Then he pulled aside a screen, and lo! and behold, a dozen at least of cages, each containing a cockatoo, and one a starling.
“What is it? What is it?” said this latter.
“Nothing much, Dick. But you’ve frightened this stranger.”
“Strange!” said Dick.
The old shepherd opened the cage-door, and out flew the bird, and straight on to the supper-table.
“Professor Dick,” said my host, “won’t say another word till he has finished his meal.”
“Professor Dick, you call him?”
“Yes, and I may as well tell you at once how I live and how I manage to get warm clothing, good food, and plenty of books.”
“I see your library is a most extensive one,” I put in.
“It is, for a poor man. I am a hermit by choice; I live all alone in these wilds; I am rent-free, because I have the charge of sheep, and I dearly love the solitudes around me.