ccess. But bruin, more
sagacious than they expected, after snuffing about the place for a few
moments, scraped the snow away with his paw, threw the rope aside, and
again escaped unhurt with his prize.

[Illustration]

ANECDOTE VII.

A Strange Mouser.

A gentleman once had in his possession a hen, which answered the purpose
of a cat in destroying mice. She was constantly seen watching close to a
corn rick, and the moment a mouse appeared, she seized it in her beak, and
carried it to a meadow adjoining, where she would play with it like a
young cat for some time, and then kill it. She has been known to catch
four or five mice a day in this manner.

[Illustration]

ANECDOTE VIII.

Making Sure.

During the war between Augustus Caesar and Marc Antony, when all the world
stood wondering and uncertain which way Fortune would incline herself, a
poor man at Rome, in order to be prepared for making, in either event, a
bold hit for his own advancement, had recourse to the following ingenious
expedient. He applied himself to the training of two crows with such
diligence, that he brought them the length of pronouncing with great
distinctness, the one a salutation to Caesar, and the other a salutation to
Antony. When Augustus returned conqueror, the man went out to meet him
with the crow suited to the occasion perched on his fist, and every now
and then it kept exclaiming, "_Salve, Caesar, Victor Imperator!_" "Hail,
Caesar, Conqueror and Emperor!" Augustus, greatly struck and delighted with
so novel a circumstance, purchased the bird of the man for a sum which
immediately raised him into opulence.

[Illustration]

ANECDOTE IX.

The Power of Music.

One Sunday evening, five choristers were walking on the banks of a river;
after some time, being tired with walking, they sat down on the grass, and
began to sing an anthem. The field on which they sat was terminated at one
extremity by a wood, out of which, as they were singing, they observed a
hare to pass with great swiftness towards the place where they were
sitting, and to stop at about twenty yards' distance from them. She
appeared highly delighted with the harmony of the music, often turning up
the side of her head to listen with more facility. As soon as the
harmonious sound was over, the hare returned slowly towards the wood; when
she had nearly reached the end of the field, the choristers began the same
piece again; at which the hare stop