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpin's Publications. Books suitable for School Libraries. Cloth bevelled, 2s. 6d. ; gilt edges, 33. 6d. A Day with Christ. By the Rev. SAMUEL Cox, Author of "The Private Letters of St. Paul and St. John," "The Quest of the Chief Good," &c. &c. "Breathes a spirit of earnest piety and intelligent devotion." John Btill. "Very exquisite and attractive." Christian World. Third Edition. Cloth, 35. 6d. The Young Man in the Battle of Life. By the Rev. Dr. LANDELS, Author of " Woman : Her Position and Power," &c. " It is really refreshing to meet with such sensible, robust, and courageous advice to youthful combatants in life's battle as this. We have pleasure in being able cordially to commend this volume." Record. Cloth, bevelled boards, gilt edges, 33. 6d. The Book of Good Devices. With One Thousand Precepts for Practice. Edited by GODFREY GOLDING. "An elegant little volume, pregnant with wisdom ; every page containing more sound sense and true eloquence than will frequently be found in a three-volume novel. "Bookseller. Cloth bevelled, 33. 6d. Sermons for Boys. By the Rev. ALFRED BARRY, D.D., Principal of King's College, London, late Head Master of Cheltenham College. Fcap. 8vo, 294 pages. " Well worth a place in any library for young people." Literary World. Cloth lettered, 33. 6d. Woman : her Position and Power. Being Essays on the Social and Moral Position of Woman, her Duties, &c. &c. By W. LANDELS, D.D. Cloth gilt, 6s. Daybreak in Spain. By the Rev. Dr. WYLIE. From Notes made during a Tour in Spain. With Twelve Illustrations. Crown 8vo. Cloth bevelled, gilt edges, 53. The Three Homes. A Tale for Fathers and Sons. By F. T. L. HOPE. 400 pages, crown 8vo. "There is much good sound reading in this book, thai cannot fail to be enjoyed both by old and young." Leeds Mercury. Cassell, Fetter 6" Galpin : London, Paris, and New York. Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpiris Publications. 1 1 Books suitable for School Libraries Continued. 320 pp., cloth, gilt edges, 55. Golden Days. By JEANIE HERING, Author of " Little Pickles," &c. &c. Illustrative of the experiences of an English Girl's School Life in Germany. " A charming volume, inculcating valuable lessons, not by arguments and 'sermons,' but by pleasant anecdotes and graphic sketches ; by the force of example even more than by salutary precept." Art Journal* Cloth gilt, 33. 6d. Pictures of. School Life and Boyhood. Selected and Edited by PERCY FITZGERALD, M.A. Crown 8vo, 256 pp. " This is one of the most suitable books for boys we have ever seen. On arriving at the end of the book, one hardly knows which to admire most the ' pictures ' Mr. Fitzgerald has selected, or the elegant framework he has constructed for them." Gloucester Journal. Cloth gilt, 3 s. 6d. Truth will Out. By JEANIE HERING, Author of "Little Pickles," &c. &c. 240 pp., crown 8vo. "The characters are described most skilfully, and the scenes are all of them pretty effective, and cleverly introduced." Public Opinion. Second Edition. Cloth, 55. The Story of Captain Cook. By M. JONES. Illustrated with about Forty Engravings. "A capital book, both from a literary and artistic point of view. The illustrations are abundant, and striking both for spirit and execution ; and the book altogether supplies a distinct want, since Cook's three voyages are not within the reach of the young in any form so handy and attractive." Daily Telegraph. Second Edition. Cloth gilt, 53. Working to Win. A Story for Girls. By MAGGIE SYMINGTON. With full-page Illustrations. " A very pleasingly- written story for girls. It is one of the best books of the kind with which we are acquainted. There is a religious feeling throughout ; and the incidents, stirring and interesting, are free 1 sensationalism. The volume is illustrated, and handsomely got up." Record. Cloth, bevelled boards, 33. 6d. Soldier and Patriot. The Story of George Washington. By F. M. OWEN. Illustrated. 256 pp., crown Svo. " We warmly commend the volume to the public." Daily Telegraph. Third Edition. Cloth gilt, 6s. Peoples of the World. By BESSIE PARKES-BELLOC. Illustrated with about Fifty Engravings. "Any intelligent boy or girl will be delighted with so excursive, so interesting a work, which cannot but be welcome wherever good books are read." Birmingham Daily Post. Cassell, Fetter 6- Galpin : London, Paris, and New York. 12 Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpiris Publications. Illustrated Bibles, &c. The Child's Bible. 