THE HERON AND ITS HAUNTS 95 



evincing great determination, he said, ' I'm going to 

 have him stuffed ; expense no object.' The bird was 

 stuffed, I have seen it many times ! a wondrous work 

 of art it is. The bird stands in a case about the size 

 of a large clothes-box, which is painted black outside 

 and bright ultra-marine blue inside, in order to show 

 him up well. At regular distances are tufts of flag 

 three inches high. Close to his feet on the asphalt- 

 looking gravel is a bit of stone tinted in many colours. 

 Great efforts seem to have been made to give a natural 

 effect to the whole, but, strange to say, the bird does 

 not look happy ; he squints for one thing, and he 

 has the gout in his legs, for the wire used in the myste- 

 ries of stuffing would have supported an Australian 

 emu. 



But that matters not : the genial old fellow is 

 happy, for he imagines nothing better, and his friends, 

 to their credit be it spoken, have never undeceived him. 

 When he invites them to his house, as he frequently 

 does, to spend a sociable evening, at a certain point 

 of the proceedings he invariably gives them for about 

 the fiftieth time the account of his scuffle with that 

 heron. It is so much enjoyed, that many go to sleep 

 over it, but he does not observe it, for his eyes are 

 fixed on the black box and its inmate memory is 

 busy with him, and it is very late. 



