Tales and Novels, vol 1 | Page 9

silence in
the following words:--
"Vile woman, your injustice is come to light! How can you dare to
tyrannize over these poor children? Is it because they are poor? Take
my advice, children, resist this tyrant, put by your wheels, and spin for
her no more."
The children did not move, and the schoolmistress poured out a torrent
of abuse in broad Scotch, which, to the English ear of Forester, was
unintelligible. At length she made him comprehend her principal
questions--Who he was? and by whose authority he interfered between
her and her scholars? "By nobody's authority," was Forester's answer;
"I want no authority to speak in the cause of injured innocence." No
sooner had the woman heard these words, than she called to her
husband, who was writing in an adjoining room: without further
ceremony, they both seized upon our hero, and turned him out of the
house.
The woman revenged herself without mercy upon the little girl whom

Forester had attempted to defend, and dismissed her, with advice never
more to complain of being obliged to spin for her mistress.
Mortified by the ill success of his enterprise, Forester returned home,
attributing the failure of his eloquence chiefly to his ignorance of the
Scotch dialect.

THE CANARY BIRD
At his return, Forester heard, that all Dr. Campbell's family were going
that evening to visit a gentleman who had an excellent cabinet of
minerals. He had some desire to see the fossils; but when he came to
the gentleman's house, he soon found himself disturbed at the praises
bestowed by some ladies in company upon a little canary bird, which
belonged to the mistress of the house. He began to kick his feet
together, to hang first one arm and then the other over the back of his
chair, with the obvious expression of impatience and contempt in his
countenance. Henry Campbell, in the meantime, said, without any
embarrassment, just what he thought about the bird. Archibald
Mackenzie, with artificial admiration, said a vast deal more than he
thought, in hopes of effectually recommending himself to the lady of
the house. The lady told him the history of three birds, which had
successively inhabited the cage before the present occupier. "They all
died," continued she, "in a most extraordinary manner, one after
another, in a short space of time, in convulsions."
"Don't listen," whispered Forester, pulling Henry away from the crowd
who surrounded the bird-cage; "how can you listen, like that polite
hypocrite, to this foolish woman's history of her extraordinary
favourites? Come down-stairs with me, I want to tell you my adventure
with the schoolmistress; we can take a turn in the hall, and come back
before the cabinet of minerals is opened, and before these women have
finished the ceremony of tea. Come."
"I'll come presently," said Henry; "I really want to hear this."
Henry Campbell was not listening to the history of the lady's favourite
birds like a polite hypocrite, but like a good-natured sensible person;
the circumstances recalled to his memory the conversation that we
formerly mentioned, which began about pickled cucumbers, and ended
with Dr. Campbell's giving an account of the effects of some poisons.
In consequence of this conversation, Henry's attention had been turned

to the subject, and he had read several essays, which had informed him
of many curious facts. He recollected, in particular, to have met with
the account[2] of a bird that had been poisoned, and whose case bore a
strong resemblance to the present. He begged leave to examine the cage,
in order to discover whether there were any lead about it, with which
the birds could have poisoned themselves. No lead was to be found: he
next examined whether there were any white or green paint about it; he
inquired whence the water came which the birds had drunk; and he
examined the trough which held their seeds. The lady, whilst he was
pursuing these inquiries, said she was sure that the birds could not have
died either for want of air or exercise, for that she often left the cage
open on purpose, that they might fly about the room. Henry
immediately looked round the room, and at length he observed in an
inkstand, which stood upon a writing table, a number of wafers, which
were many of them chipped round the edges; upon sweeping out the
bird-cage, he found a few very small bits of wafer mixed with the seeds
and dust; he was now persuaded that the birds had eaten the wafers, and
that they had been poisoned by the red lead which they contained; he
was confirmed in this opinion, by being told, that the wafers had lately
been missed very frequently, and it had been imagined that they had
been used by the servants.