At the Water's Edge 



sides even to a crow. Wherever he is found, 

 he always shows at least that one virtuous 

 quality of constancy, in ever maintaining his 

 dual though contradictory character — wily, 

 mischievous, and beneficial, if not beneficent. 

 The range of his appetite is as boundless as 

 the range of his habitation, scouring the entire 

 menu of nature's almost interminable repast ; 

 being, as the temper suits him, carnivorous, 

 piscivorous, graniverous, frugivorous, insec- 

 tivorous; so that, when the time comes for an 

 old crow to lie down and die, he has all the sat- 

 isfaction that can be derived from the thought 

 that there is little, if anything, in the dietetic 

 line which he has not enjoyed. There is 

 always something heroic in extremes, even of 

 evil ; and so this lusty old sinner, so generally 

 detested, excites a sort of admiration in 

 spite of ourselves. He has the free and easy 

 way of one who has given himself up as past re- 

 demption, but resolved to get all the fun he can 

 out of life ; ostracized from all good society, 

 yet showing a downright heartiness in deprav- 

 ity that reacts in his favor. 



Ocean scenery has something of the same 

 effect on me that the blast of a trumpet has 



upon an old dilapidated war-horse, which, after 



I 

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