Arnaux 
II 
The training of the birds went on after this 
at regular times. ‘The distance from home, of 
the start, was “jumped” twenty-five or thirty 
miles farther each day, and its direction changed 
till the Homers knew the country for one hun- 
dred and fifty miles around New York. The 
original fifty birds dwindled to twenty, for the 
rigid process weeds out not only the weak and 
ill-equipped, but those also who may have tem- 
porary ailments or accidents, or who may make 
the mistake of over-eating at the start. There 
were many fine birds in that flight, broad- 
breasted, bright-eyed, long-winged creatures, 
formed for swiftest flight, for high unconscious 
emprise, for these were destined to be messen- 
gers in the service of man in times of serious 
need. Their colors were mostly white, blue, 
or brown. They wore no uniform, but each 
and all of the chosen remnant had the brilliant 
eye and the bulging ears of the finest Homer 
blood; and, best and choicest of all, nearly al- 
ways first among them was little Arnaux. He 
79 
