Nehela; only remember, I will not have my name brought forward, as I have a character to uphold, but I will do my best for you privately."

The viscacha, though he disliked and feared the

not afford to make an enemy of him, so he bowed politely, and expressed his thanks for the valuable aid which was promised. Meantime, the owls were clamouring to know what they were to do in asserting their rights.

"Of course, to resist any oppression," replied their instructor, cautiously. "Do not be slaves; you are as good as your neighbours."

"We'll do no more work, then," cried Tawny, one of the owls, gleefully. "All play from this time forth. Now, jolly owlets and friends, do you hear? Let us shake hands on our emancipation."

Whereupon ensued a great rustling of wings and snapping of bills, as the birds saluted each other while standing on one leg, and the meeting broke up. What about the viscachas all this time? At first they had looked upon the whole affair with the greatest contempt, and said to each other that it was quite beneath their notice, and that the owls would soon come to their senses; but presently matters began to assume a more serious aspect.

The birds, beginning their war of independence in the very outskirts of the colony, refused to keep watch during the daytime. The viscachas threatened to turn them out unless they complied, and tried to reason with their misguided retainers, asking how they could be expected to give the owls lodging,

unless they repaid in some way the trouble which the animals had gone to in digging their burrows. But they spoke to deaf ears-all was of no avail. The rattlesnake and Nehela excited the birds

anew whenever they thought their ardour was beginning to cool, and soon the whole colony was in a state of confusion.

The viscachas, finding entreaties and threats of no use, determined to eject the owls by means of force, and engaged some pacas to help them, which, as they were courageous fellows, they appeared very well able to do.

So one night a large body of pacas, directed by a few of their employers, assembled around some holes and prepared to dislodge the owls who inhabited them, and make an example of them.

The pacas surrounded each dwelling, and called on the owls to come forth; but no owls appeared from the interior, though crowds came flying up from all sides, and began assailing and tormenting the animals.

Some owls flapped over the pacas' heads so as to nearly blind them; others made the fur fly from the animals' backs with their sharp claws; and all hissed and screamed with such fury that at last the bewildered animals retired in disgust, leaving the birds complete masters of the field.

The viscachas were much disappointed, but they quite allowed that their allies had done all that could be expected of them, and they determined to try again.

It would have been a great matter if, in this time of tumult and anarchy, the viscachas had acted in concert, but, unfortunately, they did not; instead of meeting together and concerting some plan, which might have the desired effect of subduing their feathered followers, they contented themselves with running from one hole to another, crying

"Did you ever see such a dreadful state as we are in? What is to become of us?" and then going home again, each viscacha flattering himself that, at any rate, his own particular owl would never unite with the others against him.

Vain hope! The discontent spread on all sides. Sometimes a viscacha, hurrying home at sunrise after a short expedition, would find his dwelling destroyed, and his family turned out of doors. Indeed, the owls had become so insane that they actually, on several occasions, fell upon a householder, when they found him alone, and brutally killed him.

All this time you may guess how happy the rattlesnakes were! They "laughed and grew fat" on the miseries of their neighbours, and many an unfortunate young viscacha, as well as many a helpless,

childish old owl fell a victim to their poisoned fangs.

Nehela had by this time been thrown rather into the background. Many other agitators who began by following him had now gone far beyond him in the paths of disturbance, and he began to be afraid of losing his influence.

At last a bright idea occurred to him he would try and impoverish the viscachas in a new way. All about the Pampas round the holes grew quantities of delicious little water-melons, which the animals were particularly fond of feeding on, and his plan was that they should be deprived of them; so he collected the owls, issued his orders, and presently the ground was covered with infatuated birds, some trying to peck the stalks of the melons across, others using all their strength to roll the severed fruit to a distance, because the viscachas never by any chance wandered farther than about half a mile from their homes.

The poor little fellows had borne a good deal; but to be deprived of their favourite food was more than flesh and blood could bear, and at last they determined to fight in earnest.

In addition to the pacas they now enlisted a regiment of cavies, who, in their brown and yel. low uniforms, with white fac

ings, looked very formidable. The great band, encouraged by each other, hesitated no longer;

so they marched straight to some isolated burrows, and, darting in, made prisoners of several of the. most turbulent owls, and marching

These summary measures had certainly an effect in intimidating the birds. Tawny, who had been a spectator of the scene, flew away in a great fright, and hid himself in a hollow log of wood, peeping out cautiously at intervals to see what the dreaded soldiery were about:

He had not been long in his place of concealment when a dull trampling noise, which was coming nearer and nearer, attracted his notice. He pricked up his ears, and cast his goggle eyes around to discover what this could mean.

