II 



Rattling the Chains 



IN my next incarnation, if I have 

 anything to say about it, I propose 

 to be a free-born Mallard, for the more 

 one studies the furred and feathered 

 people of the open spaces the less he is 

 apt to concede the alleged vast supe- 

 riority of men over their fellow-inheri- 

 tors of the earth. I do not desire to be 

 written down a heretic. I have a decent 

 respect I hope for accepted traditions 

 about our having been given "in the 

 beginning" dominion over all; but 

 that statement, it must be borne in 

 mind, was not made until men had 

 already been on the earth for some four 

 hundred thousand years. They had 

 therefore ample time to establish might 



