. St. Nicholas [serial]. it crash-ing through the bushes, and I expected everyminute to be taken in its big mouth. By andby I could nt run any more, and fell down,when five big birds similar to the one I had al-ready seen came leaping along straight at me. I lifted my gun, but before I could shoot,the first bird had run over me and knocked medown. I jumped up and ran, and I did nt stoprunning till I found you, and here I am. At this the sailors laughed. As long as Pierre lived he was known as Big-Bird Pierre, for he could get nobody to believehim. Since his time, however, more has beenlearned
. St. Nicholas [serial]. it crash-ing through the bushes, and I expected everyminute to be taken in its big mouth. By andby I could nt run any more, and fell down,when five big birds similar to the one I had al-ready seen came leaping along straight at me. I lifted my gun, but before I could shoot,the first bird had run over me and knocked medown. I jumped up and ran, and I did nt stoprunning till I found you, and here I am. At this the sailors laughed. As long as Pierre lived he was known as Big-Bird Pierre, for he could get nobody to believehim. Since his time, however, more has beenlearned of Madagascar, the island where Pierrelanded; and though nobody has seen a livingbird such as Pierre described, eggs and skele-tons of the birds have been found, and, judgingfrom them, it is no wonder that the little Frenchboy was frightened. The egg is larger than a football, and would,it is calculated, hold as much as one hundredand sixty hens eggs. As for the bird, it wasof the same family as the ostrich, but was more. Is that all? asked one of the men, sar-castically, when Pierre had ceased speaking. Yes, answered the boy. Well, said the man, if I were going tomake up a yarn I d try to have it reasonable,or end in something exciting. But I did nt make it up! exclaimedPierre, indignantly. All I m sorry for, said one of the men, is that he did nt bring the egg with him. Itwould have made such a rare omelet. than twice as tall and proportionately heavier,so that, towering as it did a mans height abovethe tallest elephant, it must have been a start-ling bird to see for the first time sepyornis, as the bird is called, does notexist now, but Mr. Wallace, the great naturalist,thinks that all the indications are that it mayhave lived within the last two centuries.
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Keywords: ., bookauthordodgemar, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1873
