Art and Science 



where they sing " here followeth the anthem," 

 yet the person with this most mysteriously 

 sounding name never did follow. They had a 

 choir, and no one could say the church was 

 not a place where they sang, for they did 

 sing both chants and hymns. Why, then, 

 this persistent slackness on the part of the 

 anthem, who at this juncture should follow 

 her papa, the rector, into the reading-desk? 

 No doubt he would come some day, and 

 then what would he be like ? Fair or dark ? 

 Tall or short? Would he be bald and wear 

 spectacles like papa, or would he be young and 

 good-looking ? Anyhow, there was something 

 wrong, for it was announced that he would fol- 

 low, and he never did follow ; therefore there 

 was no knowing what he might not do next. 



I heard of the parrots a year or two later as 

 giving lessons in Italian to an English maid. 

 I do not know what their terms were. Alas ! 

 since then both they and their mistress have 

 joined the majority. When the poor lady 

 felt her end was near she desired (and the 

 responsibility for this must rest with her, not 

 me) that the birds might be destroyed, as 



39 



