thing again!"





THE GRIFFIN AND THE MINOR CANON.

* * * * *

Over the great door of an old, old church which stood in a quiet town
of a far-away land there was carved in stone the figure of a large
griffin. The old-time sculptor had done his work with great care, but
the image he had made was not a pleasant one to look at. It had a
large head, with enormous open mouth and savage teeth; from its back
arose great wings, armed with sharp hooks and prongs; it had stout
legs in front, with projecting claws; but there were no legs
behind,--the body running out into a long and powerful tail, finished
off at the end with a barbed point. This tail was coiled up under
him, the end sticking up just back of his wings.

The sculptor, or the people who had ordered this stone figure, had
evidently been very much pleased with it, for little copies of it,
also in stone, had been placed here and there along the sides of the
church, not very far from the ground, so that people could easily
look at them, and ponder on their curious forms. There were a great
many other sculptures on the outside of this church,--saints,
martyrs, grotesque heads of men, beasts, and birds, as well as those
of other creatures which cannot be named, because nobody knows
exactly what they were; but none were so curious and interesting as