"Why should I have him? He seems, indeed, the more mine the higher he goes. A dead stuffed thing--how could that be mine at all? Alive, he seems to soar in the very heaven of my soul!" "You showed the fox no such pity!" remarked Mercy. "I never killed a fox to HAVE him!" answered Alister. "The osprey does no harm. He eats only fish, and they are very plentiful; he never kills birds or hares, or any creature on the land. I do not see how any one could wish to kill the bird, except from mere love of destruction! Why should I make a life less in the world?" "There would be more lives of fish--would there not?" said Mercy. "I don't want you to shoot the poor bird; I only want to hear your argument!" The chief could not immediately reply, Ian came to his rescue. "There are qualities in life," he said. "One cannot think the fish-life so fine, so full of delight as the bird-life!" "No. But," said Mercy, "have the fishes not as good a right to their life as the birds?" "Both have the right given them by the maker of them. The osprey was made to eat the fish, and the fish, I hope, get some good of being eaten by the osprey." "Excuse me, Captain Macruadh, but that seems to me simple nonsense!" said Christina. "I hope it is true." "I don't know about being true, but it must be nonsense." "It must seem so to most people." "Then why do you say it?" "Because I hope it is true." "Why should you wish nonsense to be true?" "What is true cannot be nonsense. It looks nonsense only to those that take no interest in the matter. Would it be nonsense to the fishes?" "It does seem hard," said Mercy, "that the poor harmless things should be gobbled up by a creature pouncing down upon them from another element!" "As the poor are gobbled up everywhere by the rich!" "I don't believe that. The rich are very kind to the poor." "I beg your pardon," said Ian, "but if you know no more about the rich than you do about the fish, I can hardly take your testimony. The fish are the most carnivorous creatures in the world." "Do they eat each other?" "Hardly that. Only the cats of Kilkenny can do that." "I used a common phrase!" "You did, and I am rude: the phrase must bear the blame for both of us. But the fish are even cannibals--eating the young of their own species! They are the most destructive of creatures to other lives." "I suppose," said Mercy, "to make one kind of creature live on another kind, is the way to get the greatest good for the greatest number!" "That doctrine, which seems to content most people, appears to me a poverty-stricken and selfish one. I can admit nothing but the greatest good to every individual creature." "Don't you think we had better be going, Mercy? It has got quite cold; I am afraid it will rain," said Christina, drawing her cloak round her with a little shiver. "I am ready," answered Mercy.