Ulick O'More, owning
with a sigh that he should like to see no beast better than a snipe,
gave rise to much ingenuity by being led to describe it as of a class
migratory, hard to catch, food for powder, given to long bills.
There he guessed something, and stood on the defensive, but could not
deny that its element was bogs, but that it had been seen skimming
over water meadows, and finding sustenance in banks, whereupon the
curtain rose. Ulick rushed upon the battles of his nation, and was
only reduced to quiescence by the entrance of Sophy, who expressed a
desire to see a coral worm, apparently perplexing the showman, who,
to gain time, hemmed, and said, 'A very unusual species, ma'am,'
which set all the younger ones in a double giggle, such as confused
Sophy, to find herself standing up, with every one looking at her,
and listening for her words. 'I thought you undertook for any
impossibility in earth air or water.'
'Well, ma'am, do you take me for a mere mountebank? But when ladies
and gentlemen take such unusual fancies--and for an animal that--you
would not aver that it is often found from home?'
'Never, I should say.'
'Nor that it is accessible?'
'Certainly not.'
'And why is it so, ma'am?'
'Why,' said Sophy, bewildered into forgetting her natural history,
'it lives at the bottom of the sea; that's one thing.'
'Where Truth lives,' said a voice behind.
'I beg to differ,' observed Albinia.
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