HOW THE TROTTIXG HORSE IS BRED. 475 



scendants for three generations in succession is a very remarka- 

 ble instance of the heredity of instinct. As a companion piece 

 to the foregoing and as showing the difference between the 

 hatred of one dog and the gratitude and love of another, I will 

 relate an instance that came under my own observation and 

 knowledge more than forty years ago. General John G. Gordon 

 was a merchant in Muscatine, Iowa, and Dr. George Reeder was 

 a physician of great skill and very large practice. These two 

 gentlemen were among my most intimate personal friends. On 

 a certain occasion one of Gordon's well-to-do farmer customers 

 brought him a puppy a few months old as a present. He had 

 no use for a dog and didn't want one, but he was not willing to 

 forfeit either the good wishes or the custom of his farmer 

 friend, so he accepted the gift with thanks. When he took the 

 puppy home in the evening there was consternation in the house- 

 hold, and in a family conference it was decided that he should 

 not be allowed to run through the house with his dirty feet, and 

 thereupon he was consigned to the cow stable, and that became 

 his home as long as he lived. Every night and morning he got 

 a liberal ration of milk fresh from the cow and they soon became 

 inseparable friends. In cold nights, as if by mutual agreement, 

 he always slept cuddled up close to the cow. At that time in 

 the history of the town, the country was open and pasture abun- 

 dant in every direction, and everybody kept a cow. In the morn- 

 ings these cows would start out to their grazing grounds, in 

 bands, radiating in every direction, and in the evenings could be 

 seen "the lowing herds wind slowly o'er the lea." Gordon's 

 dog never missed a day for years in going with his friend the 

 cow and returning with her in the evening. 



Dr. Reeder used two or three horses in his practice, and his sta- 

 ble was on the same alley, and some ten or twelve rods distant from 

 Gordon's cow stable. One day in winter time he was having his 

 bins filled with corn in the ear, and to make room for it all he 

 had to fill up a large dry-goods box that stood in one^corner of 

 the itable. While he was supervising the delivery of the corn 

 Gordon's dog came in, reared up on his hind legs, seized an ear 

 of corn and made off with it. The doctor was very much sur- 

 prised at this act of the dog as he never had seen or heard of a 

 dog eating corn. While he was thinking about this strange act 

 of the dog, he came back again and seized another ear and made 

 off with it. This time the doctor watched him, and he carried it 



