The Happy Garden 



being conducted on humanitarian principles, the 

 temptation was resisted. 



Meanwhile, the bird had acquired a taste for 

 company. He would follow the garden-boy round 

 while he was weeding, and in the morning, when he 

 heard our voices, he would come down and stand 

 on the threshold of the drawing-room window and 

 gaze at his reflection in the panes. He often stands 

 there brooding and striking attitudes, like Sir Henry 

 Irving, and his back view is like that of a pompous 

 parliamentarian. He never speaks, but he can put 

 whole worlds of expression into the shrug of his 

 wing. Sometimes he becomes conscious of his 

 Japanese effect in the decorative scheme, and 

 stretches out a wing and a leg, and brings them 

 round in a wide sweeping gesture. . . . These are 

 in his soulful moments. When he wants food 

 he is blunt and direct. He stretches his neck to 

 its full height and opens his beak. 



He has a hard, glittering eye, and for that reason 

 has been called after a celebrated lawyer, who 

 • shall be nameless. 



Twice a week there arrives food for the dogs 

 — sheep's head, and certain unprepossessing tit-bits. 

 When the bird's natural food gave out, he was 

 tried with these, and, like Oliver Twist, he asked 

 for more. 



170 



