er such high natural tones.
For this they have covered you over--they never do the like to me; for
I cost more. Besides, they are afraid of my beak; and I have always a
witty answer at hand. Come, let us be men!"

"O warm spicy land of my birth," sang the Canary bird; "I will sing of
thy dark-green bowers, of the calm bays where the pendent boughs
kiss the surface of the water; I will sing of the rejoicing of all my
brothers and sisters where the cactus grows in wanton luxuriance."

"Spare us your elegiac tones," said the Parrot giggling. "Rather speak
of something at which one may laugh heartily. Laughing is an infallible
sign of the highest degree of mental development. Can a dog, or a horse
laugh? No, but they can cry. The gift of laughing was given to man
alone. Ha! ha! ha!" screamed Polly, and added his stereotype witticism.
"Come, let us be men!"

"Poor little Danish grey-bird," said the Canary; "you have been caught
too. It is, no doubt, cold enough in your woods, but there at least
is the breath of liberty; therefore fly away. In the hurry they have
forgotten to shut your cage, and the upper window is open. Fly, my
friend; fly away. Farewell!"

Instinctively the Clerk obeyed; with a few strokes of his wings he was
out of the cage; but at the same moment the door, which was only ajar,
and which led to the next room, began to creak, and supple and creeping
came the large tomcat into the room, and began to pursue him. The
frightened Canary fluttered about in his cage; the Parrot flapped his
wings, and cried, "Come, let us be men!" The Clerk felt a mortal fright,
and flew through the window, far away over the houses and streets. At
last he was forced to rest a little.

The neighboring house had a something familiar about it; a window stood
open; he flew in; it was his own room. He perched upon the table.

"Come, let us be men!" said he, involuntarily imitating the chatter of
the Parrot, and at the same moment he was again a copying-clerk; but he
was sitting in the middle of the table.

"Heaven help me!" cried he. "How did I get up here--and so buried in
sleep, too? After all, that was a very unpleasant, disagreeable dream
that haunted me! The whole story is nothing but silly, stupid nonsense!"

VI. The Best That the Galoshes Gave

The following day, early in the morning, while the Clerk was still in
bed, someone knocked at his door. It was his neighbor, a young Divine,
who lived on the same floor. He wal