CHAPTER XIII. 



AN UNFORTUNATE. 

 The Shadow Bird Snake-bitten Sudden Death. 



GENTLE reader, you don't know my friend ; he is 

 wondrously quiet, even bashful, particularly when 

 ladies are present. Still, he possesses a quiet fund 

 of dry humour, which, when he chooses to let loose, 

 and that is very seldom, is immensely entertaining. 

 Moreover, he was a gentleman that never liked to 

 be beaten at anything he undertook, but to be sold 

 or humbugged was, to him, one of the bitterest pills 

 he could be asked to swallow. 



Now, he had been sold by this ostrich, and when 

 he learnt that such was the case, he was wroth, said 

 little, but looked fierce. 



The explanation is this. An ostrich acts exactly 

 as does a wild duck or peewit when surprised upon 

 its nest it feigns lameness, pretends to be injured, 

 and consequently unable to escape from the disturber, 



