at his side) would he
play over and over again to me some melancholy air, while our
foster-mother, mayhap, would be sweeping the dead leaves from our abode,
and preparing it for our night's repose.

[Illustration: HE WOULD CLIMB TO THE TOPMOST BRANCHES]

'Not I alone was gratified and enchanted by his dulcet tones, for all
the creatures of the woodland drew near and listened as night gradually
covered the sky, and he played through his evening pieces.

[Illustration: And played it for my delight]

'Elephants hovered around in the shadows of the trees, and sighed great
slobbering sighs. Bullfinches, sparrows, eagles, flamingoes, wild geese,
peacocks, turkeys, cranes, pelicans, and every manner of bird, thronged
the branches of the trees, and, with their heads and beaks sunk almost
into their feathers, opened and closed their eyes in their
rapturous surprise. The lions and tigers sprawled about, wishing, in
pure shame at their habitual monstrous cruelties, that they had been
vegetarians from the very beginning: such power had the music of
Orpheus. Even the mad-headed monkeys and apes, sitting in rows amongst
the trees, thought, Good heavens! what fools they were! and, blushing at
their childish tricks, wondered if it yet were possible to reform and
take a serious view of life. The old snake, quite overcome and
enthralled by the delicious strains, opened wide his jaws, and allowed
the little missel-thrush to nestle therein, and, thus protected from the
night-air, to listen to the music in comfort. However, no lasting
reformation was ever effected in their untamed natures, for no sooner
had the music ceased than each scurried away, once again to resume his
depredations and savage ways.

'It happened one evening that the gnome surpassed himself by his
rendering of some enchanting melodies, and every one was quite
enthralled and rendered almost helpless. The birds sank their heads and
beaks lower and lower into their feathers, as the music proceeded, until
they were no longer visible. The lions and tigers rolled on their backs
in the grass, in an agony of despair at their own unreformable lives:
the elephants turned quite white, and trembled so violently that they
could hardly support their own huge bulks and leant against one another
to prevent themselves coming down with a crash; such a great lump had
risen in the throat of the giraffe as quite distorted his otherwise
graceful neck; while the monkeys gibbered and blub