The whole barn-yard was in the notion of improving the popular capacity to sing. And Daddy Longlegs came near breaking his neck in his hurry to get up on a barrel-head to advocate a measure that he saw was likely to be popular.
But it did not come to anything. The only song that the rooster could ever sing was the one in Mother Goose, about the dame losing her shoe and the master his fiddle-stick, at which Professor Mocking-bird couldn"t help smiling. Mr. Peac.o.c.k, the gentleman of leisure, could do nothing more than his frightful "ne-onk!" which made everybody shiver more than a saw-file would. Gander White said he himself had a good ear for music, but a poor voice, while the Hon. Turkey Pompous said he had a fine ba.s.s voice, but no ear for tune. Dr. Parrot was heard to say "Humbug!" when the whole company turned to him for an explanation. He was at that moment taking his morning gymnastic exercise, by swinging himself from perch to perch, holding on by his beak. When he got through, he straightened up and said:
"In the first place, you all made sport of a stranger about whom you knew nothing. I spent many years of my life with a learned doctor of divinity, and I often heard him speak severely of the sin of rash judgments. But when you found that our new friend could sing, you all desired to sing like him. Now, he was made to sing, and each of the rest of us to do something else. You, Mr. Gander White, are good to make feather beds and pillows; Hon. Turkey Pompous is good for the next Thanksgiving day; and you, Mr. Peac.o.c.k Strutwell, are good for nothing but to grow tail-feathers to make fly-brushes of. But we all have our use. If we will all do our best to be as useful as we can in our own proper sphere, we will do better. There is our neighbor, Miss Sophie Jones, who has wasted two hours a day for the last ten years, trying to learn music, when nature did not give her musical talent, while Peter Thompson, across the street, means to starve to death, trying to be a lawyer, without any talent for it. Let us keep in our own proper spheres."
The company hoped he would say more, but Dr. Parrot here began to exercise again, in order to keep his digestion good, and the rest dispersed.
THE BOBOLINK AND THE OWL.
Having eaten his breakfast of beech-nuts, a bobolink thought he would show himself neighborly; so he hopped over to an old gloomy oak tree, where there sat a hooting owl, and after bowing his head gracefully, and waving his tail in the most friendly manner, he began chirruping cheerily, somewhat in this fashion:
"Good-morning, Mr. Owl! what a fine bright morning we have."
"Fine!" groaned the owl, "fine, indeed! I don"t see how you can call it fine with that fierce sun glaring in one"s eyes."
The bobolink was quite disconcerted by this outburst, but after jumping about nervously from twig to twig for a while, he began again:
"What a beautiful meadow that is which you can see from your south window! How sweet the flowers look! Really you have a pleasant view, if your house is a little gloomy."
"Beautiful! did you say? Pleasant! What sort of taste you must have! I haven"t been able to look out of that window since May. The color of the gra.s.s is too bright, and the flowers are very painful. I don"t mind that view so much in November, but this morning I must find a shadier place, where the light won"t disturb my morning nap."
EPOCHS OF HISTORY.
"These volumes contain the ripe results of the studies of men who are authorities in the respective fields."--_The Nation._
EPOCHS OF MODERN HISTORY.
THE ERA OF PROTESTANT REVOLUTION.
THE CRUSADES.
THE THIRTY YEARS" WAR, 1618-1648.
THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND FIRST EMPIRE.
THE AGE OF ELIZABETH.
THE FALL OF THE STUARTS.
THE PURITAN REVOLUTION.
THE EARLY PLANTAGENETS.
AGE OF ANNE.
THE BEGINNING OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
THE NORMANS IN EUROPE.
FREDERICK THE GREAT AND THE SEVEN YEARS" WAR.
THE EPOCH OF REFORM, 1830-1850.
EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY.
THE GREEKS AND THE PERSIANS.
THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE.
THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE. EARLY ROME.
THE GRACCHI, MARIUS AND SULLA.
THE ROMAN TRIUMVIRATES.
THE EARLY EMPIRE.
THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES.
ROME AND CARTHAGE.
TROY.
THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACY. (In press.)