Where Silence Is Eloquent 



scoundrel?" Then he would abuse the cock- 

 sparrow, calling him a barbarian, a Prussian, a 

 mannerless intruder who had no business among 

 honorable French sparrows; and finally, pretending 

 to grow violently angry, he would chase Bismarck 

 from bench to bench and throw his hat at him. 

 And Bismarck would respond by dodging the hat, 

 chirping blithely the while, as if it were a good joke, 

 and would fly back to peck at the crust of bread 

 which the old man held between his lips or left 

 sticking out of his pocket. 



One might have understood this as a mere train- 

 ing trick if Bismarck were always the same; but 

 he was any cock-sparrow that the man chanced 

 to pick out of a flock. After playing with the 

 birds till they wearied of it, he would feed them, 

 pass the hat, and stroll away to repeat his per- 

 formance with another flock in another part of 

 the gardens. That these wary and suspicious 

 birds, far more distrustful of man than the spar- 

 rows of the wilderness, understood his mental at- 

 titude rather than his word or action; that he 

 could make them feel his kindliness, his camarad- 

 erie^ his call to come and play, even while he pre- 

 tended to chase them, this was the impression of 

 at least one visitor who watched him again and 

 again at his original entertainment. 



Some kind of communication must have passed 

 [i47l 



