THE BIRD AND THE BIG WIGS AN OLD-TIME FABLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6811, 15 September 1883, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE BIRD AND THE BIG WIGS AN OLD-TIME FABLE.

PLBT I. Ia the old days, when magicians had more power thaD m our times, there dwelt in a fair city a certain man, old. grey, and withered. Ho had lived Jong in the city, and walked ahout its streets with bis mouth shut and his eyes open. He had seen the upg and downs which befel the ~ people ■of the city, and had pondered' long on the causes which lift up gome and pull down many. He noted the tears running down the cheeks of those who had no money and no friends, and wan silent. *<■'«!■ ■.-w

• He saw some' of the heroic men who had built up the city ; who hud chopped d>wn the forests around it, and who had fought and bled in its defence, and, whom nobody atemcd to care for.

The old man looked into the eyes of many, bilt he saw no light nor soul there, for they •were poor, and hungry, and ignorant, and knew nothing.

He continued silent, bnfc pondered the more.

In the night season he slept in. a rocky cave on the sea shore. In the day he wandered through the streets Of the city, gathering bits of shining metal, or along the sands picking up the feathers which fell from the birds, and bones which drifted ashore from the sea.

All these and other things he carried to his treasury in the cave.

One day at sunset, when the red light tipped the crest of every wave, the old man, grey and weary, sat still on a water-worn rock, watching the flowing tide.

Suddenly, an ancient man more withered than himself, with elfin locks And beard of sea-Weed, emerged from the grey mist which crept along the shofe. Coming to the old man of the city, who sat with his bag of feathers on the weather-beaten stone, thus he spake to him :

" Feather-gatherer, thy. work is done, bring out all thy store." Feeble and weary, the old man went to his cave, and brought out his store of gold and hones and feathers.

"Spread them, on the rock," said he. That instant the old man of the sea, drawing a circle in the sand, touched the heap of feathers with his wand, when, as if by some magic spell, there sat on the rock A bird of grey and sombre plumage.

Tile weary old boul looked dreamily on the bird, and wondered at the transformation,': Presently the bird began to plume its feathers and flutter its wings. :J "Sees't Thou not," said the old man of the sea, : " that thy bird is about to take unto itself wings and fly away. Lose not the end of all thy toil. It has cost thee mfich."

' " Thou saya't truly," replied the eld father gatherer; "the bird is all I have for years of toil and penury."

" It is a noble bird," rejoined the old man of the sea. "If fed and cared for, it will lay a store of golden eggs "

: The old feather gatherer's eyes sparkled for a moment.

"But not for thee," continued the man with the beard of sea-weed.

"I want them not,' - said he, "if the Biek and helpl- ss, the poor and the ignorant in the city where I live may he comforted and helped by the golden eggs thou: sayest this bird wilL lay, 1 have not lived in vain. Still I Would fain gather iv few more feathers for my bird.

"No," said the old man of the sea, " thy work is done, and thy years are ended. Get thee to yonder pity, and find thee some worthy scrivener and keen-ej.ed money changer, who will cafe for thy bird when thou art gone, so that its golden eggs may gladden the hearts of old men and orphans, Clothe the naked, and feed the hungry. Thou hast no time to lose ; yonder frail skiff waits to bear thee on thy voyage across the unknown sea. At the turn of the tide thou mast depart"'

The old man clutched his bird, and went his way. Anon, he fotin<l his friend, a worthy scrivener, and in short and faltering accents told him all his tale, and bid him write Upon the scroll how that this costly bird, if kept, and fed, and hat:died wisely, would lay htore of go'den eggs for ages yet to come.; how that he wished the golden store to comfort the stranded toilers of the sea; to enlighten the ignorant; to help the helpless; tq cheer the aged ; and to bless and save the yotiha. Hastily writing down the old man's words, the worthy scrivener asked whom lie desired to appoint to see his will obeyed. " Thou and my friend the money changer,"

quoth he. "It is done," replied the man of law f " now sigh thy name "

Feebly the old man signed tlie costly gift, and then he turned his tottering stej,s towards the ocean shore.

The lonely skiff awaited him, and the tide being pn the turn, he departed on his lonely voyage acrosi) the unknown sea.

Then the people of the city, who had seen him for many a long year, gathering a bone here and picking up a feather there, and faring hardly every day—when' they saw the goodly bird, with its golden eggs, Ho longer (iallcd" him a mean old miser, bat a noble benefactor. They said ho was aii honour to their city.. All said lie had set a good example, and. some of them Vowed that day to go and do likewise. They looked across the deepening shadows, but the lonely skiff with the lone old man was gone across the unknown spa, ' Not many days thereafter the moneychanger said they had better cut up the

old man's goose, to which the scrivener agreed. So a day was fixed, and the bellman went round the city, warning, all the. people that the deed' was to be done .; and, by way of making a beginning, I,ha money - changer snatched a handful of blf.ck feathers out of the tail of the bird, and, lest they sbo.qld be scattered to the winds, be deftly ■stuffed them, into the pocket of a friend who stood by. Then the people of the city waxed wroth, acd sa ; d they would not have it so. A great turmoil followed. But for all that, the scrivener and the money-changer Said they would have tbeir way, and that the old man's bird was to be cut up after the fashion of tho*e days—a wing here, and a leg there, while some few golden eggn the b rd had laid, were to b6 knocked down to the highest bidder.

The scrivener and the money-changer would have had their way, and killed.the old man's goose which laid the golden eggs, but there aroae a m»n cilled Peter, «h'> chalked on a black: board the scrivener and the money chanser, cuttipg up the old man's, bird, and he chalked on the Other side two Short fat men chased by a crowd of philosophers, sailors, and orphans.

This black lrard. with its rude pictures, Pe'er aunt around the city. And with, good effect:, for before night the scrivener and the money-changer handed over the bird to the seven wise men tf the city.

Then those City Fathers met, and proposed various ways of dealing with the bird. of t-'em wanted to clip its wipg3 and pluck out its feathers; some said one thing* and some another; some wanted th>a and ethers that;, but in one thing they all agre l d—to seize the gift, and, after the maimer of those times, forget the giver. A. [To bs continued.]