CANNIBALS IN COURT 



329 



our nests, are accused of eating not only our smaller 

 brethren, but also four-footed animals which are of 

 service to man. I deny that we do this as a tribe, 

 except when we are pressed for food, and Heart of 

 Nature says to us all, ' Take what ye need to eat! ' 



" Now, you are all in honor 

 bound to speak the truth at 

 this hearing, and you shall 

 be heard first. Brothers of the 

 Darkness — you, with strange 

 voices and feathered eye-cir- 



cles 



you, 



who have three 



eyelids and whose eggs are 

 whiter even than moonlight. 



" Brother Screech Owl, 

 whose day is my night, tell 

 us about yourself — how 

 and Avhere you live." 



There were two Screech 

 Owls perched side by side on 

 one stump. They were not 

 ten inches long, and had 

 feathery ear - tufts standing 

 up like horns an inch long. 

 One Owd was mottled gray 

 and black ; the other was 

 rusty-red; and the toes of l)otli peeped out of liolcs in 

 their thin stockings. Tlie gray one gave a little quaver- 

 ing wail and said: 



"I am everywhere a well-known (^wl ; thougli I say 

 it myself, I am a good, hard-working Citizen, and in 

 this the Wise Men agree. 



Screech Owl, 



