MR. CHUPES' MUSICAL ATTAINMENTS 



Unlike Sydney Lanier's " Bob," Chupes 

 did not sing in dreams. Perhaps it was be- 

 cause he practised so indefatigably during 

 all waking 'hours that sleep claimed him 

 completely when she at last secured him. 

 Jenny was occasionally the victim of night- 

 mares, the result possibly of a dread of 

 burglarious attacks on her nest, or of indi- 

 gestions, arising from the non-assimila- 

 tion of strings or other such unnatural 

 entrees, but if external evidence may be 

 taken as testimony, Chupes was a dream- 

 less sleeper. 



He seemed to know that something in 

 the nature of a ban had been laid on his 

 nocturnal singing, yet he was ever testing 

 us, evidently in the hope of our having 

 come to a better state of mind with regard 

 to evening performances. The most insin- 

 uating of notes would reach me from his 

 cage as I tiptoed around my room in the de- 

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