"Who told you how to make this?" he asked.
"I brought home yesterday the backbone of a great fish cast up by the
sea, and I made this like it, but of iron; that is all," said Perdix.
Another time Daedalus was trying to draw a perfect circle. Thirteen
times he tried and failed.
"Take my irons, if you will not be angry with me," said Perdix, and he
handed him a pair of compasses.
Here again was something no man had ever seen. But Daedalus, instead of
being proud of his nephew, was angrier than before.
"You will be claiming that you are greater than Daedalus, who first
sailed through the air, ungrateful boy," said his uncle.
"I have only tried to help you," answered Perdix.
Not long after this, when the two were in a tall building, Daedalus gave
Perdix a push that sent him headlong toward the ground. The goddess
Minerva, who loves learning, saw him falling and changed him into a
partridge before he touched the earth. Unlike Daedalus, he has always
kept his wings.
Perdix, the partridge, builds his nest low on the ground and stays in
low branches. Perhaps he is afraid he may not be saved from another fall
if he goes again into high places.
JUNO'S BIRD, THE PEACOCK
_Roman_
"Oh, isn't it a pity the peacock doesn't know that he can't sing? Why
doesn't he stop that fearful screeching?"
Little Katie put her hands over her ears to keep out the sound.
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