ng by cable at a dollar per word--the very human way of the
American press, which, when a man refuses to come down and be licked,
makes faces at him.

But now that the storm is over, let us come and reason together. I have
been guilty of writing two animal-stories--two books about dogs. The
writing of these two stories, on my part, was in truth a protest against
the "humanizing" of animals, of which it seemed to me several "animal
writers" had been profoundly guilty. Time and again, and many times, in
my narratives, I wrote, speaking of my dog-heroes: "He did not think
these things; he merely did them," etc. And I did this repeatedly, to
the clogging of my narrative and in violation of my artistic canons; and
I did it in order to hammer into the average human understanding that
these dog-heroes of mine were not directed by abstract reasoning, but by
instinct, sensation, and emotion, and by simple reasoning. Also, I
endeavoured to make my stories in line with the facts of evolution; I
hewed them to the mark set by scientific research, and awoke, one day, to
find myself bundled neck and crop into the camp of the nature-fakers.

President Roosevelt was responsible for this, and he tried to condemn me
on two counts. (1) I was guilty of having a big, fighting bull-dog whip
a wolf-dog. (2) I was guilty of allowing a lynx to kill a wolf-dog in a
pitched battle. Regarding the second count, President Roosevelt was
wrong in his field observations taken while reading my book. He must
have read it hastily, for in my story I had the wolf-dog kill the lynx.
Not only did I have my wolf-dog kill the lynx, but I made him eat the
body of the lynx as well. Remains only the first count on which to
convict me of nature-faking, and the first count does not charge me with
diverging from ascertained facts. It is merely a statement of a
difference of opinion. President Roosevelt does not think a bull-dog can
lick a wolf-dog. I think a bull-dog can lick a wolf-dog. And there we
are. Difference of opinion may make, and does make, horse-racing. I can
understand that difference of opinion can make dog-fighting. But what
gets me is how difference of opinion regarding the relative fighting
merits of a bull-dog and a wolf-dog makes me a nature-faker and President
Roosevelt a vindicated and triumphant scientist.

Then entered John Burroughs to clinch President Roosevelt's judgments.
In this alliance there is no difference of opinion.