This cruel deed was noticed by the other deer in the
park, and did not go long unrevenged; for shortly after this the very
swan, which had never till this time been molested by the deer, was
singled out when on land one day, and furiously attacked by the herd,
which closed around the cruel swan, and soon killed it.

[Illustration]

LII

AN ELEPHANT'S REVENGE

Persons who have the care of elephants have often noticed that they know
very well when any one is making fun of them, and that they very often
revenge themselves when they have an opportunity. A painter wished to
draw an elephant in the menagerie at Paris, and wanted to get the animal
in a ridiculous attitude, which was with his trunk lifted up and his
mouth open.

To make the elephant keep this position, an attendant threw fruit and
nuts into the open mouth, but sometimes he only pretended to throw them.
This made the animal very angry, and as if knowing that the painter
rather than his servant was the one to blame, he finally turned to him
and dashed a quantity of water from his trunk over the paper on which
the painter was sketching his portrait.

[Illustration]

LIII

STRANGE PLAYMATES

A little girl about three years of age was noticed for a number of days
going a considerable distance from the house with a piece of bread her
mother had given her. This attracted the attention of the mother, who
asked the father to follow the child, and find out what she did with the
bread. On coming to the child, he found her busy at work feeding several
snakes of the species of rattlesnakes called yellow heads. He quickly
took her away, went to the house for his gun, and returning, killed two
of them at one shot, and another a few days afterward. The child called
these snakes as you would call chickens, and when her father told her if
she let them come so near her, they would bite her, she replied, "No,
they won't bite. They only eat the bread I give them."

[Illustration]

LIV

HONORS TO THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

The people of Athens, when they had finished the temple, called
_Hecatompedon_, set at liberty the beasts of burden that had been
chiefly engaged in that work, allowing them to pasture at large, free
from all further service. It is said that one of these animals afterward
came of its own accord to work, and putting itself at the head of the
laboring cattle, marched before them to the citadel. The people were
pleased with th