tting, ready for any amount
of fun and mischief. Look at my eyes if you doubt me. What shall it be?
A romp in the drawing-room and never mind the furniture, or a scamper
in the fresh, cool air, a scud across the fields and down the hill,
and won't we let old Gaffer Goggles' geese know what time o' day it is,
neither! Whoop! come along."

Or you'd like to be quiet and think. Very well. Pussy can sit on the arm
of the chair and purr, and Montmorency will curl himself up on the rug
and blink at the fire, yet keeping one eye on you the while, in case you
are seized with any sudden desire in the direction of rats.

And when we bury our face in our hands and wish we had never been born,
they don't sit up very straight and observe that we have brought it all
upon ourselves. They don't even hope it will be a warning to us. But
they come up softly and shove their heads against us. If it is a cat she
stands on your shoulder, rumples your hair, and says, "Lor,' I am sorry
for you, old man," as plain as words can speak; and if it is a dog he
looks up at you with his big, true eyes and says with them, "Well you've
always got me, you know. We'll go through the world together and always
stand by each other, won't we?"

He is very imprudent, a dog is. He never makes it his business to
inquire whether you are in the right or in the wrong, never bothers
as to whether you are going up or down upon life's ladder, never asks
whether you are rich or poor, silly or wise, sinner or saint. You are
his pal. That is enough for him, and come luck or misfortune, good
repute or bad, honor or shame, he is going to stick to you, to
comfort you, guard you, and give his life for you if need be--foolish,
brainless, soulless dog!

Ah! old stanch friend, with your deep, clear eyes and bright, quick
glances, that take in all one has to say before one has time to speak
it, do you know you are only an animal and have no mind? Do you know
that that dull-eyed, gin-sodden lout leaning against the post out there
is immeasurably your intellectual superior? Do you know that every
little-minded, selfish scoundrel who lives by cheating and tricking,
who never did a gentle deed or said a kind word, who never had a thought
that was not mean and low or a desire that was not base, whose every
action is a fraud, whose every utterance is a lie--do you know that
these crawling skulks (and there are millions of them in the world), do
you know they are all as much superio