May 28—There is some danger that my otherwise quite respectable home may become a sort of boarding-house for stray Magpies. My taking chan, of my lawn and amusing me old garden, Magpie's latest brood are still during the meal-hours daily: then comes the case of Lady Godivà which I think I should enter in my notes. A certain young lady of my acquaintance rode out into the country and found a Chinese boy with a baby Magpie recently stolen from a nest: she was furious and stole the stolen property from the stealer (this sounds complicated, but it is really quite simple and is known among the best thieves as hijacking): anyway. she brought this Magpie back on horseback for several miles, hanging on to her wrist. because she thought it would be properly cared for if she could only find a home for it. And so another Magpie finally appeared in my garden and was handed over by me to the Chauffeur. because, to be truthful, I know that any intelligent Chinese is a better bird-amah than I am; and my chauffeur is right in the top line (even if his head is always too big for his hats.) And now, to cut a long story short, this Magpie is fed at least six times a day and is the most spoilt and bobbery bird I have ever known. Only this morning I went to feed it through the meshes of its temporary cage—i.e. two market baskets (one upturned) lashed together with string. I poked my fingers through and tried to fill the great gaping mouth which looks like the inside of a red Amaryllis Lily: but the bird, staggering on its perch, could not bend forward and my clumsy fingers could not reach it: so the chauffeur said, "Master, usee chopsticks"!: I spotted the idea at once and handed the little pied lady several lumps of food on the end of the chopsticks—so that she never knew she had lost her mother. The last time I saw her she was eating bread and milk with a dish of strawberries on the side: she is that kind of an orphan. Then came the question of a name. So I called her Lady Godiva: because she arrived that way; riding on a horse. end dressed only in her natural plumage.—rs.w.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.