196 Birds I Have Kept. 



as strongly and as vehemently as he possibly could. You 

 shall be drawn, I said: I sha'n't, he replied, and swore to 

 it, a good round oath in his Owlish language; but I was 

 determined: the artist had come out for the express purpose 

 of taking a sketch of him in one of his most characteristic 

 and striking attitudes, but he would not allow it to be done. 

 On the contrary, far from stretching out his wings, he kept 

 them even more tightly pressed against his sides than usual, 

 and growled and swore, vowing that nothing would, could, 

 or should tempt him to unfold them. In vain I poked him 

 with a stick, he only jumped down to the bottom of his 

 domicile, and, still swearing, thrust himself into its darkest 

 comer, sq that the artist could not even obtain a glimpse of 

 him. 



What was to be done? One of my old hens happened just 

 then to pass that way, and the thought struck me that if I 

 showed the old lady to him, the sight of her venerable face 

 and still red and upright comb might tempt him to spread 

 out his wings. I therefore caught her up in my hands, and 

 placed her close to the bars of the Owl's cage; hut he merely 

 swore a little louder, as much as to say : Why the- blank 

 can't you let me alone! and his wings remained as tightly 

 folded as ever. 



"What was to be done? The valuable time of the artist 

 was not to be wasted: he had come out expressly to take a 

 portrait of him as he stood on his log with expanded wings, 

 and a mouse under his foot, but the Owl declined to be a 

 party to the arrangement: possibly because the mice too had 

 entered into the conspiracy, and absolutely refused to be 

 caught. Prom mice to cats the transition is natural and 

 easy; so, failing a mouse to tempt him from his resolution, 

 I suddenly bethought me that a cat might do as well. One 

 of my youngsters accordingly ran off, and soon returned with 

 "Miss Taylor" under his arm. Now this lady, notwithstanding 

 her maidenly designation, is the lawful wife of "Tim", and 



