CHAPTER i 
Birds of Paradise 
FIRST I will tell you about the Birds of Paradise. 
You have heard of them perhaps, and how beautiful 
they are, but you may have thought that birds with 
a name like that did not live here at all. For the 
Emperor of China lives in China, and if the Emperor 
of China lives in China, the Birds of Paradise ought, 
one would think, to live in Paradise. But that is 
not the case—not now at any rate. They live avery 
long way off, it is true, right over at the other side 
of the world, but it is not quite so far off as Paradise is. 
No, it cannot be there that they live, because if 
you were to leave England in a ship and sail always 
in the right direction, you would come at last to the 
very place, instead of coming right round to England 
again, which is what you would do if you were to sail 
for Paradise—for you know, of course, that the earth 
is round. But why, then, are they called Birds of 
Paradise if they live here on the earth? Well, there 
are two ways of explaining it. I will tell you 
