befallen me, I am not yet aware of it. The Almighty made the owls; so they have their place and province. Attar, the Persian poet, shared all these prejudices, for in his Bird Parliament he made the owl say of itself : "I tell you, my Delight Is in the Ruin and the Dead of Night Where I was born, and where I love to wone Companion of the Serpent and the Toad.” I am very fond of the owls. I dislike to see any bird become an object of repulsion merely because its voice does not harmonize with our standard of melody. All birds cannot be larks and nightingales; but it is not their fault; and who are we, that we presume to criticize the creations of the Almighty or the workings of evolution as He has planned them? Printed in Great Britain by Wyman & Sons Ltd., London and Reading Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler 15 Fuel of Fire 119 Heart's Desire 147 Odd Craft 190 Dialstone Lane 151 Sons o' Men 157 The Altar Stairs 161 Sunset Trail 154 The Man on the Box 59 Kate Carnegie 152 The Man from Curdies River 36 The Ragged Messenger 100 The Burning Torch 163 Bar 20 117 Rosalind at Redgate W. W. Jacobs G. B. Lancaster G. B. Lancaster Alfred Henry Lewis Harold MacGrath Ian Maclaren Donald Maclean W. B. Maxwell F. F. Montrésor Clarence Mulford Meredith Nicholson HODDER & STOUGHTON, Publishers, WARWICK SQ., LONDON, E.C. |