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HOW THE AUTHOR WAS LED TO 



failed to throw them stealthily some fragments, which 

 sent them away satisfied. 



" This they knew perfectly well. One day, a new 

 guest, lean, bristling, unprepossessing, something be- 

 tween a dog and a wolf, arrived; he was, in fact, a 

 half-breed of the two species, born in the forests of the 

 Gresigne. He was very ferocious, very irascible, and 

 bore much too close a resemblance to his wolfish 

 mother. But, besides this, he was intelligent, and 

 gifted with a very keen instinct. From the first he 

 gave himself wholly up to my father, and neither 

 words nor rough usage could induce him to quit his 

 side. For us he had but little love; and we repaid 

 him in kind, seizing every opportunity of playing him 

 a hundred tricks. He ground and gnashed his teeth, 

 though, out of regard for my father, he abstained 

 from devouring us. To the poor he was furious, im- 

 placable, very dangerous; which decided us on suffer- 

 ing him to be lost. But there was no such chance. 

 He always came back again. His new masters would 

 chain him to a post; chains and post, he carried them 

 all off, and brought them into our house. It was too 

 much for my father; he would never forsake him. 



" But the cats enjoyed even more of his good graces 

 than the dogs. This was due to his early education, 

 to the cruel years spent at college; his brother and 

 himself, beaten and repulsed, between the harshness of 

 their home and the severities of their school, had found 

 a consolation in a couple of cats. This predilection 

 was transmitted to his family each of us, in childhood, 

 possessed our cat. The gathering at the fireside was 



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