s of his
goats--a great deal more."

"And what of it?"

"Why, if he likes the sheep best, he will like me best when I act as
the sheep do."

"That's your mistake. He will not like you half as well."

"Why not?"

"For the same reason that nobody else likes you so well--because you
don't act like yourself. Take my advice, now. _Be yourself_. Don't try
to be anybody else. Depend upon it, if you ever come across a person
that likes you, he will like you as a goat, and not as a sheep. A
sheep you could never be, though you should practice all your
life-time. Be a goat, then--be a goat, and nothing else."

This advice, I believe, proved of some service to the juvenile goat;
and by the way, reader, perhaps it may be worth something to you.

XV.

ON BARKING DOGS.

It is an old saying--and there is a good deal of truth in it--that
"barking dogs never bite." I say there is a good deal of truth in it.
It is not strictly true. Scarcely any proverb will bear picking to
pieces, and analyzing, as a botanist would pick to pieces and analyze
a rose or a tulip. Almost all dogs bark a little, now and then. Still
I believe those dogs bark the most that bite the least, and the dogs
that make a practice of biting the hardest and the oftenest, make very
little noise about it.

Have you never been passing by a house, and seen a little pocket
edition of a cur run out of the front door yard, to meet you, with
ever so much bravery and heroism, as if he intended to eat you at two
or three mouthfuls? What a barking he set up. The meaning of his _bow,
wow, wow_, every time he repeated the words, was, "I'll bite you! I'll
bite you!" But the very moment you turned round and faced him, he ran
back into the yard, as if forty tigers were after him. You see he was
all bark, and no bite.

Well, it is about the same with men and women, and boys and girls, as
it is with dogs. Those who bark most bite least, the world over.

Show me a boy who talks about being as bold as a lion, and I will show
you one with the heart of a young rabbit, just learning to eat
cabbage. I do dislike to see boys and girls boasting of what they can
do. It always gives me a low opinion of their merits.

There is Tom Thrasher. You don't know Tom, do you? Well, he is one of
your barking dogs. He is all the time boasting of the great things he
is able to do. Nobody ever saw him do any such things. Still he keeps
on boasting, right in the midst of the young peop