TORTOISE. 159 



till the 13th of November, yet the work remained 

 unfinished. Harsher weather and frosty mornings 

 would have quickened its operations. No part of 

 its behaviour ever struck me more than the extreme 

 timidity it always expresses with regard to rain ; for 

 though it has a shell that would secure it against the 

 wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it discover as much 

 solicitude about rain as a lady dressed in all her 

 best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinklings, 

 and running its head up in a corner. If attended 

 to, it becomes an excellent weather-glass ; for as 

 sure as it walks elate, and, as it were, on tiptoe, 

 feeding with great earnestness in a morning, so sure 

 will it rain before night. It is totally a diurnal 

 animal, and never pretends to stir after it becomes 

 dark. The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an arbi- 

 trary stomach, as well as lungs ; and can refrain 

 from eating as well as breathing for a great part of 

 the year. When first awakened, it eats nothing ; 

 nor again in the autumn, before it retires : through 

 the height of the summer, it feeds voraciously, 

 devouring all the food that comes in its way. I was 

 much taken with its sagacity in discerning those 

 that do it kind offices ; for, as soon as the good old 

 lady comes in sight, who has waited on it for more 

 than thirty years, it hobbles towards its benefactress 

 with awkward alacrity; but remains inattentive to 

 strangers. Thus not only " the ox knoweth his 

 owner, and the ass his master's crib*," but the most 

 abject reptile and torpid of beings distinguishes the 

 hand that feeds it, and is touched with the feelings 

 of gratitude. 



P. S. In about three days after I left Sussex, 

 the tortoise retired into the ground under the he- 

 paticaf. 



* Isaiah i. 3. 



f Tortoises are often kept in gardens as a curiosity, where 



