wishes to pay himself a high compliment, 

 he attributes to himself tht possession of 

 that high class of intelligence called 

 ' horse sense/ he claims that he is a 

 thinking animal, while the rest of created 

 beings act by what he is pleased to call 

 instinct, which he insists is inferior to 

 reason; but, as instinct is the immediate 

 gift of the Creator, the Divine energy 

 acting in the creature, it is certainly more 

 sure and unerring than Man's so called 

 reason, which is nothing but a faculty of 

 the mind which makes vain endeavors to 

 get at the truth, which we know without 

 an effort. Why, I venture to say," con- 

 tinued the Rain-Bird, "that Man is this 

 very minute peering out of the window 

 of the Ark guessing about to-morrow's 

 weather, while the Petrel and I, as well 

 as some of the rest of you birds, know 

 that we shall have an unusual storm." 



"I think," spoke up the Jackdaw, "that 

 when Man says he is a thinking animal, 

 he places himself upon the proper plane, 

 for when he is engaged in his profound- 

 est and deepest thought, he claims to be 

 'ruminating,' and we all know that the 

 bird we call the Cow is the chief of all 

 ruminating animals. Hence, when Man 

 is engaged in the highest exercise of his 

 so called reason, he is simply a sort of 

 inferior cow." 



"Well, well," mirthfully said the 

 Laughing Jackass, 'it does seem that our 

 featherless friend has no superior quali- 

 fications whatever." 



"I think," the Parson Bird timidly ven- 

 tured to say in a tone indicating intense 

 pity for a being of such marked inferior- 

 ity, "that Man claims that he is a moral 

 being; that, although born in a state of 

 total depravity, he educates and corrects 

 his young in such a way as to make them 

 perfect specim.ens of rectitude." 



"This comes with a poor grace," 

 broke in the Magpie, "from a being 

 whose wickedness brought on this pro- 

 tracted wet spell, but in it I perceive that 

 the wingless creature is nothing more 

 nor less than a sort of imitative animal 

 like his reputed ancestor, the monkey; 

 for we all know that from time imme- 

 morial it has been the custom of the 

 Bear to 'lick her cubs into shape,' and it 

 is quite evident whence Man obtains his 

 high moral ideas of correction." 



At this juncture Noah proclaimed 

 land ho ! and, while Homo Sapiens was 

 heaving to and getting ready to throw 

 out the gang plank, the whole of the 

 feathered tribe went out of the Ark "in 

 flying colors," singing, chirping, cooing, 

 caroling, warbling, yodelirig and trill- 

 ing, and, as the Bird of Jove rose in the 

 air, he was heard to shout back at the 

 "paragon of animals": "Why don't you 

 fly out, old man?" 



The taunt of the eagle was afterwards 

 truthfully, but ineffectually, answered by 

 the Latin poet : 



"Sine pennis haud volar e potest'^ 

 Albert W. Gaines. 



THE WHITE BIRCH 



A fall of gold leaves in the sunset light, 



A myriad silver twinkling stars, the leaves 

 Of dainty White Birch trees appear at night 



When softly rustled by a zephyr breeze. 

 Slender shafts of purest white uphold 



A thousand tender tints of green at dawn. 

 When rosebuds dripping with the dew unfold 



Their petals to the lark's exultant song. 

 The fit companion of Parisian lawns 



The White Birch tree, true aristocracy 

 Seems to possess. No forest wildness warns 



The vagrant deer to tread less daintily. 

 Indeed, beside the White Birch who could be 

 Aught but a child in chaste simplicity? 



— Frederick E. Beebe, 



104 



