jutant, has, I believe, no doubt on the subject at all.
Billy is an ornament to the military profession--a very fine fellow,
with a thing on the back of his neck like a Tangerine orange, and a wen
on the front of it, which he can blow out whenever he wants to amuse
himself, and everything else handsome about him. He is an old soldier,
too, is Billy, having been Adjutant of the Regent's Park Conkavian Corps
for seventeen years; but if you knew nothing of his age, still you would
call Billy an old soldier--upon a little acquaintance with his habits.

[Illustration: LAW.]

There seems no valid reason why the professional aspirations of the
stork should be restricted to the army. If an adjutant, why not a dean?
Why not a proctor? There is the making of a most presentable don about a
stork; and I have caught a stork in an attitude of judicial meditation
that might do honour to any bench. There is no reason why "sober as a
judge" should not be made to read "sober as a stork," except that the
stork is the more solemn creature of the two; and I think that some
species of stork--say the marabou, for instance--might fairly claim
brevet rank as judge, after the example of the adjutant. The elevation
of a beak to the bench might be considered an irregular piece of legal
procedure; but, bless you, it's nothing unusual with a stork. Put any
bench with something to eat on it anywhere within reach of a stork's
beak in this place, and you shall witness that same elevation, precedent
or no precedent.

[Illustration: UNIVERSITIES.]

A common white stork hasn't half the solid gravity of an adjutant or a
marabou. He has a feline habit of expressing his displeasure by blowing
and swearing--a habit bad and immoral in a cat, but worse in a stork
accustomed to Church. Church, by-the-bye, is the keeper of all the
conkavians, as well as of the herons, the flamingoes, the ibises, the
egrets, and a number of other birds with names more difficult to spell.
It is impossible to treat disrespectfully a man with such widespread
responsibilities as this, or there might be a temptation to mention that
he is not an unusually high Church, although his services are not always
simple, often involving a matter of doctorin'. But, then, some people
will say anything, temptation or none. And after all, it is pleasant to
know that, whatever a stork or a pelican wants, he always goes to
Church.

[Illustration: SWEARING.]

[Illustration: CHURCH.]

This bein