THE PEDIGREE OF THE FANCY. 25 



the most beautiful objects in nature ; and to love 

 either is to be made better by so loving, and it 

 is only obeying the command of the Great 

 Teacher who said, " Consider the birds of the 

 air and the flowers of the field." 



Surely a bird ranks higher in the scale of 

 creation than a flower ! Some natures being 

 more sensitive and sympathetic ask larger return 

 than a flower can give ; a bird meets the require- 

 ment. To crown the enjoyment of our leisure 

 hours "we crave for an eye that can meet us, 

 a pet that will welcome our approach, and show 

 that our regular visit is a joy to both. ' If only 

 the beautiful flower upon which we lavish so 

 much time, thought, and money to produce, if 

 it could only turn round at our coming, if it 

 could acknowledge gratefully the refreshing 

 shower we bestow upon it, if it could meet 

 glance with glance to show us that it shared 

 the joy of every meeting, if, we say, a flower 

 could do all this, then it would answer in nearly 

 all respects to a fancy pigeon." * 



Some men — men of vitiated tastes and sordid 

 hearts — smile with dull superiority at teachings 

 drawn from such unpractical, such uncommercial 

 things as flowers and birds. Their chief view 



* Fulton's Book of Pigeons. 



