The Mountain Sheep 183 



of him. The tame sheep is hopelessly bourgeois ; 

 but this mountain aristocrat, this frequenter 

 of clean snow and steep rocks and silence, has, 

 even beyond the bull elk, that same secure, un- 

 conscious air of being not only well bred, but 

 high bred, not only game but Jine game, which 

 we still in the twentieth century meet sometimes 

 among men and women. What gives distinc- 

 tion } Who can say ? It is to be found among 

 chickens and fish. What preserves it we know ; 

 and our laws will in the end extirpate it. Many 

 people already fail to recognize it, either in life 

 or in books. But nature scorns universal suf- 

 frage ; and when our houses have ceased to con- 

 tain gentlefolk, we shall still be able to find them 

 in the zoological gardens. 



During my interview with the sheep, freight 

 trains had passed once or twice without disturb- 

 ing him or attracting his notice ; but as I walked 

 away and left him grazing, there came by a 

 switching-engine that made a great noise. This 

 didn't frighten him, but set him in a rage. Once 

 again he leaped into the air waving his fore legs 

 and eccentrically descended to charge with fury 

 his telegraph pole. Yes, he was " tyme," if by 

 that word one is to understand that he was shy 



