Mouser Cats Story | Page 5

disgust]
"'People tell me I am one of the handsomest birds that ever lived. There's nothing in this world that quite comes up to my tail feathers, and that much I can say without risk of being thought vain.'
"'You have some very pretty feathers,' Mr. Peacock said, keeping his own tail folded up so it couldn't be seen very well. 'But do you really think they are more beautiful than can be found on any other bird?'
"'I don't think so, I know it,' Mr. Crane said, spreading the long plumes of his tail out so they would show to the best advantage, and just then Mr. Peacock unfolded his tail to its full size.
"If you ever saw an astonished bird, it was Mr. Crane. He looked at the beautiful feathers spread out like a great, big fan, and then started to fly away.
"'Where are you going?' Mr. Peacock asked.
"And Mr. Crane answered, while he was in the air:
"'Off somewhere to hide until I have got sense enough to hold my tongue when I don't know what I'm talking about.'
"Since that time I have never heard any of the cranes doing very much bragging, and it is a pity that there are yet others around this place who ought to get just such a lesson, for many of the animals here need it sadly."
"You among the rest?" your Aunt Amy asked laughingly, and Mrs. Mouser Cat replied:
"Thank goodness, I am not proud, and perhaps it is because I haven't very much to take pride in. But I have lived long enough in this world to know that one of us is of just about as much importance as another, and the animal or the bird who thinks this world couldn't move very well without him, is making a big mistake. There is nobody whose place cannot be filled when it becomes necessary; there would even be somebody to run this farm as well as Mr. Man does, if he should die to-morrow."

MENAGERIE POETRY.
"What I have in mind is told, in a foolish kind of a way, I suppose, by Mr. Crow, who wrote the verses when Mr. Man's little girl Dolly wanted a pet, and no matter how much she thought of one, if it died, or got lost, the next that came along suited her almost as well.
"Of course I don't want you to suppose I think this is anything but nonsense; but at the same time it carries out the idea of what I have been trying to say," and then Mrs. Mouser repeated the following:
I once possessed an Elephant Who fed on potted grouse; One day I lost him, but I think He's somewhere in the house.
[Illustration: The Delicate Pet.]
I had a Hippopotamus Who really was quite slim; He caught a chill, and so I thought I'd best get rid of him.
I also had a gay Giraffe, Whose antics made me wince; He went a walk to Brooklyn town, I've never seen him since.
[Illustration: The Pet Who Went to Brooklyn.]
The Puffing Fish that I possessed Would fill my heart with pride; But ah! one day I made a joke-- He laughed so that he died.
You should have seen my Polar Bear, He was a lively beast; But what became of him at last I've no idea, the least.
[Illustration: The Very Sociable Pet.]
My Grizzly Bear was certainly By all my friends admired. He tried to climb the Monument, And when he failed, expired.
Perhaps the dearest of them all Was James, my Cockatoo-- He took to stopping out at nights; I gave him to the Zoo
[Illustration: The Lively Pet]
So now I haven't anything; It's lonely, I must own. I'll get a little calf, I think-- I cannot live alone!
"I don't wonder you call that 'Menagerie Poetry,'" your Aunt Amy said when Mrs. Mouser ceased speaking; "but I think I understood, even without the aid of the verses, the moral you intended to draw."
"I should hope you did; but I remembered those lines, and it seemed to me they came in just right. There is a story he tells about the Elephant and the Bee, which teaches the same kind of a lesson."

WHEN MR. ELEPHANT AND MR. BEE HAD A QUARREL.
"I certainly would like to hear it," your Aunt Amy said when Mrs. Mouser Cat ceased speaking, as if waiting for some such permission.
"Well, in the first place you must understand that there was once an Elephant and a Bee that were the very best of friends," Mrs. Mouser Cat said as she curled her tail around her fore paws to prevent them from being chilled by the draft. "One day the Elephant had walked a long distance, and thought he would sit down to rest for a little while. Now it seems the Bee had been flying around there, and he