THE BAT

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 116, 6 August 1927, Page 27

THE BAT

The Bat was very unhappy, for. she thought: “I am a funny sort of ani*mal. I have wings, and I am not a bird. I have fur and ears, and lam not a mouse. It’s awful. I am tired of meeting nothing but bats. I shall apply to the birds.” And she applied timidly to the birds one evening just as they were going to bed and she was getting up. “Good morning, friends,” said she. “Good morning?” said a severe Magpie, looking rather curiously. “Who is that idiot who says Good morning just as we are going to bed?” “I am sorry. Good evening,” said the Bat. “I am a new bird. Look at my beautiful wings.” And she spread her wings out to have them admired. The Magpie took up a lorgnette and stared at the visitor. “Hum!” she said. “To be sure, you have fine wings. But where are your feathers?” “I—l have—that is to say —” stammered the Bat. “If you have no feathers you are no bird. Come, off with you!” The Bat went off quickly. She flew to a nest of mice she knew of. “I am. a mouse!” she said. They inspected her. “To be sure,” said the dowager Mouse, “you resemble us. But what is that you have got on each side of your body?” And she pulled out one of the Bat’s wings. “Horrors!” she cried. “You are a bird. Off with you, quick! and don’t let: us see you here again.” “I am neither a mouse nor a bird,” said the Bat unhappily, as she flew off “so I had better go home where 1 belong.”