THE LENGTH OF ANIMAL LIFE 47 



"Let us return without delay to our animals. 

 Our other domestic animals live a still shorter time. 

 A dog, at twenty or twenty-five years, can no longer 

 drag himself along; a pig is a tottering veteran at 

 twenty; at fifteen at the most, a cat no longer chases 

 mice, it says good-by to the joys of the roof and re- 

 tires to some corner of a granary to die in peace; 

 the goat and sheep, at ten or fifteen, touch extreme 

 old age, the rabbit is at the end of its skein at eight 

 or ten ; and the miserable rat, if it lives four years, 

 is looked upon among its own kind as a prodigy of 

 longevity. 



"Would you like me to tell you about birds? 

 Very well. The pigeon may live from six to ten 

 years; the guinea fowl, hen, and turkey, twelve. A 

 goose lives longer; it is true that in its quality of 

 goose it does not worry. The goose attains twenty- 

 five years, and even a good deal more. 



"But here is something better. The goldfinch, 

 sparrow, birds free from care, always singing, al- 

 ways frisking, happy as possible with a ray of sun- 

 light in the foliage and a grain of hemp-seed, live 

 as long as the gluttonous goose, and longer than the 

 stupid turkey. These very happy little birds live 

 from twenty to twenty-five years, the age of an ox. 

 As I told you, taking up a lot of room in this world 

 is not the way to prepare oneself for a long life. 



"As to man, it' lie leads a iv-ular life, he often 

 lives to eighty or ninety. Sometimes he reaches a 

 hundred or even more. But should he attain only 

 the ordinary age, the average age, as they say, that 

 is about forty, tin -n he is to be considered a privi 



