BIRD BUYING AND IMPORTING. 257 



the contrary, would gladly take the risk of drowuiiig, if assured that rats are not 

 aboard. 



As may be supposed, Fritz's many travels make him a grand story-teller ; and 

 he is regarded among the emigrants as the oracle. Sitting at the dimly lit table 

 after his work is finished, with a well-thumbed pack of cards in his hands, and a 

 nose-warming pipe between his teeth, he relates many a yarn for the benefit of 

 those who have never been in America. America, the land in which all on board 

 are interested, usually is his subject; and the easy manner in which wealth may be 

 obtained is related free of charge. He tells that chickens run loose in the streets, 

 and anybody may catch them, bring them to market, and sell them. Everybody is 

 rich ; and, if he did not receive an enormous salary, he would stay there permanently. 



Thus the trip is passed : he makes many friends, and many a poor homesick 

 or seasick passenger is grateful for his little acts of kindness. He is, by his ready 

 promises, able to procure some of the cabin delicacies, and, smuggling them below, 

 bestows them in the steerage, where they are most needed, giving them, of course, to 

 the old and homely women. The homesick, aged women, who in Germany have 

 bred birds, probably making the long journey to see some of their children, feel 

 the awful effects of seasickness, and often lie in their miserable quarters, and listen 

 to the cheerful voices of the Canaries. When the bird-man passes around, one 

 says, " God bless the little birds ! they make me think of home." 



Fritz's life is made up of adventures small and great : nothing astonishes him. 

 His principal cause for anxiety is, that, should the propeller break, his seeds may 

 run short. Cases have occurred where the steamer, breaking down in mid-ocean, 

 is obliged to make slow headway under sail ; it is then that every kernel of seed 

 must be made to last, and the seed once fed must be cleaned and recleaned, and 

 the birds put on short rations just in the same manner as shipwrecked passengers ; 

 but this accident rarely happens, thanks to great improvements in the ships of to-day 

 over those of olden times. Fritz may be put aboard of some old boat rendered leaky 

 by her numerous battles with the waves ; and a case has been known where a ship 

 of this description has arrived with every cage and bird wet, the case-covers 

 rotten, and every thing soaked by the sea beating through the decks above, and 

 pouring through the battered-in port-holes. 



Sometimes Fritz is sent to Australia, where he is intrusted with the entire busi- 

 ness of trading and selling the shipment. He usually returns with a valuable stock 

 of the fancy feathered tribe, including Cockatoos, and hundreds of gorgeously 

 plumed Paroquets. 



Where two men -travel together, with double the number of birds given in 

 charge of one man, neither the work nor the risk is so great ; as the chances for 

 keeping watch is better, and, should one man meet with an accident, the birds would 

 not starve. The chance which a man runs of breaking a limb or an ^arm on the 

 slippery, billowy decks is not slight : and, if such an accident should happen to a 

 man when alone with a cargo of birds valued at five thousand dollars, the loss could 

 not be made up in a whole season's business. 



The character of Fritz, sketched above, has been taken from the best of the 

 men who travel : to be sure, there are scapegraces among them, who, on account of 

 the numberless temptations in their paths, fall victims to drink, and other bad 



