She is older than I. Go and see
her. If age makes wise, she is the wisest of all."
Puck went into the forest, but at first saw no bird answering to the
description given him.
He said to himself, "She is, I wonder, who?"
He was surprised to hear his question repeated, not as an echo, but by
another. Still, he thought it might possibly be his own voice come
back.
So, in making a catalogue, in his note book, of what he had seen and
heard that day, he put down, "To wit--one echo."
Again came the sound:
"To whit--to who, to whit--to who?" Sounded the voice.
Thinking that this was intended to be a polite question, Puck looked
up. Sure enough, there was the wise bird sitting on a bough, above
him, as sober as a judge.
"Who! did you ask?" answered Puck and then went on to explain:
"I am Lord of the Fairies in Welshery, and I seek to know which is the
most venerable, of all the creatures in the Land of the Red Dragon.
"I am ready to salute you, as the most ancient and honorable of all
living things in the Cymric realm. You are desired to bear a message
to the Great King, in London."
Tickled by such delicate flattery, and the honors proffered her, this
lady owl, after much blinking and winking, flirting, and fluttering,
at last agreed to go to King Henry VIII in London.
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