478 REPTILES AND B/A'DS. 



pause, a man seems to knock at the gate ; if it is opened, enter 

 Jacob, who runs about the room, and finally mounts on the table. 

 Unfortunately, Jacob was a thief, and that was not his least fault 

 spoons, knives, forks, even plates, disappeared, with meat, bread, 

 salt, pieces of money, especially if new ; he carried off everything, 

 and hid all in some secret hole or corner. A washerwoman of the 

 neighbourhood was accustomed to dry her linen near our window, 

 fixing the clothes on the line with pins ; the bird would labour with 

 a perseverance truly wonderful to detach these, the woman chasing 

 him off with bitter maledictions about her fallen linen ; but he would 

 only fly over into his own garden for safety, where he would indulge 

 in a few malicious croakings. One day 1 discovered, under some 

 old timber, Jacob's hiding-place. It was full of needles, pins, and 

 all manner of glittering objects." 



Dickens was extremely partial to keeping ravens in his youth ; 

 and has related some of his experiences in the preface to " Barnaby 

 Rudge." He had two great originals. " The first was in the bloom 

 of his youth when he was discovered in a humble retreat in London 

 and given to me. He had from the first, as Sir Hugh Evans says of 

 Anne Page, ' good gifts,' which he improved by study and attention 

 in a most extraordinary manner. He slept in a stable generally 

 on horseback and so terrified a Newfoundland dog by his preter- 

 natural sagacity, that he has been known, by the mere superiority of 

 his genius, to walk off unmolested with the dog's dinner from before 

 his face. He was increasing in intelligence and precocity when, in 

 an evil hour, his stable was newly painted. He observed the work- 

 men closely, saw that they were careful of their pigments, and 

 immediately burned to possess some of them. On their going to 

 dinner, he ate up all they left behind, consisting of a pound or two 

 of white lead. Alas, this youthful indiscretion terminated in 

 death ! 



" Whilst yet inconsolable for the loss, another friend of mine," 

 Dickens goes on to say, " discovered an older and more gifted 

 raven at a village inn, which he prevailed upon the landlord to part 

 with for a consideration. The first act of this sage was to administer 

 to the effects of his predecessor, by disinterring all the cheese and 

 halfpence he had buried in the garden a work of immense labour 

 and research, to which he devoted all the energies of his mind. 

 When he had achieved this task, he applied himself to the acquisi- 

 tion of stable language, in which he soon became such an adept that 

 he would perch outside my window and drive imaginary horses all 

 day long, with great skill in language. Perhaps I never saw him at 



