"Not very!" Cephalus acquiesced. "Still, he's all right in a Zoo. He's
queer. Look at his nest, if you don't believe it."

[Illustration: I MEET THE PH[OE]NIX]

"I never believed otherwise, my dear Cephalus," said I. "He seems to
me to be a unique thing in poultry. If he were a chicken he would be
hailed with delight in my country. A self-broiling broiler--!"

The idea was too ecstatic for expression.

"Well, he isn't a chicken, so your rhapsody doesn't go," said
Cephalus. "He's little short of a buzzard. Useful, but not appetizing.
If I were a profane mortal, I should call him a condemned nuisance.
Most birds build their own nests, and a well-built nest lasts them a
whole season. This infernal bird has to have a furnace-man to make his
bed for him night and morning, and if, by some mischance, the fire
goes out, as fires will do in the best-regulated families, he begins
to squawk, and he squawks, and he squawks, and he squawks until the
keeper comes and sets his nest a-blazing again. He has a voice like a
sick fog-horn that drives everybody crazy."

"Why don't you fool him sometimes?" I suggested. "Make a nest out of a
mustard-plaster and see what he would do."

"He's too old a bird to be caught that way," said Cephalus. "He's a
confounded old ass, but he's a brainy one."

At this moment a blare of the most heavenly trumpets sounded, and
Cephalus and I left the building and emerged into the garden to see
what had caused it. There a dazzling spectacle met my gaze. A regiment
of Amazons was drawn up on the green of the parade and a superb gilded
coach, drawn by six milk-white horses, stood before them, while two
gorgeously apparelled heralds sounded a fanfare. Cephalus immediately
became deeply agitated.

"It is his Majesty's own carriage and guard," he cried.

"Whose?" said I.

"Jupiter's," said he. "I fancy they have come for you."

And it so transpired. One of the heralds advanced to where I was
standing, saluted me as though I were an emperor, and, through his
golden trumpet, informed me that eleven o'clock was approaching; that
his Majesty deigned to grant me the desired audience, and had sent a
carriage and guard of honor.

I returned the salute, thanked Cephalus for his attentions, and
entered the carriage. A brass band of a hundred and twenty pieces
struck up an inspiring march, and, preceded and followed by the
Amazons, I was conveyed in state to the palatial quarters of Zeus
himself.

It sugge