ch time I nursed him, kept him apart from his fellows that they might
not molest him (for, like many other wild animals, they persecute one of
their own species that is sick), and by constant care, and trying him
with a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health. No creature
could be more grateful than my patient after his recovery,--a sentiment
which he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, first the back
of it, then the palm, then every finger separately; then between all the
fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted,--a ceremony
which he never performed but once again upon a similar occasion. Finding
him extremely tractable, I made it my custom to carry him always after
breakfast into the garden, where he hid himself generally under the
leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping or chewing the cud till evening; in
the leaves also of that vine he found a favourite repast. I had not long
habituated him to this taste of liberty, before he began to be impatient
for the return of the time when he might enjoy it. He would invite me to
the garden by drumming upon my knee, and by a look of such expression as
it was not possible to misinterpret. If this rhetoric did not
immediately succeed, he would take the skirt of my coat between his
teeth, and pull at it with all his force. Thus Puss might be said to be
perfectly tamed; the shyness of his nature was done away, and on the
whole it was visible, by many symptoms which I have not room to
enumerate, that he was happier in human society than when shut up with
his natural companions.

"Not so Tiney. Upon him the kindest treatment had not the least effect.
He, too, was sick, and in his sickness, had an equal share of my
attention; but if, after his recovery, I took the liberty to stroke him,
he would grunt, strike with his fore-feet, spring forward, and bite. He
was, however, very entertaining in his way, even his surliness was
matter of mirth, and in his play he preserved such an air of gravity,
and performed his feats with such a solemnity of manner, that in him,
too, I had an agreeable companion.

"Bess, who died soon after he was full grown, and whose death was
occasioned by his being turned into his box, which had been washed,
while it was yet damp, was a hare of great humour and drollery. Puss was
tamed by gentle usage; Tiney was not to be tamed at all; and Bess had a
courage and confidence that made him tame from the beginning. I always
admitted th