If a cow had wings, what a fright she would be to look at in the air! I would run and hide myself; would not you? Why, if she came down, and fell upon us, she would crush us and kill us. There is a picture, in a book that I have, of a horse with wings; but that is all fancy. A horse is very swift, but swift as he is, he does not fly. No, no! Let people say what they like,
There is no such thing
As a horse with a wing.
The other day, when the sun was very bright, I saw some gnats at play under a tree. How they did fly up and down! Well, all at once, what should one of them do but settle on my nose! when I spoke to him—
“O, O! Mr. Gnat,
Pray, what are you at?”
Soon he flew away again, and began to play as before.
I once heard of a gnat that teased a lion half out of his senses. What the lion had done to make him angry I do not know. No doubt you wonder that the lion did not kill him; but he could not. The gnat flew close to his eyes, and sat on his nose, and flew away again every time the lion lifted up his great paw. If the little gnat was able to plague the great lion, let us act kindly to all, for we see that the weak may vex the strong. The best way is to live in love with every one; and the Bible says much the same thing.
Just as I came away from the tree an old horse went under it. Poor thing! his hip bones stood up very high. I could almost count the number of his ribs; and one of his legs a little above the hoof was a great deal bigger than it ought to have been.