348 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



lieard that a swan was miserably astonished and 

 disgustingly angered by a servant boy or page, 

 Vv^ho took from the swan's nest the lawful eggs, 

 and put in their place those of an old grey 

 goose. 



When the mule swan saw the horrible distor- 

 tion of his graceful hope, he stood erect Avith half- 

 spread wings, and hissed for hours ; but the poor 

 gander, much less keen in his percejotion, doatod 

 on the brood of swans presented to him, suspected 

 nothing, and in his farm-yard never became a 

 '^ goose of sorrows," and thus escaped an ^^acquaint- 

 ance w^ith grief." 



I must not omit to add that all around mo 

 crowed the splendid pheasant, the partridge called, 

 and the willow-wrens, the redstarts, and the fly- 

 catchers, chimed in, and, with the brisk tomtits, 

 common and crested wrens, sky and wood 

 larks, chafiiinch, green-finch, and yellow-hammer, 

 all added to Nature's harmony, in spite of the 

 mischievous daws and starlings, who clamoured 

 for roguery inharmoniou.sly, as some as foolish 

 daws in human shape chatter at the opera. 



I remember to have written long, long ago, 

 that when the thews of limb and strength begin 



