"Different kind o' bird altogether, Sir, and different kind o' egg.
Can't very well be imitated. You didn't think as I said great 'awk,
Sir?" he asked very anxiously.
"No, no; I understand," I hastened to assure him.
"The 'awk, Sir, is a bird o' the heagle kind; the hauk's a different
kind altogether--web-footed, aquatic--was, I should rather say,
seeing as 'ow 'e's un appily extinct. Hauk and 'awk, Sir--you take the
difference?"
I said that I thought the distinction was perceptible to a fine ear
for the aspirate.
The phrase took the little man's fancy wonderfully. "That's it, Sir,"
he exclaimed, beaming up delightedly at me. "You've 'it it! Done it
in one, you 'ave. 'Fine ear for the haspirate'--that's what my darter
Maria 'ave and what I, for one, 'ave not. I'm not above confessing of
it; 'tain't given to all of us to 'ave everything, as the ant said to
the helephant when 'e was boasting about 'is trunk. Some there is as
ain't got no ear for music--same as Joe Mangles, the grocer down the
street, as 'as caught a heavy cold in 'is 'ead with taking 'is 'at off
every time as 'e 'ears 'It's a long long way to Tipperary.
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