88 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. {11.

 

the youth of our rookery (alas! sadly diminished in
numbers by the events which I have narrated) had
learnt to use their wings with tolerable facility, they
were required to make themselves perfect in flying
under the able tuition of several experienced rooks,
who held their classes in the immediate vicinity of the
rookery. There was the soaring class, the object of
which was to teach young rooks to fly as high as they
could, balancing themselves upon their wings like a
hawk at a distance from the earth which rendered them
secure from human attack. There was the wheeling
class, by which we were instructed to wheel about,
swing round shortly, and accommodate ourselves to the
necessities of a windy day. There was the vocal class,
instruction in which was generally carried on by an old
rook perched upona dead branch on the top of a tree,
whence he cawed vehemently to us youngsters seated
below. To this class I belonged, and it was there that
I acquired that clear and ringing caw for which I have
long been famous. Then there was the shifting class,
which taught us when flying steadily in our course, to
swerve hastily aside so as to avoid any danger from
below. And many other lessons did we learn during
the last weeks of our youthful rookery life. But the
time came when all these juvenile exercises termin-
ated, and we youngsters were sent abroad into the
wide world to get our own living.

Ah me! you children of human parents, who are
tended and cared for in early youth, whose growing
years are watched with affectionate solicitude by your
parents, who enjoy the blessings of maternal love, and
perhaps for much of your life are guided by the kind