The Animal Story Book Part 8

Vatrin proceeded to cut a stick. Pritchard never moved, only from time to time he turned his yellow eyes upon us, which shone like a topaz.

'Have patience,' said Michel. 'Can't you see that M. Vatrin is cutting a stick?' And Pritchard seemed to understand as he turned his eye on Vatrin.

'You have still time to take off the branches,' said Michel.

When the branches were taken off and the stick was quite finished, Vatrin approached cautiously, took a good aim, and struck with all his might into the middle of the tuft of gra.s.s where the rabbit was sitting. He had killed it!

Pritchard darted in upon the rabbit, but Vatrin took it from him, and Michel slipped it into the lining of his coat. This pocket had already held a good many rabbits in its time!

Vatrin turned to congratulate Pritchard, but he had disappeared.

'He's off to find another rabbit,' said Michel.

And accordingly, after ten minutes or so, we came upon Pritchard making another point. This time Vatrin had a stick ready cut; and after a minute, plunging his hands into a brier bush, he pulled out by the ears a second rabbit.

'There, Michel,' he said, 'put that into your other pocket.'

'Oh,' said Michel, 'there's room for five more in this one.'

'Hallo, Michel! people don't say those things before a magistrate.'

And turning to Vatrin I added, 'Let us try once more, Vatrin--the number three is approved by the G.o.ds.'

'May be,' said Vatrin, 'but perhaps it won't be approved by M.

Guerin.'

M. Guerin was the police inspector.

Next time we came upon Pritchard pointing, Vatrin said, 'I wonder how long he would stay like that;' and he pulled out his watch.

'Well, Vatrin,' said I, 'you shall try the experiment, as it is in your own vocation; but I am afraid I have not the time to spare.'

Michel and I then returned home. Vatrin followed with Pritchard an hour afterwards.

'Five-and-twenty minutes!' he called out as soon as he was within hearing. 'And if the rabbit had not gone away, the dog would have been there now.'

'Well, Vatrin, what do you think of him?'

'Why, I say he is a good pointer; he has only to learn to retrieve, and that you can teach him yourself. I need not keep him any longer.'

'Do you hear, Michel?'

'Oh, sir,' said Michel, 'he can do that already. He retrieves like an angel!'

This failed to convey to me an exact idea of the way in which Pritchard retrieved. But Michel threw a handkerchief, and Pritchard brought it back. He then threw one of the rabbits that Vatrin carried, and Pritchard brought back the rabbit. Michel then fetched an egg and placed it on the ground. Pritchard retrieved the egg as he had done the rabbit and the handkerchief.

'Well,' said Vatrin, 'the animal knows all that human skill can teach him. He wants nothing now but practice. And when one thinks,' he added, 'that if the rascal would only come in to heel, he would be worth twenty pounds if he was worth a penny.'

'True,' said I with a sigh, 'but you may give up hope, Vatrin; that is a thing he will never consent to.'

II

I think that the time has now come to tell my readers a little about Mademoiselle Desgarcins, Potich, and the Last of the Laidmanoirs.

Mademoiselle Desgarcins was a tiny monkey; I do not know the place of her birth, but I brought her from Havre, where I had gone--I don't know why--perhaps to look at the sea. But I thought I must bring something home with me from Havre. I was walking there on the quay, when at the door of a bird-fancier's shop I saw a green monkey and a blue and yellow macaw. The monkey put its paw through the bars of its cage and caught hold of my coat, while the blue parrot turned its head and looked at me in such an affectionate manner that I stopped, holding the monkey's paw with one hand, and scratching the parrot's head with the other. The little monkey gently drew my hand within reach of her mouth, the parrot half shut its eyes and made a little purring noise to express its pleasure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 'MONSIEUR DUMAS, MAY I ACCOMMODATE YOU WITH MY MONKEY AND MY PARROT?']

'Monsieur Dumas,' said the shopman, coming out with the air of a man who was more decided to sell than I was to buy; 'Monsieur Dumas, may I accommodate you with my monkey and my parrot?' It would have been more to the purpose if he had said, 'Monsieur Dumas, may I _incommode_ you with my monkey and my parrot?' However, after a little bargaining, I bought both animals, as well as a cage for the monkey and a perch for the parrot; and as soon as I arrived at home, I introduced them to Michel.

'This,' said Michel, 'is the green monkey of Senegal--_Cercopithecus sabaea_.'

I looked at Michel in the greatest astonishment. 'Do you know Latin, Michel?'

'I don't know Latin, but I know my "Dictionary of Natural History."'

'Oh, indeed! And do you know what bird this is?' I asked, showing him the parrot.

'To be sure I know it,' said Michel. 'It is the blue and yellow macaw--_Macrocercus arararanna_. Oh, sir, why did you not bring a female as well as a male?'

'What is the use, Michel, since parrots will not breed in this country?'

'There you make a mistake, sir; the blue macaw will breed in France.'

'In the south, perhaps?'

'It need not be in the south, sir.'

'Where then?'

'At Caen.'

'At Caen? I did not know Caen had a climate which permits parrots to rear their young. Go and fetch my gazetteer.'

'You will soon see,' said Michel as he brought it. I read: 'Caen, capital of the department of Calvados, upon the Orne and the Odon: 223 kilometres west of Paris, 41,806 inhabitants.'

'You will see,' said Michel, 'the parrots are coming.'

'Great trade in plaster, salt, wood--taken by English in 1346--retaken by the French &c., &c.--never mind the date--That is all, Michel.'

'What! Your dictionary never says that the arararanna, otherwise called the blue macaw, produces young at Caen?'

'No, Michel, it does not say that here.'

'What a dictionary! Just wait till I fetch you mine and you will see.'

Michel returned in a few minutes with his book of Natural History.

'You will soon see, sir,' he said, opening his dictionary in his turn.