CHAPTER XX. 



W OULD y u care * ^ ave Grip?" wrote a friend to 

 me one day, " for if you would, I shall have much 

 pleasure in sending her to you." 



Should I accept the offer, or should I decline? The 

 bird in question had a history. She was not exactly 

 spiteful, but you had to take care of your heels when 

 she was in the way. She was not, strictly speaking, 

 very handsome either, for she had plucked all the 

 glossy black feathers from her breast, which was then 

 only covered with grey down. Notwithstanding these 

 decided drawbacks she was a very fine specimen of 

 the race to which she belonged, namely the Scandina- 

 vian, and was considerably larger than any other 

 Raven I had seen. Then I had never owned one of 

 these birds, and decided to accept the kind offer made 

 me, and at an early date found myself a visitor at 

 my friend's house and contemplating, in his yard, 

 the " ancient, grim and stately Raven" that was soon 



