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ALMOST HUMAN 
pared for their use on shipboard, and he sent with them all manner of 
delicacies to tempt the appetites of disconsolate sea-voyagers. They 
were only babies then, and when they were safely housed in the com- 
pound with a fence about twelve feet high all round it, people laughed at 
the ridiculously high surroundings. Their quaint house v/as even higher 
than the fence ; and why should both be so absurdly high ? Granted that 
the two creatures had long legs, and extraordinarily long necks attached 
to their queer, squat bodies, there was rhyme and reason in all things! 
Nobody laughs now, because, although Rosie has not yet attained her 
maximum height, she is able to look over that fence! 
For about three years the two giraffes lived there happily, and 
gave promise of being sound investments, although, like the hippopota- 
muses, they cost £1,000 the pair. But in the spring of 1915, sudden 
tragedy overtook the young male. It was towards evening, and it is 
presumed that some unusual noise — probably a more than ordinarily 
savage or loud growl from a lion, who is, in their natural state, their 
most dreaded foe — terrified him beyond control. He sprang madly into 
the air, and whirled round and round his compound in his terror, and 
finally came heavily in contact with the corner of his house. He was 
ilung backwards by the force of the collision, and instantly it was seen 
that he was seriously hurt. He was unable to rise, and only by the 
united efforts of a number of men was he piloted inside his house. 
The veterinary surgeon was summoned immediately, but he soon dis- 
covered the case to be hopeless. He was not sure whether he had actually 
broken his back by the impact, but there was some dislocation, and he 
knew there was mortal internal injury. In an hour or less, the fine 
creature was dead, and the autopsy proved that his kidneys had been 
ruptured, 
Rosie had been frightened, too; but not so excessively. She was 
much perturbed by the number of men surrounding her fallen mate, and 
she kept coming to the door and sniffing suspiciously. She knew there 
was something seriously wrong, and her anxiety and nervousness 
increased with every passing minute. When the men moved away 
from the dead body, preparatory to removing it, she crept cautiously 
inside and smelt all round him. Then she looked anxiously into the 
wide-opened eyes, and some instinct seemed to tell her that they could 
no longer see her. She began to quiver most painfully, and nervously 
sprang back from the recumbent form. Out into the open she bounded, 
and rushed in her distraction up and down, to and fro, as if seeking to 
shake off the horror that had suddenly settled down upon her. She 
tried hard to find a means of getting right away from the spot so hateful 
