It is very annoying losing a pet, especially when the conviction must be that it will inevitably come to grief. I recall a curious case of the sort which happened in Scotland at my old home. My sister-in-law had a parrot, which had been the object of her care for many years. In fine summer weather, when the windows were open, it flew out, and enjoyed itself very much among the trees in front of the house, and, when called, returned to its cage. One day a sudden gale of wind came on, and the poor bird was carried away before it. A great search was made; but it never came back. My sister read in the county paper an advertisement, couched in the following term: ‘Found, a parrot. Anyone having lost the same, apply to,’ &c., &c. In hopes that this referred to her lost favourite, she wrote a full description of Lorry, and anxiously waited for the reply. Her disappointment was great when she received the following answer to her application: ‘Milady, i am sorry to say that it was a _farot_’ (ferret), ‘and not a _parot_, that was found.’ The _Crocodile_ was a fac-simile of the _Jumna_, with the exception of not being painted white. In the Mediterranean, we were caught in a gale, and found that the _Crocodile_ was not distinguished without cause for her powers of rolling. The storm delayed us three days, as we could make no headway against the wind. It was the last rough weather we encountered, but as we neared our own latitudes the cold became intense. Nothing could have looked much more miserable than we poor denizens of a warm climate did that 21st of December, as, with eager eyes and longing expectation, we crowded the sides, and looked at the goal of our hopes for long years--home! Take the Solent on a fine, bright, sunny day in summer, with yachts and pleasure-boats glancing over the surface of the rippling water, and you will say it is a fair sight to see, but what we looked on now was a grey and leaden sky, the whole country under snow, and an occasional flake in the air, proving there was a good deal more to fall. Slowly we came into our berth alongside the quay, and it did seem a realization of our long dreams when friends and relations flocked over the gangway, and warmly welcomed us back to the old country.