FRIENDSHIP IN ANIMALS 69 



would trust him as lie would the most intelligent, affec- 

 tionate, and gentlest-mannered dog. Though so big, 

 this wolf is privileged to lie on the hearthrug at his 

 feet, and if there are children abcjut they are permitted 

 to sit on or roll over him, to pull his ears and open his 

 niiglUy mouth to look at his fangs. It is true that the 

 wolf is next door to tlic dog, but the fox is not ([uite 

 so near a neighbour although he lives not far off; he 

 is specialized in a different direction, and on account 

 of this specialization, of his nature, his genius, one 

 would hardly suppose him capable of a very close friend- 

 ship with a human master. Let mc relate here the story 

 of Peter the fox, for the truth of which I vouch al- 

 though I am not at liberty to give the name and address 

 of its owner. 



Peter's mistress is a lady living in a Shropshire village, 

 and the lady and fox are so much to one another that 

 they are not happy when apart. When she goes for 

 a walk or to make a call she takes the fox, just as Mary 

 took her little lamb, and she laughs at those who say 

 warningly tliat a fox makes a dangerous pet that his 

 temper is uncertain and his teeth sharp; also that he has 

 an ineradicable weakness for certain things — things with 

 feathers, for example. Peter, she affirms, never did 

 and never will do anything he ought not to do and is 

 moreover the sweetest-tempered and most affectionate 

 pet that any person ever possessed. 



After having had Peter for about a year he vanished 

 and his loss was a great grief to her, and it was no 

 consolation to be told by her friends that it was just 



