230 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



your disease. No hope of restoring you to health, 

 no way to alleviate your sufferings; you must be 

 left to die, an object of horror and pity." 



"What is that formidable animal?" Jules in- 

 quired. "Are we really ever likely to have a tussle 

 with it?" 



"We are daily exposed to this danger. No one 

 is certain of not being attacked this very day, this 

 very instant; for the terrible animal frequents our 

 public places, wanders in our streets, makes our 

 houses its home, and lives in close intimacy with us. 

 In fact, it is no other than the dog." 



"The dog, the most useful and most devoted of 

 our servants!" exclaimed Jules incredulously. 



' l Yes, the dog. In proportion as it merits our at- 

 tachment under usual conditions, so does it become 

 the object of our just fear when seized with a malady 

 called hydrophobia." 



"They say, and I Ve often heard it, that mad 

 dogs are very dangerous," remarked Louis. "How 

 do they get this disease?" 



"Its origin is unknown. Without any discover- 

 able cause, from no motive that we can discern, the 

 dog goes mad; the malady is spontaneous; that is 

 to say, it makes its appearance unheralded by symp- 

 toms. Any dog may be attacked, the contented pet 

 in a fine house as well as the poor homeless waif that 

 hunts for a scrap in the sweepings at the street cor- 

 ner. I must add, however, that the sufferings of 

 hunger and thirst, with bad treatment, tend to pro- 

 mote the disease, stray dogs being more subject than 



