ot," replied Mr. Wood. "In my humble opinion there's a
great lot of nonsense talked about the poison of a dog's bite and people
dying of hydrophobia. Ever since I was born I've had dogs snap at me and
stick their teeth in my flesh; and I've never had a symptom of
hydrophobia, and never intend to have. I believe half the people that
are bitten by dogs frighten themselves into thinking they are fatally
poisoned. I was reading the other day about the policemen in a big city
in England that have to catch stray dogs, and dogs supposed to be mad,
and all kinds of dogs, and they get bitten over and over again, and
never think anything about it. But let a lady or a gentleman walking
along the street have a dog bite them, and they worry themselves till
their blood is in a fever, and they have to hurry across to France to
get Pasteur to cure them. They imagine they've got hydrophobia, and
they've got it because they imagine it. I believe if I fixed my
attention on that right thumb of mine, and thought I had a sore there,
and picked at it and worried it, in a short time a sore would come, and
I'd be off to the doctor to have it cured. At the same time dogs have no
business to bite, and I don't recommend any one to get bitten."

"But, uncle," said Miss Laura, "isn't there such a thing as
hydrophobia?"

"Oh, yes; I dare say there is. I believe that a careful examination of
the records of death reported in Boston from hydrophobia for the space
of thirty-two years, shows that two people actually died from it. Dogs
are like all other animals. They're liable to sickness, and they've got
to be watched. I think my horses would go mad if I starved them, or
over-fed them, or over-worked them, or let them stand in laziness, or
kept them dirty, or didn't give them water enough. They'd get some
disease, anyway. If a person owns an animal, let him take care of it,
and it's all right. If it shows signs of sickness, shut it up and watch
it. If the sickness is incurable, kill it. Here's a sure way to prevent
hydrophobia. Kill off all ownerless and vicious dogs. If you can't do
that, have plenty of water where they can get at it. A dog that has all
the water he wants, will never go mad. This dog of mine has not one
single thing the matter with him but pure ugliness. Yet, if I let him
loose, and he ran through the village with his tongue out, I'll warrant
you there'd be a cry of 'mad dog!' However, I'm going to kill him. I've
no use for a bad dog.