830 pages, with 200 Illustrations. Demy 4to. Being a Selection from the Holy Bible, in the words of the Authorised Version, with large full-page Illustrations, especially designed for Children, by the best Artists of the day. Cloth, gilt edges, i is.; best morocco elegant or antique, 2 2S. Also with clasps and rims, in illuminated leather, i los. *** The Child's Bible has attained a circulation o/7S,OOO copies. "As far as I have been able to look into ' The Child's Bible,' the result has pleased me much." From the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Ripon. "It is a thoroughly satisfactory book, and just the volume for presents, &c. A very good book for Christian reading." From the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. " This grand volume, compiled from the Jewish and Christian sacred writings, with due reverence for their text and original order, to suit the comprehension of very young readers, is the best of birthday gifts from a parent or guardian. The moving histories and the sublime and affecting lessons contained in the Old and New Testaments are here presented in the same language in which they are read in church, but free from the formal division into chapter and verse, and simplified by continuous arrangement, omitting the details of Hebrew chronology and genealogy, and of the ceremonial law, as well as some of those instances of warfare and of social life among the ancient nations which the mind of a child might not be able to receive without some risk of abusing their moral purpose. The great multitude of fine engravings, carefully executed from designs by eminent British, French, and German artists, must render ' The Child's Bible ' one of the most attractive volumes in the family library, and a treasure of delight to the youngest members of the household. We observe that it has received the high approval of the Bishops of Ripon, Peterborough, and Gloucester and Bristol, Canon Payne Smith, the Rev. Newman Hall, and other ministers of religion." Illustrated London News. The Guinea Illustrated Bible. Printed in bold, readable type, with 900 Illustrations, representing the principal events of Scripture History, &c., and containing full References, a Concordance furnishing a key to the most important passages of Scripture, Critical and Ex- planatory Notes on the New Testament, Tables of Weights, &c., Explanations of Terras, Engraved Family Register, &c. &c. Royal 4to, 1,476 pages. New Edition. Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, gilt edges, price 2 is. ; or 253., strongly bound in leather. " The illustrations are all good examples of art nothing is omitted that can elucidate the text." Art Journal. The Athencetim, referring to the profuseness and beauty of these illustrations, remarked, "THERE IS SCARCELY A PAGE WITHOUT A WOODCUT UPON IT." Cassell's Illustrated Family Bible. With 900 Illustrations. Toned Paper Edition. Leather, gilt edges, 2 IDS. ; full morocco antique, $ los. ; best full morocco, flexible, elegant, $ 155. " We can heartily recommend this edition to any one who is desirous of obtaining a thoroughly HAND- SOME FAMILY BIBLE, at a price which, considering the excellency of the work, is marvellously low. The type and paper are exceedingly good, the engravings numerous and full of merit, and the notes clear and judiciously selected. " : Spectator. *** Of this Illustrated Bible in its several Editions nearly Half a Million copies have already been sold. Cassell, Fetter 6 Galpin ; London, Paris, and New York. Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpiris Publications. 13 Illustrated Bibles, &c. Continued. The Dore Bible. Illustrated by GUSTAVE DORE. Complete in Two very handsome Volumes. Small folio, 1,676 pp. ; 230 Illustrations, and Engraved Family Register. Tenth Thousand. Cloth gilt, ;8 ; morocco, gilt edges, 12; best polished morocco antique extra, ^15. " There are 230 designs in all ; and there is not one which does not carry upon it, besides the impress of the artist's genius, a pervading evidence of his patient loving determination to put forth all his power and to guide it with all his care." Daily Telegraph. Cassell's Bible Dictionary. With nearly 600 Illustrations. 1,159 P a g es imperial 8vo. Complete in One or Two Volumes, strongly bound in cloth, 2 is. ; in One Volume, strongly bound in russia or morocco, 403. "As a work of reference it will be invaluable both to the student and to the teacher, who will find in it a storehouse of information upon every point connected with the history, interpretation, and criticism of the Bible." Educational Times. "A thoroughly good Dictionary of the Bible, at once moderate in price, sound and varied in its critical information, written up to the time, and, above all, uniting independence of thought with orthodoxy of belief, has long been a desideratum." Record. Matthew Henry's Commentary. Unabridged Edition. Complete in Three Volumes, with Practical Remarks and Observations, and Supplementary Notes to each Book in the Old Testament, to the Four Gospels, &c., and Large Additions to the Expositions of the Epistles and Apocalypse. With a Life of the Author. Demy 4to, 3,308 pp. Cloth, lettered, 2 123. 