TOPSY-TURVY LAND 137 



and, especially, the fact of their entering and 

 plundering each other's is open and apparent. 

 They seem to chance the rightful owner being at 

 home, or in the near neighbourhood. There is no 

 stealth, no guilty shame-faced approach. Boldly 

 and joyously they fly up, and if unopposed, " so," 

 as FalstafF says (using the little word as the Germans 

 do now) ; if not, a quick wheel, a gay retreat, and 

 a song sung at the end of it. Such happy high- 

 handedness, careless guilt ! A bird, issuing from a 

 cave that is not his own, is flown after and pecked 

 by another, just as he plunges into one that is. The 

 thief soon reappears at the door of his premises, and 

 sings, or talks, a song, and the robbed bird is, by 

 this time, sing-talking too. Both are happy — immer 

 munter — all is enjoyment. A bird, returning with 

 plunder, finds the absent proprietor in his own 

 home. Each scolds, each recognises that he has 

 *' received the dor " ; but neither blushes, neither 

 is one bit ashamed. Happy birdies ! They fly about, 

 sinning and not caring, persist in ill courses, and 

 how they enjoy themselves ! There is no trouble of 

 conscience, no remorse. *'Fair is foul, and foul is 

 fair," with them. It is topsy-turvyland, a kind 

 of right wrong-doing, and things go on capitally. 

 Happy birdies ! What a bore all morality seems, 

 as one watches them. How tiresome it is to be 

 human and high in the scale ! Those who would 

 shake off^ the cobwebs — who are tired of teachings 

 and preachings and heavy-high novellings, who 

 would see things anew, and not mattering, rubbing 

 their eyes and forgetting their dignities, missions, 

 destinies, virtues, and the rest of it — let them 



