THE RED COW 



time I was doing a noble piece of work and knew it, 

 but that was the way I felt about it. I am willing 

 to bet a cookie that when I was doing my observing 

 in comfort on the dry bank the thoughts of the 

 man sloshing around in the ditch were much like 

 those expressed above. And I am by no means in- 

 clined to confine this method of interpretation and 

 observation to human beings. My dealings with 

 birds and animals have convinced me that each of 

 them has as distinct a character and personality 

 as any human being. So when I try to imagine the 

 emotions of a blackbird that has sampled a grain 

 of tarred corn, that he has dug up with much labour, 

 I merely try to imagine what I would do and say 

 if some one whom I had helped with his work had 

 put coal tar in my salad. I am afraid that having 

 more capacity for spitting I would spit harder than 

 the blackbird, and having command of a larger 

 vocabulary I would use worse language and more of 

 it. Making my observations in this way I have no 

 compunctions about explaining the state of mind 

 of the blackbird as I did, and I defy any scientist 

 in the lot to prove that I am wrong. And the best 

 of it all is that the blackbirds soon got wise and 

 stopped trying to dig out my corn. 



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