n--imperfectly, it is true--but their apparition led to a rather
singular discussion between Harris and some of his companions.

The little troop, about four o'clock in the afternoon, had stopped for
a moment near an opening in the woods, when three or four animals of
great height went out of a thicket a hundred steps off, and scampered
away at once with remarkable speed.

In spite of the American's recommendations, this time the novice,
having quickly shouldered his gun, fired at one of these animals. But
at the moment when the charge was going off, the weapon had been
rapidly turned aside by Harris, and Dick Sand, skilful as he was, had
missed his aim.

"No firing; no firing!" said the American.

"Ah, now, but those are giraffes!" cried Dick Sand, without otherwise
replying to Harris's observation.

"Giraffes!" repeated Jack, standing up on the horse's saddle. "Where
are they, the large beasts?"

"Giraffes!" replied Mrs. Weldon. "You are mistaken, my dear Dick. There
are no giraffes in America."

"Indeed," said Harris, who appeared rather surprised, "there cannot be
any giraffes in this country."

"What, then?" said Dick Sand.

"I really do not know what to think," replied Harris. "Have not your
eyes deceived you, my young friend, and are not those animals more
likely to be ostriches?"

"Ostriches!" repeated Dick Sand and Mrs. Weldon, looking at each other
in great surprise.

"Yes, only ostriches," repeated Harris.

"But ostriches are birds," returned Dick Sand, "and consequently they
have only two feet."

"Well," replied Harris, "I indeed thought I saw that those animals,
which have just made off so rapidly, were bipeds."

"Bipeds!" replied the novice.

"Indeed it seemed to me that I saw animals with four legs," then said
Mrs. Weldon.

"I also," added old Tom; then Bat, Acteon, and Austin confirmed those
words.

"Ostriches with four legs!" cried Harris, with a burst of laughter.
"That would be ridiculous!"

"So," returned Dick Sand, "we have believed they were giraffes, and not
ostriches."

"No, my young friend, no," said Harris. "You have certainly seen badly.
That is explained by the rapidity with which those animals have flown
away. Besides, it has happened more than once that hunters have been
deceived like you, and in the best faith in the world."

What the American said was very plausible. Between an ostrich of great
height and a giraffe of medium height, seen at a certain distance,