THE VOICE OE MIRTH. 
2 5 
heavy on his hands. I have no doubt that flies do in 
the same way a great service to horses. What would a 
horse do in the stable all day, tied head and heels, with no 
occupation, if he was not obliged to whisk his tail ? Of 
course the horse does not see the thing in this light. He 
is like his betters, who rarely recognise their best blessings. 
But I, as a looker on, find that the fly in moderation is 
a blessing, and that every animal to which nature has not 
given some pastime has invented one for itself. School- 
girls nibble their nails, Yankees whittle wood, the Hindoo 
peasant chews beetle-nut and scratches his thighs, ducks 
quack and crows caw. And if you attentively consider the 
prattle of any talkative child, you will find yourself com- 
pelled to put much of it into the same category. The 
sounds which the child makes take the form of words and 
the words throw themselves into sentences because it has 
learnt the trick of speech, but the occasion of them is 
not that it has anything to tell, or anything to ask. It 
often begins to speak without knowing what it is going 
to say. I should like to believe that this applies only 
to the prattle of children. But let us change the subject. 
From mere sound it is an easy step to rhythmical sound, 
and there you have the birth of music. A sound serves to 
