language and comic songs for magpies to sing. It's a fact. He's
now busy learning the language of the shellfish. But he says it's
hard work--and he has caught some terrible colds, holding his
head under water so much. He's a great man."

"He certainly must be," I said. "I do wish he were home so I
could meet him."

"Well, there's his house, look," said the cat's, meat-man--"that
little one at the bend in the road there--the one high up--like
it was sitting on the wall above the street."

We were now come beyond the edge of the town. And the house that
Matthew pointed out was quite a small one standing by itself.
There seemed to be a big garden around it; and this garden was
much higher than the road, so you had to go up a flight of steps
in the wall before you reached the front gate at the top. I could
see that there were many fine fruit trees in the garden, for
their branches hung down over the wall in places. But the wall
was so high I could not see anything else.

When we reached the house Matthew went up the steps to the front
gate and I followed him. I thought he was going to go into the
garden; but the gate was locked. A dog came running down from
the house; and he took several pieces of meat which the
cat's-meat-man pushed through the bars of the gate, and some
paper bags full of corn and bran, I noticed that this dog did not
stop to eat the meat, as any ordinary dog would have done, but he
took all the things back to the house and disappeared. He had a
curious wide collar round his neck which looked as though it were