VOL. XIV.-No. 80.-L

THE ANIMAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

161

character of the melodies selected by the military vocalist. Though it was well known that the worthy Commander-in-Chief had led a pretty

The Fox had long been impressed with the importance of the subject, and had intended to call the attention of the assembly to it at an early day. He thought for the present, how-wild life, and his delicate affair with Miss Codever, that the election of a judge should take precedence of all other matters.

The beasts concurring, the meeting adjourned for the day.

It was, in fact, urgent that this office should be filled, for already some important legal cases had arisen and were awaiting settlement. A formal complaint had been laid before his Majesty by Dog Noble, Esq., protesting against the disturbance of his slumbers by Major-General Cock. It appeared that the worthy Commander-inChief was given to vocalizing at undue hours, having visions of operatic distinction; old Mr. Dog, whose conscience troubled him o' nights, protested that he couldn't get a wink of sleep. What aggravated the case was the outrageous

dle Shanghai was quite fresh in every one's memwith profane, and sang operatic bravuras to the ory, he persisted in commingling sacred music borne, he said, with false notes, and flagrant viomost orthodox psalm-tunes. Dog Noble had lations of all the laws of harmony; but he could not bear to have his religious feelings insulted. His well-known piety left him no choice but to protest. When the complaint was laid before the King, Frank declared that the conduct of the Cock was unjustifiable, and that he would have him dismissed the army. at the close of an interview with the Cock, his Majesty gave out that Dog Noble had best apolAn hour afterward, ogize without loss of time. That evening, having had the case re-explained by Dog, Jun., King

MAJOR-GENERAL COCK OPERATES AS A NIGHTMARE ON DOG NOBLE

Frank swore that he had put up with Doodle Cock long enough; but before retiring to roost, after receipt of a letter from the Commanderin-Chief, he gave orders for the arrest of Dog Noble.

"At the same time, I am not insensible either to the reasoning so cogently put in your kind letter, or to the duty which every beast owes to the community. I admit that I do dread the misfortune of having a corrupt man in the position of Judge. And though I am far from setting so high a value on my poor abilities as you are pleased to place, I will say, however egotistical it may seem, that I am upright and straightforward, and that no man ever accused Reynard Fox of trick, equivocation, or double-dealing. If, therefore, it seems to you,

rupt Judge, or a Judge of foreign habits and ideas, is imminent; and on the other, that it is my duty to serve the State, nominate me, I care not, I will "Frankly yours,

serve.

"REYNARD Fox."

Under these circumstances, the necessity for the appointment of a responsible judicial officer was apparent to every beast. Three candidates for the office were informally nominated-the Mule, the Fly-Catcher, and the Raven. The claims of the Raven rested, first, on his appear-on the one hand, that the danger of having a corance, which was admitted to be judicial; and second, on his known keenness of scent. Friends of the Fly-Catcher urged that his very name proved his expertness at the pastime which is known to be the chief occupation of judges. As for the Mule, it was said on his behalf, first, that he was obstinate, and therefore not likely to be influenced by arguments of counsel; second, that he was somewhat deaf, and therefore that his attention would not be easily diverted from the matter in hand; and third, that as a descendant of the Ass, he had in a measure hereditary claims to judicial eminence. The friends of all three canvassed actively, and bets were made freely by the Stag, the Pointer, and the Hawk. On the day before the election, however, the following correspondence appeared in the Barker and Biter:

Important Correspondence.—The Vacant Judgeship. "TO REYNARD FOX, Esq.

"DEAR SIR,-The undersigned, citizens of the Animal Kingdom, and engaged more or less actively in securing its independence and watching over its welfare, have heard with deep regret that you do not intend to offer yourself as a candidate for the office of Judge. We had hoped that your known integrity, your remarkable ability, the unflinching strictness of purpose which has marked every step of your career, would have pointed you out ere this as the fit brute for the office, and that you would once more have sacrified your private wishes to the public weal. May we trust that it is not yet too late to solicit you to trample your individual desires under foot, and to devote to the commonwealth those shining qualities which have earned for you the name of the Aristides of Beasts? "We are, Sir,

"Your most obedient servants and admirers,
"THE OX, THE Ass, THE GOOSE, THE
ZEBRA, THE WORM, THE TURTLE,
THE TURKEY, THE OYSTER, THE
PELICAN, THE HIPPOPOTAMUS,
THE GULL, THE FLATFISH, THE
MOTH, and ninety-four others."

"TO THE OX, THE ASS, AND OTHERS. "GENTLEMEN,-When I retired from the office which I last received at your hands-that of superintending the journey of the unfortunate Fowls, who perished so unaccountably on their way hither-I resolved that no consideration should again

The publication of these letters threw the brutal public into an uproar. The Fox had hardly been thought of, and his connections, especially among the fighting beasts, made him a most formidable rival. One passage in his letter dealt a fatal blow to his most dangerous competitor, the Mule. It was the sentence, “a Judge of foreign habits and ideas." Beasts asked what this meant? And then it came out, when it could no longer be concealed, that the Mule was a native of Spain, and had carried sherry over the mountains of Andalusia.