6d. Daily Devotion for the Household. Containing a short Prayer, with Hymn, and a portion of Scripture for every Morning and Evening in the Year, with a few Special Services for special family occasions. Illustrated with 24 full-page Plates, and engraved Title-page. Royal 4to, cloth, gilt edges, 1 53.; leather, gilt edges, 1 15$. " The publication of this almost imperial devotional volume simply indicates the large demand that there is for domestic forms of worship. In this book a service for every day in the year is provided. Each is judiciously short ; hymns, Scripture, and prayer being comprised in a single page. The hymns are selected with admirable catholicity of feeling and taste, almost every type of religious faith and life being represented. " British Quarterly Review. Cassell's Family Prayer Book. 400 pages, demy 4to, containing a Series of Morning and Evening Prayers and Lessons for the whole Year and for Special Occasions. Cloth, 73. 6d. ; gilt edges, 95.; morocco, \ is. "All that can be desired, both as respects the character of the prayers, and the paper, printing, and general appearance of the vrork." Educational Times. Cassell, fetter & Galpin ; London, Paris, and New York. 14 Selections from Cassell, Fetter & Galpin's Publications. Selections from Serial Publications. The Quiver. - Monthly, 6d.; Weekly, \d. An Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading. " ' The Quiver ' is certainly one of the best cheap periodicals in existence." Art Journal. " An illustrated magazine which holds the highest rank among a class of periodicals which are peculiarly adapted for Sunday reading." Army and Navy Gazette. " The magazine is of a good, moral, serious aim." Saturday Review. "For its cheapness it is marvellous, considering the high character of the writing and the beauty of the illustrations, the superior quality of the paper, and the admirable style of its typographical and general arrangement." Civil Service Gazette. The Bible KdllCator. - Monthly, Jd.; Weekly, \\d. Edited by the Rev. E. H. PLUMPTRE, M.A., Professor of Exegesis of the New Testament, King's College, London. Vols. I. and II. now ready, price 6s. each, " The ' Bible Educator ' will form a storehouse of information which will not only be of great service to students and to teachers of Bible-classes and Sunday-schools, but to all who wish to obtain an intelligent knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and the faith they enshrine." Educational Times. "A work which will place Biblical students throughout the country under infinite obligations to them." Christian World. " The present is a time in which such a work as this is eminently needed. We have plenty of discussion and speculation ; what we require most are facts, and it is for the purpose of supplying the facts which the researches of scholars have brought to light that the ' Bible Educator ' has been published. " Leeds Mercury. Matthew Henry's Commentary. Monthly, yd.; Weekly, \\d. New) Annotated Edition. The distinguishing feature of Cassell's New Edition of MATTHEW HENRY'S great Work is in the Annotations, consisting of Supple- mentary Original Notes by eminent Biblical Scholars of the present day. *%* The New Testament portion of this Work is commenced in Part 64, price jd. Family Bible. - Monthly, yd.; Weekly, i\d. With 900 Illustrations. New and Improved Edition. Printed on Superfine Toned Paper. The most beautifully and profusely Illustrated Edition of the Holy Scriptures ever produced. The Dore Bible. - New Edition. Monthly, gd. The Illustrations consist of 220 Large Page Drawings, the production of which occupied M. Dore several years, and the cost of which, for drawing and engraving alone, amounted to more than ^"15,000. Each Monthly Part contains Four full- page Plates, printed on separate Plate Paper. "Dore's Bible will be a monument the culminating and vastest work of his life as a work of illustra- tion." Fine Arts Quarterly. "No previous work of Dore's is to be compared to his Bible." Builder. Cassell, Petter & Galpin; London, Paris, and New York. RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (510)642-6753 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW U. C. BERKELEY 12,000(11/95)