I firmly decline to say which prize I won; but here's the composition to speak for itself.
It is no small-author vanity that induces me to publish this stray leaf of natural history.

I lay it before our young folks, not for their admiration, but for their criticism.

Let each reader take his lead-pencil and remorselessly correct the orthography, the capitalization, and the punctuation of the essay.

I shall not feel hurt at seeing my treatise cut all to pieces; though I think highly of the production, not on account of its literary excellence, which I candidly admit is not overpowering, but because it was written years and years ago about Gypsy, by a little fellow who, when I strive to recall him, appears to me like a reduced ghost of my present self.
I am confident that any reader who has ever had pets, birds or animals, will forgive me for this brief digression..