Uproar is a weak word to describe the scene which followed this astounding discovery. The Buffalo, though, from his position as chairman, he ought to have preserved a neutral attitude, confessed to the Mocking-Bird that he would despair of the success of their movement if so important an office as that of judge were intrusted to a foreigner. The 'Possum and the Wild Cat concurred. But the most vehement opponent of the foreigner was a Tiger from Hindostan, who declared that if the Mule were elected the country would be ruined in six months. Up and down the camp this Hindoo ran, roaring that destruction was at hand unless the Mule were defeated. The Eagle of the Rocky Mountains persisted that if the Mule were eligible in other respects his Spanish birth should not stand in his way. But he was in the minority; especially when the Booby wrote an article in the Barker and Biter to prove that the Mule had once carried a Jesuit on his back, and had the sign of the cross on his forehead, were the brutes resolved to have none of him.

So when the day came, they elected Reynard Fox by a great majority, and he made a speech on the occasion, which drew tears from the Stag, and almost overpowered King Penguin.

1

Here, unfortunately, our account of these ininteresting proceedings terminates. We have induce me to relinquish the charms of private life received, however, from an old acquaintance for the dazzling splendors and the racking cares of among the beasts, the cut on the preceding page, office. I have found, gentlemen, in the delights and a brief note with it, to say that the animals of study and in the bosom of my family, a peace of may shortly be expected to act on the offensive, mind and a happiness which I fear I should vainly and that they intend to establish zoological garseek elsewhere. My own wish, therefore, is to re-dens for the accommodation and exhibition of main where I am. various specimens of men.

by our faithful Caribs, Mañuel and his son José, we entered the Criba lagoon. had a fine wind; so fresh was it blowing that it compelled us, as usual, to make ballast of ourselves by shifting our bodies on every tack. We did this against the expressed wishes of our Captain, who assured us that if she did turn over, he could soon free her of water. This I did not doubt; but previous experiments in the same line had convinced me of the fact that, if they were amphibious, I was not, and, apart from the inconvenience of getting wet, I knew there were a lot of sharks, barracotas, and other species of the finny tribe, who, though they eschew flesh that approaches the negro in texture or color, still have a decided penchant for flesh that is white. The special object of our voyage here was to visit the ruins of some old British fortifications, which had been erected by the English during the existence of a colonization project on the coast.

We landed at one of the small islands in the lagoon where the ruins were in the best state of preservation, but saw nothing to detain us; and after stopping long enough to regale ourselves in rather a jolly manner, started for the mouth of the Poyas River, where we saw a Sambo settlement.

We stopped on the Point for a view, and for some bananas which were growing there. We took in quite a supply of this fruit, as our journey up the river, from the swiftness of the current, was likely to prove both long and tedious. The scenery at this point is intensely beautiful; the trees and small shrubbery dotting the savanna in a picturesque manner, while beyond

rise the pine-trees, tall and straight as arrows. | terrible violence, the limbs cracking, and huge The red pitch pine abounds here, from which boughs were torn from their trunks and carried the former settlers obtained considerable quantities of tar and pitch, making these and mahogany the principal articles of export.

far over the lagoon, where they hung for a moment suspended in the air, and were then swept away, disappearing among the leaves of the tempest-tossed woods on the distant hills.

We hauled up on the Point to wait for Mafuel, who was dispatched for the bananas; but The cocoa-nut trees around us played still before he returned we were startled by the pe- more surprising antics. Their long leaves, genculiar movements of the air. A gust came from erally so graceful, were twisted into every imthe south, and another from the north, and an-aginable form. For a moment they were horiother, and another, carrying leaves and branch-zontal, then their slender points would be dies torn from the trees in its mad fury; clearly rected toward the earth, when, suddenly, the indicating the force and directions of wind. I direction of the whirlwind would change, and But when they met, H and I began to they would be thrown into the air, their long think if we could get beneath the shelter of some branches, like giant arms, stretching away toof the neighboring hills our chances of being ward Heaven as if supplicating for mercy; while blown away would be less certain. By the time the cocoa-nuts were dropping around us, as if our Capitan returned the wind had died away, with some sinister design on our skulls. and a stillness and sultriness succeeded; and so oppressive was the atmosphere, I half-believed I was asleep and troubled by a furious nightmare. Poor Manuel was frightened enough; and, between his curses and prayers, managed to exhaust himself to such a degree that nature gave way, and he sank to the ground. The birds flew above, uttering wild and mournful notes of terror. The trees were swayed with a

THE TORNADO.

We remained in this agreeable state about two hours, when Nature finally resumed her sway, and we crawled over and looked at each other. Then we lighted our respective pipes and smoked. Then we laughed, and asked, "Who's afraid?" And then Miguel, who was the most frightened of the party, told us, with the utmost effrontery, that "we would get used to such things after a longer residence in the

country, and wouldn't mind them any more than he did!"

After this assurance, we endeavored to do what we should have done in the first place, namely, analyze the natural phenomena we had just witnessed. Accordingly, we interrogated Mañuel, who replied that he thought it was an earthquake; but couldn't recollect if he felt any shocks or not.

We had felt none either, but certainly fancied we saw some, and were inclined to believe that his terror was the cause. He didn't deign to reply, but turned away his head with a look of offended dignity. He shaking with fear! That might be mentioned during a tornado or an earthquake, but must not be alluded to afterward.

We were both familiar with these things, H-having frequently met the monsters in the interior, and I on the coast of Mexico; so we put our items together for some definite result.