Our Lizards. 21 



honorable a title, however, may fiiirly be doubted, for 

 he is undoubtedly a great thief, and not very scrupu- 

 lous in the means he employs to obtain his own ends. 

 Indeed, he is not to be trusted, though very aristocratic 

 in his outward appearance, and wearing an enormous 

 moustache, a bit farther than he can be seen, and 

 scarcely that. In an evil hour the children, having let 

 out their birds as usual, thought, as the little redpoles 

 were rather troublesome to get in again, they would 

 leave them at large whilst they had their dinner in the 

 parlour. This they accordingly did, when all of a 

 sudden in comes the cook, and announces, without the 

 least concern, in her dry Lancashire way, " T'cat's got 

 a bird," and again as quietly retiring; she and the 

 nurse immediately sat down to their dinner without 

 making the least attempt at a rescue. Not so we. Out 

 we all moved ; but, alas ! too late, as you may suppose, 

 to be of any avail. As soon as he had seized his prey, 

 Drusus retreated to his lair in the cellar, where we 

 could hear him growling and swearing at the bottom of 

 the steps. After him went Judy and Gerty, who soon 

 found him with the bird in his mouth ; the latter, un- 

 deterred by the danger, dashed upon him at once, and 

 rescued the poor victim from his ferocious grasp. But 

 the deed was done — our much-prized little lizard 

 canary was no more ; and all we could do was to lament 

 over our loss, and scold the servants for their careless- 

 ness in leaving the door open, and their unfeeling con- 

 duct in selfishly sitting down to their own dinner, 

 instead of trying to save the life of the bird ere it was 

 too late. The accident, however, has been a warning 



