The other day I was reading how one of our princes
was entertained in China, and among the dishes on the table "birds'-nest
soup" was mentioned. It made me think of how, long ago (when, as I told
you, I was so foolish as not to like to ask questions, for fear the
grown-up people should think I knew nothing at all), I heard of this kind
of soup, and thought how disagreeable it must be to meet with bits of hay
and moss in one's soup, and what queer people the Chinese must be not to
mind it. Now I know that these nests, which are sold in China for their
weight in silver, are made of a clear jelly which comes from the swallow's
mouth. The nests are built against the sides of rocky cliffs, so that it
is very dangerous work to procure them. I do not know whether the Duke and
Duchess of Connaught liked the soup, but it was offered them as a very
great delicacy.
Chrissie and his brothers have a canary, and a very loud singer he is. No
doubt he was born in England. but his family are foreigners, as you know,
and come from Madeira and the Cape Verde and Canary Islands. But if, as I
have heard, they were brought to this country so long ago as the time of
Queen Elizabeth, we cannot be surprised that they are so much at home with
us now, and will lay their pale blue eggs, and hatch their yellow broods,
and live even thirty years in their pretty cages, in which they certainly
seem to be as happy as the days are long.
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