The Happy Garden 



The would-be murderer was driven away, beaten 

 and chained up so that his lust for blood might 

 pass : the victims were captured and penned up 

 in their little green house : there was not a fish 

 to be seen. 



No matter : it was the end of the ducks. Fish 

 or no fish, the one thing needful was peace. 



Sentence of punishment was passed, and there 

 and then the ducks were removed to the further- 

 most end of the garden : and there they are to 

 this day, living the ordinary, dull, grubby farm- 

 yard life of which alone they are worthy : 



" The sly, slow Jiours shall not determinate 

 The dateless limit of their dear exile" 



In the upshot, it transpired that their coming 

 had not been so disastrous as had at first appeared. 

 Their illicit menu for their two days' stay at the 

 lake was this : 



5,000 tadpoles. 

 11 gold fish. 

 1 lizard's tail. 



They have been presented with the bill, and 

 have paid it without a murmur. 



Still the desire for beasts is not quenched, and 

 there are dreams of a stork, or a peacock, or a 



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