Byram and Ghopal. 



6r 



on his own head the head of a murdered 

 bird. It is, you see, a savage fashion, and 

 if our girls thought about it, they would 

 hardly like to wear dead song birds on their 

 pretty heads, just as these fierce islanders 

 do. The Audubon Society, of which your 

 cousin is a member, is trying hard to pro- 

 tect the birds, and the Legislature has been 

 invoked to prevent ladies from killing all 

 the little warblers. In the past few seasons 

 the darling things have been swept off by 

 thousands because fashion has ordered that 



they should be worn on our bonnets and 

 hats. That tiny wren on your hat, dear, no 

 doubt was torn away from her nest and her 

 fledgelings." 



"I see," said Hattie, "that I have been a 

 horrid, thoughtless girl." And unpinning 

 the bird from its place with energy — "I, for 

 one, will never wear a dead bird again. It 

 is a hateful fashion !" 



Hattie has been as good as her word, and 

 I have written this at her request. — Har- 

 per s Young People. 



BYRAM AND GHOPAL. 



GHOPAL was 'a sturdy young fellow 

 of the potter caste, who lived at 

 Hyderabad Sind, on the banks of the Indus. 

 He had been digging clay and kneading it 

 into lumps and moulding it upon the pot- 

 ter's wheel into chatties and suraes and 



ghurras as long as he could remember. 

 He was so strong that he could lift double 

 the ordinary potter's load, and being a 



straight, well-made fellow, he could walk 

 balancing six ghurras one over the other 

 upon his head; and as he was himself six 

 feet high, it was a picture to look at when 

 he went along the road with a load of 

 ghurras. But although he was so strong, 

 he was not fond of work; on the contrary, 

 he was a very lazy fellow, and muVmured 

 at Brahma for having made him a potter, 

 instead of a priest. It was his great de- 

 light to find fault with the way Brahma 

 made and ruled the woild, and having a 

 ready tongue, a fertile imagination and a 

 talent for disputation, his comrades enjoyed 

 nothing better than to get him into discus- 

 sion with the numerous pious Brahmins 

 who traveled the road; and Ghopal, being 

 really a clever, quick-witted fellow, often 

 got his opponents into a passion, which was 

 always the signal for him to stop, for, as he 

 said, when a man loses his temper in argu- 

 ment, it is a proof that he feels himself 

 beaten. 



On one occasion word was brought to 

 Ghopal that there was a very clever faquir at 

 the Serai, one Daloora, who answered every 

 disputant without a moment's thought, and 

 this time, they said, Ghopal would meet his 

 match. 



On his arrival at the Serai, he found that 

 his presence was expected by the usual 



