about to settle the question, a power to which all animals
are equally amenable: and thus was it brought into action.

It was evening; Bruin and Tom, the former in excessively ill-humour, the
latter much as usual, though sulky, returned home, where the Herr
awaited them with impatience. It did not require a very great amount of
sagacity to learn that they had been unsuccessful, for disappointment
was plainly visible on the features of both. From Bruin nothing could be
obtained in the way of information, for he had thrown himself on the
ground, and stuffed his wide jaws with some delicacies Piggy had
reserved for his own supper, so it was to Tom his master's eyes were
directed for an explanation. Now that valuable servant's _fort_, never
lay in making an eloquent discourse, or even in describing the most
ordinary facts in a plain and intelligible manner; and in this instance,
as his feelings interfered with the relation of facts, a tolerably large
stock of patience, and some cleverness to boot, were needed to
understand the account.

This was, after cross-examination, what Herr Schwein managed to
comprehend. They had gone to the marketplace as usual, and, to their
delight, found it crowded, immediately jumping to the conclusion that
the public mind of Caneville was not so utterly degraded as they had
begun to fancy it. The innocent conjecture was soon, however, disabused;
for on their drawing nearer they observed that faithless population
gathered about "ANOTHER DISTINGUISHED FOREIGNER," with a remarkably long
beard and a fierce pair of horns, who proclaimed himself a magician from
beyond the land where the sun rose, and rejoiced in the name of Doctor
Capricornus, A.V.G.T., and M.U.H.S., which the great learning of Herr
Schwein interpreted by A Very Great Traveller, or Thief, and Member of
the Universal Herbage or Humbug Society. Now, the feats displayed by
this new candidate for public favour were of the stupidest order
(remember, this is not the statement of a disinterested party),
consisting merely in pointing out any pebble on the ground that any one
of the crowd should have previously fixed on, and mounting to the top of
a little ladder and balancing himself on the tips of his horns at the
upper round; yet it was enough to excite the enthusiasm of the
lookers-on: nor could all the cries of Bruin, bidding them come and see
what true genius really was; nor all the dulcet notes of Tom, though he
blew at his pipes til