Page:Story of the robins.djvu/212

196 wonder that any bird should indulge itself in pride: what have such little creatures as we to boast of? The largest species amongst us is very inferior to many animals we see in the world, and man is lord over the greatest and strongest even of these. Nay, man himself has no cause to be proud, for he is subject to death as well as the meanest of creatures, as I have had opportunities of observing. But come, the day wears away; let us view the other parts of this enclosure."

On this the father conducted his family to a variety of pens, in which were different sorts of foreign birds, of whom he could give but little account, therefore would not suffer his young ones to stand gazing at them long, lest they should imbibe injurious notions of them; especially when he heard Dicky cry, as he left the pen, "I dare say that bird is a very cruel, voracious creature; I make no doubt but that he would eat us all, one after the other, if he could get at us."

"Take care, Dicky," said the father, "how you form an ill opinion of any one on slight grounds You cannot possibly tell what the character of this stork is merely from his appearance; you are a stranger to his language, and cannot see the disposition of his heart. If you give way to a suspicious