At some distance from the burrows, out on the Pampas, were a troop of gaily-dressed horsemen, in pursuit of a few guanacos. They were dashing rapidly along, gaining on their prey at every stride, and the guanacos, squeaking and bewildered, seemed blown and exhausted. They held on, however, until they saw the carefully-concealed abodes of the viscachas in front of them, and, warned by instinct and long experience, they

"

swerved aside, and cantered along the Not so the Spaniards.

them off, shut them up in close confinement. They also demolished their nests, and carried away some eggs which they found lying about, in order to strike the more terror into the insurgents' hearts.

outskirts of the colony. The foremost horseman had been almost close enough to the guanacos to throw his bolas at the moment they doubled, and not being able

"THE GREAT BAND

MARCHED STRAIGHT ΤΟ ISOLATED BURROWS" (p. 87).

to check his horse, the animal bounded on. Mishaps now followed, for as he dashed onward he put his foot into a viscacha's hole, and came to the ground with a terrible crash, his master being thrown right out of the saddle, describing a graceful curve in the air, and alighting some yards in front of his steed's nose; and his friends, warned by the catastrophe which had befallen him, managed to pull up only just in time to avoid a similar fate. The Spaniards condoled with their friend as well as they could for his misfortune, assisted him to mount again, and all the party there

upon trotted

slowly away,

for of course

the guanacos were quite out of sight long before. But Tawny's eyes had now caught a glitter of something in the grass, and as soon as he could safely venture out, he flew towards the object of his curiosity, and saw a shining, bright-coloured, round substance lying on the ground. He looked and looked at it; then he pecked it, and put his head on one side, and turned it over; but he could make

nothing of it, so away he flew to his patron, Nehela, and gave him such a flourishing account of his treasure that the viscacha followed him to the place, and was as much delighted at the pretty bauble as his bird friend could have desired. Nehela determined not to lose the

prize, so he dragged it to the mouth of his burrow, and left it there among the piles of dry bones and chips of wood which lay around it. The Spaniard, Eroles, had, however, hardly reached home when he discovered that he had lost a medallion which he highly prized, and he bewailed himself aloud as the most unfortunate of men-his horse's knees broken, and his jewel lost in one day; surely his trials were many, he said.

"Take heart, Eroles," said one of his neighbours. "You are sure to have lost it when you fell; we will all go with you, and will help you to search for it."

"It is no use," sighed the desponding man; "even if what you say is the case, the viscachas always pick up everything strange they see."

"And if they have stolen it, don't you know that they are sure to have left it outside their burrows?" cried his more

TURNED IT OVER."

Thus adjured, the Don tried to assume his former gaiety, and he and his friends, each armed with a bucket, started for the viscachas' home.

Now was the time for the owls to have shown

themselves not quite destitute of gratitude and friendly feelings, for each, perched on some little eminence and blinking in the sun, saw the party of men approaching. For a moment the idea of giving warning occurred to a few of them; but the evil counsels of Nehela and the rattlesnakes had been too often repeated to be forgotten. The birds stupidly stood basking until the hunters were close upon them, and then slowly flew a few yards off before diving into burrows to hide.

But oh! the poor viscachas! Their horror may be imagined when down their staircases and into their nice clean rooms came pouring

a stream of water. They shook their paws,and stamped, and grunted; then, rendered furious by the prospect of being drowned, they rushed madly out, and attacked the legs of the Spaniards, all of whom were trying to destroy them. They scratched and bit as well as they could, but being without any means of escape, the poor little animals were not able to protect themselves and their homes, and Eroles and his friends killed great numbers with their sticks.

I am glad to say that some of the owls also fell vic tims to their revengeful spirit, and a terrible commotion was caused

when some rattlesnakes appeared and prepared to strike the men.

It was whilst trying to kill one of these reptiles that Eroles at last discovered his medallion; but he and his companions did not desist from the slaughter for some time.

After innumerable skirmishes and arrests, and great hardships being endured by the viscachas, many of them left the colony altogether, saying that

really the Pampas had become too demoralised for respectable creatures to inhabit it. Others held out, and, by means of always being guarded by the cavies and pacas, managed to exist until Nehela died. By degrees all active enmity was forgotten, and things settled down again, but the friendly feeling which had once existed was never restored. Though occasionally both

owls may be seen taking refuge in the same burrow, it is only for the time being as a hiding-place.

And when the owls' houses are so perfectly uninhabitable that they are forced to leave them, they must now dig a burrow for themselves; so I think, on the whole, they must have been happier and more comfortable before their insurrection, as, if they had any conscience left, it must have pricked them sorely for their ingratitude. FRANCESCA.