NUISANCES, INHUMAN AND HUMAN. 215 



punishment must not be inflicted in anger. There is 

 something fiendish in a person nursing up his wrath, 

 and then, with deliberate cruelty, venting it upon 

 child or pet who has been trembling for hours with 

 dread anticipation. When the pups had dug up 

 some favorite and expensive plant, or crushed my 

 only plantation of some pet seed, and when I was 

 naturally in a towering rage, I could fall upon them 

 and drive them howling to some secret place of safe 

 ty ; but when, after an hour s delay had dissipated 

 my passion, Gran would approach with deprecating 

 wag and loving smile, and Sher, following more cau 

 tiously, would lick his hairy chops in a contrite way, 

 it went against my very nature to beat them. There 

 fore, although the pups met with some cuffs, and oc 

 casionally received the blow of a well-directed stone, 

 they were not punished with absolute regularity, had 

 it a good deal their own way with the place and its 

 surroundings, and inflicted no little damage upon the 

 growing crops. 



