THE TIM BUNKEK PAPERS. 229 



ward, but men see them a great deal better. A sheep is 

 a creature of consequence, just about three times bigger 

 than it was two years ago. The dogs have grown small, 

 and a multitude of them have grown out of sight entirely. 



There used to be a dog on about every corner of the 

 streets in Hookertown. Some families kept a half dozen, 

 and they had a tight match to get enough for their children 

 to eat, too. Now they are getting scarce, and I am in 

 hopes that the time is not distant when they will be con 

 fined to cages, and shown up as curiosities at Barnum s. 

 It does my eyes good to see children and lambs fat and 

 happy, and dogs lean and miserable. Fat dogs indicate 

 a low civilization like the Chinese, or a low state of morals 

 like the White Oaks, where the dogs are more numerous 

 than the people. 



I have hated dogs ever since I was a boy. My father 

 kept sheep and was a lover of choice mutton, and chose 

 to do his own butchering, in a humane and decent man 

 ner. I remember an old ewe with twin lambs, a cosset 

 who came home with the cows to be petted and cared for 

 as if she were a member of the family. One morning she 

 was found dreadfully torn by the dogs, just alive, but un 

 able to move and her lambs missing. I have hated the 

 sight of a dog ever since, and never pass one in the street 

 without an apprehension of a bite, and a great longing to 

 brain him on the spot. Seth Twiggs has given them the 

 right name, &quot; Sheep Traps.&quot; 



And the morality of keeping a sheep-killing dog is on a 

 par with that of a malicious neighbor who should set 

 steel traps In the sheep walks of your pasture. I would 

 much rather have steel traps than the dogs. The trap 

 would be certain to dispose of only one sheep in a night, 

 while the dog might kill or maim a, dozen. The trap and 

 the victim would be found together in the morning, and 

 the mystery of the broken leg would be cleared up. But 

 your cowardly, sneaking dog does his work by night and 



