26l 



one wing, and then turned him loose in my garden. 

 But if I thought I was going to receive any marks of 

 affection or even of tolerance from this good tempered 

 animal I was speedily undeceived, for the whole time 

 he was my lodger he never allowed me to get within 

 twenty yards of him. Neither hunger on his side nor 

 the wariest stalking on mine ever lessened the distance 

 his suspicion had fixed as the proper one between us. 

 The nearest approach to familiarity he ever evinced on 

 my premises was to take food off the ground within 

 perhaps a 3'ard of the good lady who at that time " did 

 for" me and my bachelor establishment. Not that he 

 had lost any of the humour which had previously 

 marked him in his old home. It is true that I had no 

 dogs and no cat for him to persecute by pecking them 

 when asleep, or by tweaking their tails to drive them 

 from the food dish, but the place of the quondam 

 victims was speedily taken by my unfortunate pigeons, 

 of which at that time I kept a considerable number. 

 These birds had free egress from their aviaries and 

 used to spend a good deal of their time in the garden. 

 After their morning bath they would lie on the grass, 

 basking in the sun, and on these occasions Master 

 Rook always considered them to be fair game for his 

 practical jokes. And right well did he exercise his 

 presumed right, till at last their slow moving brains 

 grasped the conviction that he was a person to be 

 avoided. When a flock of them had got comfortably 

 settled down to dry, it was really amusing to see him 

 sidle around so as not to excite their alarm and 

 gradually reduce the distance till he could suddenly 

 pounce upon some unlucky wight to give him a vicious 

 dig in the back. The sudden onslaught of course had 



