110 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
big empty room next the dairy and let it remain 
until fit to cook. The longer it hung the more 
tender it would be. 
There was an iron hook in the central beam of 
the big vacant room he had spoken of, and on this 
hook he suspended the heron by its legs, its long 
pointed beak nearly touching the tiled floor, and 
hanging there with nothing else in the room it 
looked bigger than ever. It troubled them greatly 
to have to go through this room many times a 
day, but it was far worse at night. They were 
accustomed, especially on moonlight nights, to go 
that way to the dairy without a candle; and they 
sometimes forgot about the bird, and then the 
sight of it in its pale grey plumage would startle 
them as if they had seen a ghost. How awful it 
looked, with its wings like great arms half - open 
as if to scare them! 
Days and weeks went by, and still the heron 
was suspended in the big vacant room to make 
their life on the farm a burden to them, then one 
morning after finishing his breakfast their brother 
said that he had been looking at the heron and 
found it was just about in perfect condition to be 
cooked, and that they would have it for dinner 
that day. Then he added: “I don’t mean at 
our twelve o’clock dinner. There would be no 
time to prepare it and it would not be proper to 
eat it at such an hour. To-day we must have a 
real eight o’clock dinner so as to do honour to the 
heron.” 
