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    Anecdotes of Animals
    Anecdotes of Animals
    Anecdotes of Animals
    Ebook325 pages1 hour

    Anecdotes of Animals

    By Percy J. Billinghurst

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    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 25, 2013
    Anecdotes of Animals

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      Book preview

      Anecdotes of Animals - Percy J. Billinghurst

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Anecdotes of Animals, by Unknown

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: Anecdotes of Animals

      Author: Unknown

      Illustrator: Percy J, Billinghvrst

      Release Date: May 11, 2008 [EBook #25428]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS ***

      Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy, Janet Blenkinship and the

      Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

      (This file was produced from images generously made

      available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

      ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS

      ILLUSTRATED

      An Animal Concert.— Page 5

      WITH·PICTVRES·BY

      PERCY J. BILLINGHVRST.

      McLOUGHLIN BROS.

      NEW YORK

      CONTENTS

      I

      ANIMAL CONCERTS

      An abbot, a man of wit, and skilled in the making of new musical instruments, was ordered by Louis XI., king of France, more in jest than earnest, to procure him a concert of swines' voices. The abbot said that the thing could doubtless be done, but it would cost a good deal of money. The king ordered that he should have as much as he required for the purpose. The abbot then contrived as strange a thing as ever was seen. Out of a great number of hogs of various ages, which he got together under a tent, or pavilion, covered with velvet, and before which he had a table of wood painted with a certain number of keys, he made an organical instrument, and as he played upon the keys with little spikes which pricked the hogs, he made them cry in such order and consonance that he highly delighted the king and all his company.

      II

      A NEWFOUNDLAND DOG

      One of the magistrates in Harbor Grace, in Newfoundland, had an old dog of the regular web-footed species peculiar to that island, who was in the habit of carrying a lantern before his master at night, as steadily as the most attentive servant could do, stopping short when his master made a stop, and going ahead when he was ready to follow.

      If his master was away from home, and the command was given Go fetch thy master, he would at once pick up the lantern, hold it fast between his teeth, and start for the town, which was more than a mile away from the home of his master. He would stop at the door of every house which he knew his master was in the habit of visiting, and laying down his lantern, growl and strike the door making all the noise in his power, until it was opened. If his master was not in the house, he would go on farther in the same way, till he found him. If he had gone with him only once to a house, this was enough to make him take in that house in his rounds.

      III

      STUDYING

      A magpie belonging to a barber in Rome, could imitate very perfectly almost everything it heard. Some trumpets happened one day to be sounded before the shop, and for a day or two afterward the magpie was quite mute, and seemed sad and melancholy. All who knew it supposed that the sound of the trumpets had so stunned it as to rob it at once of both voice and hearing.

      But this was not the case, as very soon appeared. The bird had all this time been studying how to imitate the sound of the trumpets; and when at last master of it, the magpie, to the astonishment of all its friends, suddenly broke its long silence by a perfect imitation of the flourish of trumpets it had heard; repeating with the greatest exactness all the repetitions, stops, and changes. The learning of this lesson, however, so exhausted the magpie's brain that it forgot everything it had known before.

      IV

      A GRATEFUL LIONESS

      A dreadful famine raged at Buenos Ayres, yet the governor, afraid of giving the Indians a habit of spilling Spanish blood, forbade the people, on pain of death, to go into the fields in search of food, and he placed soldiers at all outlets to the country, with orders to fire upon those who should try to disobey him.

      However, a woman, called Maldonata, was artful enough to get past the watchful guards, and made her escape. After wandering about the country for a long time, she came upon a cave into which she went. As soon as she was inside, she saw therein a lioness, the sight of which frightened her greatly. She was, however,

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