ulae_ that once rendered service
in the classic shades of Chusium and Monte-pulciana?

Scholarly in tastes, neither Mr. Lindsay's habits nor inclination led
him often into the flowery mazes of fashionable society, but,
standing upon the verge of Vanity Fair, he had looked curiously down
at the feverish whirl, the gilded shams, the maddening, murderous
conflict for place,--the empty mocking pageantry of the victorious,
the sickening despair and savage irony of the legions of the
defeated; and after the roar and shout and moan of the social
maelstrom, as presented in the great city where his studies had been
pursued, it was pleasant this afternoon to watch the fluttering white
creatures that surrounded that calm beautiful child, and to listen to
the soft cooing of the innocent lovers in the dovecote above her.

Opening the latticed gate he walked toward the group, and lifting the
basket, sat down on the steps.

"Why did you not wait, and invite me to come out and inspect your
pretty pets?"

"I thought your mother could not spare you this first afternoon, she
had so much to say to you; but I am very glad you have not quite
forgotten us. Do you see how tall the China geese have grown? When
the gander stretches his neck he can touch my shoulder with his bill.
Isn't he beautiful?"

"Decidedly the handsomest gander of my acquaintance. When I went away
you were trying to find a name for him. Did you succeed?"

"Yes, I call him Alcibiades."

"Why? Do you wish to insult the memory of the great Athenian?"

"I wish to compliment him, because he was so graceful and beautiful,
and was so fond of birds he carried them about in his bosom. My
Alcibiades is so good-natured he never fights or hisses at my
pigeons, and just now one of them lighted on his back, and picked up
the barley that had fallen on his feathers. Mr. Hargrove promises me
that just as soon as I can make money enough to pay the brickmason,
he will have a large cemented basin built near the pump, where the
geese and ducks can swim about every day."

"How do you propose to make money?" asked Douglass, lifting one of
the rabbits into his lap, and offering it a crisp morsel of celery.

"Don't you know that I sell the eggs? Those of the white guineas
bring three dollars a dozen, and I could sell more of the white
turkeys, at the same price, than we can spare. Our new pigeon palace
was paid for entirely out of the poultry money."

"Who keeps the poultry book? H