ght,' was Uncle Gee's reply, and to work he went and painted
away vigorously to the young ones' great delight, while they all looked
on and made remarks as he sketched in the outline. But they begun to
press round him so, and make such queer suggestions, that he declared he
would not do another stroke till they left him alone. So off they went
to the other end of the table, and got the tail in order. It was a tail
indeed! made of stripes of all coloured paper tied up, and ending with a
tassel of various colours, whose fringes were feathery and full enough
for a mandarin's pigtail.

"By the time that the tail was finished to the satisfaction of all,
Uncle Gee had completed the Kite, and turning it round to the children,
exhibited a bird of such a kind as had never been seen before! It had
the head of an owl, with its great staring eyes, the broad wings of an
eagle, the neck of the ringdove, the ruddy breast of the robin, the
many-eyed tail of the peacock, and the yellow webbed feet of the swan!

"The children gazed at it for a moment in utter surprise, and then burst
into shouts of approval.

"'There,' said Uncle Gee, 'I hope I have satisfied you all, and every
one in particular. I am sure such a bird as this would make his fortune
at the Zoological Gardens!'

"'Oh! what a jolly fellow!' shouted Bob and Tom, clapping their hands,
while the girls danced round quite delighted.

"'Now,' said Uncle Gee, 'I think to-morrow will be a fine day after the
rain, and we shall be able to make this fine fellow fly.'

"So they tied on my tail, and made me thoroughly ready for the next
morning's cruise, and then all went to bed the happiest set of little
ones within fifty miles round.

"Many a flight I had with them over field and fallow, meadow and moor;
many a dance I led them, and many a tree have I got entangled with, so
that at last Bob became quite expert at climbing trees, and all owing to
the practice he had in getting me out of scrapes. But time passed on,
and when Bob and Tom went to school, Uncle Gee thought it was not safe
to trust me to Dora and the girls, so he promised to make them another
some day, and he gave me to the Spensers! So here you have an end of my
history, which contains, as you see now, no flying adventures at all. If
I had time, I could tell you of many curious things I saw in my airy
flights, and some about the clouds I went so near. But I must defer that
until another day, and meanwhile, in my tur