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TO MY PEN

LITA OF THE NILE

KADISHA; OR, THE FIRST JEALOUSY

MOUNT ARAFA

THE WELL OF SAINT JOHN

PAUSIAS AND GLYCERA; OR, THE FIRST FLOWER-PAINTER

BUSCOMBE; OR, A MICHAELMAS GOOSE

FAME


[Fringilla loquitur]

"What means your finch?"

"Being well aware that he cannot sing like a Nightingale,
He flits about from tree to tree, and twitters a little tale."

Albeit he is an ancient bird, who tried
his pipe in better days, and then was
scared by random shots, he is fain to
lift the migrant wing once more towards the
humble perch, among the trees he loves. All
gardeners own that he does no harm, unless
he flits into a thicket of young buds, or a very
choice ladies' seed-bed. And he hopes that he is
now too wise to commit such indiscretions.

Perhaps it would have been wiser still to
have shut up his little mandible, or employed it

only upon grub. But the long gnaw of last
winter's frost, which set mankind a-shivering,
even in their most downy nest, has made them
kindly to the race that has no roof for shelter
and no hearth for warmth.

Anyhow, this little finch can do no harm,
if he does no good; and if he pleases nobody,
he will not be surprised, because he has never
satisfied himself.

May-day, 1895.

NOTE

With kind consent of Messrs. Harper, "Buscombe" returns in altered form from the other side of the ocean. Two other little tales appeared of old, but nobody would look at them, and now they are offered after careful trimming.

Standing afar. I gaze with doubt at other trimmings which are not mine. They have conquered the taste of the day perhaps, and high art announces them as her last transfiguration. Moreover they are highly recommended— as the purest art not always is—by the modesty of the artist.

The cover design, borders, initial letters and the whole of the full-page illustrations—with the exception of the three to 'Pausias and Glycera' by James W. R. Linton—are by Louis Fairfax-Muckley.

017.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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