't care to fill our beaks with such
long words, but we sympathize with you quite as much. If we don't do
anything else, we can walk about with you everywhere, and we think
that is the best thing we can do."

"You have a lovely voice," said one of the eldest ducks; "it
must be great satisfaction to you to be able to give so much
pleasure as you do. I am certainly no judge of your singing so I
keep my beak shut, which is better than talking nonsense, as others
do."

"Don't plague him so," interposed the Portuguese duck; "he requires
rest and nursing. My little singing-bird do you wish me to prepare
another bath for you?"

"Oh, no! no! pray let me dry," implored the little bird.

"The water-cure is the only remedy for me, when I am not well,"
said the Portuguese. "Amusement, too, is very beneficial. The fowls
from the neighborhood will soon be here to pay you a visit. There
are two Cochin Chinese amongst them; they wear feathers on their legs,
and are well educated. They have been brought from a great distance,
and consequently I treat them with greater respect than I do the
others."

Then the fowls arrived, and the cock was polite enough to-day to
keep from being rude. "You are a real songster," he said, "you do as
much with your little voice as it is possible to do; but there
requires more noise and shrillness in any one who wishes it to be
known who he is."

The two Chinese were quite enchanted with the appearance of the
singing-bird. His feathers had been much ruffled by his bath, so
that he seemed to them quite like a tiny Chinese fowl. "He's
charming," they said to each other, and began a conversation with
him in whispers, using the most aristocratic Chinese dialect: "We
are of the same race as yourself," they said. "The ducks, even the
Portuguese, are all aquatic birds, as you must have noticed. You do
not know us yet,--very few know us, or give themselves the trouble
to make our acquaintance, not even any of the fowls, though we are
born to occupy a higher grade in society than most of them. But that
does not disturb us, we quietly go on in our own way among the rest,
whose ideas are certainly not ours; for we look at the bright side
of things, and only speak what is good, although that is sometimes
very difficult to find where none exists. Except ourselves and the
cock there is not one in the yard who can be called talented or
polite. It cannot even be said of the ducks, and we warn you, little
bird, not