i8 THE PIGEON-FANCIER. 



you possess it. Do not be bribed by gold to 

 part with it. Stick to it. I knew a poor man 

 who, often hard up, would sooner starve than 

 sell his best birds. I admire him for his loyalty 

 to his pets. He loves them better than money, 

 and that is an uncommon characteristic in these 

 degenerate days, when the only poetry a man 

 admires he reads in the clatter of his horses' 

 legs — 



Dosn't thou 'ear my 'orse's legs as they canters awaay ? 

 Proputty, proputty, proputty — that's what I 'ears 'em saay ; 

 Proputty, proputty, proputty — Sam, thou's an ass for thy paains, 

 Theer's moor sense i' one o' 'is legs nor in all thy braains. 



Me an' thy muther, Sammy, 'as bean a talkin' o' thee ; 

 Thou's been talkin' to muther, an' she bean a tellin' it me. 

 Thou'U not marry for munny — thou's sweet upo' parson's lass — ' 

 Noa — thou'U marry for luvv — an' we boath on us thinks tha an ass. 



Seea'd her to-daay goa by — Saaint's-day — they was ringing the bells. 

 She's a beauty, thou thinks— an soa is scoors o' gells. 

 Them as 'as munny an' all — wot's a beauty ? the flower as blaws — 

 But proputty, proputty sticks, an' proputty, proputty graws. 



Walpole said " Every man has his price," but 

 happily I know an exception to the rule. 

 Guard your treasures as things too sacred for 

 commerce. If not, you will never be a success- 

 ful breeder. George Ure made it a rule never 

 to sell a bird, whatever the price offered, if he 

 thought he required it to improve his stock. 

 Mr. Chapman, the famous Almond Tumbler. 



