At the Water’s Edge 
sides even toa crow. Wherever he is found, 
he always shows at least that one virtuous 
quality of constancy, in ever maintaining his 
dual though contradictory character — wily, 
mischievous, and beneficial, if not beneficent. 
The range of his appetite is as boundless as 
the range of his habitation, scouring the entire 
ménu of nature’s almost interminable repast ; 
being, as the temper suits him, carnivorous, 
piscivorous, graniverous, frugivorous, insec- 
tivorous; so that, when the time comes for an 
old crow to lie down and die, he has all the sat- 
isfaction that can be derived from the thought 
that there is little, if anything, in the dietetic 
line which he has not enjoyed. There is 
always something heroic in extremes, even of 
evil ; and so this lusty old sinner, so generally 
detested, excites a sort of admiration in 
spite of ourselves. He has the free and easy 
way of one who has given himself up as past re- 
demption, but resolved to get all the fun he can 
out of life; ostracized from all good society, 
yet showing a downright heartiness in deprav- 
ity that reacts in his favor. 
Ocean scenery has something of the same 
effect on me that the blast of a trumpet has 
upon an old dilapidated war-horse. which, after 
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