FALLACIES AND FACTS. 205 



a height in the first instance, then by being rolled 

 over by a heavy iron chain, with a black monster 

 at the end of it, and then having breakfast or 

 luncheon with a lady and gentleman upon cold 

 roast lamb ! 



Twistie is now a very pretty and happy little 

 bird, and so tame and fearless that she does not 

 scruple to peck my hand, when at night I hang 

 her cage on the accustomed nail, and to twitter 

 welcome to me, in bird fashion, when she sees me 

 in the morning. From my lips she will take a 

 seed or crumb of sugar, and is as attached as a 

 bird can be. Who can tell that this, the second 

 greenfinch of my life, may not have come to fetch 

 me away, as the doe has been supposed to have 

 done by Thomas the Rhymer ?* 



It is a fact within my experience, and it admits 

 of no denial, that the wilder the birds and beasts, 

 and the more distant their haunts are from man, 

 and the less they are acquainted with his wiles, 

 his tyranny, and his destructive disposition, so 

 arc they infinitely the more trustful and easy to 

 tame. I have tried it with birds — with the 



* February, 1874. — My poor Twistie is gone without me, for the 

 common lot has overtaken her, and she is dead. 



