RECOGNITION AND RECOVERY. 179 



might be allowed to see the bird ; but Jona- 

 than had no idea of relinquishing his prize so 

 easily, and stoutly refused to admit of the inter- 

 view, ' guessing' that it was very easy for an 

 Englisher to lay claim to another man's property, 

 but ' calculating ' that it was a ' tarnation sight ' 

 harder for him to get possession of it ; and con- 

 cluding by asserting in unqualified terms his 

 entire disbelief in the whole story. Captain 

 Johnson's object however being rather to recover 

 his falcon than to pick a quarrel with the trucu- 

 lent Yankee, he had fortunately sufficient self- 

 command to curb his indignation, and proposed 

 that his claim to the ownership of the bird should 

 be at once put to the test by an experiment, 

 which several Americans who were present ad- 

 mitted to be perfectly reasonable, and in which 

 their countryman was at last persuaded to acqui- 

 esce. It was this. Captain Johnson was to be 

 admitted to an interview with the hawk who, by 

 the way, had as yet shown no partiality for any 

 person since her arrival in the New World, but 

 on the contrary had rather repelled all attempts 

 at familiarity and if at this meeting she should 

 not only exhibit such unequivocal signs of attach- 

 ment and recognition as should induce the ma- 

 jority of the bystanders to believe that he really 

 was her original master, but especially if she 



