DOGS, AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS. 369 
but while two human beings live, his memory will be 
ever green to them. 
When once a man has raised and educated a dog, 
ever showing to him unremitting kindness, there is no 
human friendship that will stand the test against this 
canine friend. The winds of adversity may blow 
harshly against him; those whom he once called friends 
may have deserted him; sudden prosperity may have 
weaned from him those whom he most trusted; Gon- 
erils and Regans may have been raised beneath his 
roof,—but his four-footed friend will never forsake him, 
and whether he be clothed in finest raiment, or wander 
over the earth friendless, poverty-stricken, sick at heart 
and bruised in body, this friend will remain steadfast to 
him, die in his defense: or, when the end has come, 
will make his bed at his master’s grave, and refuse food 
and shelter, through day and night, storms and sleet, 
‘watching his master’s grave until nature has exhausted 
his vitality ; then, starved to death, with choked and 
smothered breathing, he gladly dies at the grave of his 
only friend. 
“And he was faithful to a corpse, 
And kept the birds and beasts 
Which hungered there, at bay.”’ 
The love for the dog has been inherent i: man for 
generations, and the tribute paid to a dog 2,700 years 
ago ranks equally in pathos and beauty with anything 
written of him in modern times. Homer in his Odys- 
sey speaks of Ulysses after an absence of twenty years 
as being recognized by his old deerhound- 
He knew his lord; he knew and strove to meet; 
In vain he strove to crawl, and kiss his feet; 
Yet all he could, his tail, his ears, his eyes, 
Salute his master, and confess his joys.” 
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