74 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. (ir.

IT.

THE HISTORY OF A ROOR.

OF late years it has been the fashion for animals of
various sorts and sizes to relate their history for the
benefit of a curious world. I feel that I need no ex-
cuse for following an example which has been set by
many whose species entitles them to no more con-
sideration than my own, and who have possibly seen
less of stirring adventure than it has been my fate to
witness. And although I am only a bird, Ido not
see, for my own part, why birds have not as good a
right as anybody else to come before the reading
public. A horse is frequently termed a noble animal.
A dog is thought to have special claims upon the
sympathy of men; and both dogs and horses have
frequently thought it right and becoming to appear
in print. Nevertheless, I feel entitled to observe that
birds of my race are, in one respect at least, superior
to both dogs and horses. ‘These are, after all, the
obedient slaves of man. Trained to obey his will,
taught from earliest youth to acknowledge his superi-
ority, they pass their existence for the most part in
willing thraldom, ignorant of those free aspirations
and that untrammelled liberty of which I and my
feathered comrades can truly boast. Not that this is