“Tut, tut, tut!” said the Bishop. “If the cock is as valuable as you say, he will be well cared for. You will have a good education at my palace, and be clean and tidy.” “But I don’t want to be clean and tidy, and I shouldn’t like to live in a palace,” cried Maggie. All the servants tittered. “_Nonsense!_” said the Bishop. “Everyone wants to be clean and tidy, and everyone would like to live in a palace.” “But I can’t!” exclaimed Maggie—“indeed I can’t!” “There is no such word as ‘can’t’ in the English language,” said the Bishop. “Come! come!” said Maggie to the Cochin-Chinaman, “we must get away as quick as we can!” The Bishop could not understand what she said, but he saw she was preparing to run. “I fear you are one of the many people who do not know what is good for them,” said he. “Get into the carriage immediately. The footmen will help you in, and you may sit opposite to me.” And before you could count ten they had sprung from their places, opened the door, and lifted her in. With a hoarse agonized screech the Cochin-Chinaman leaped up and flew heavily into the coach. He came through the air like a cannon-ball. “Really, this is too much!” exclaimed the Bishop. “I cannot be made ridiculous by having this creature sitting in front of me as we go through the streets.” “He is the only friend I have got left,” sobbed poor Maggie, bursting into tears as the footmen tried to seize the cock’s legs. The Bishop was far from being an unkind man; indeed, he had a great reputation for charity, both public and private. “Tut, tut!” he said; “let him come. But he can’t sit there opposite to me. Put him under the seat.” And so Maggie, thankful to keep him at any price, stuffed him underneath, and pressed her feet against him, to comfort him. The footmen were inexpressibly shocked. Then they all drove off to the palace. The palace was a truly imposing place, with cupolas and courts, porches and statues; and, being outside the town, it was approached by an avenue a mile long. A wide stream flowed round one side of it, and the great entrance gates were covered with crests and glorious devices. Behind it was an aviary full of bright-coloured birds, who screamed and fought and made such a terrible din that, when the carriage drew up, the Cochin-Chinaman was taken from under the seat trembling. Maggie was shown a hut which she was to inhabit, built in a little remote yard, and an old chicken-coop was brought and filled with straw to make a bed for the cock. The Bishop ordered that food should be given them, and told Maggie she was to begin her duties on the morrow.