ANIMAL RENEGADES. ^ 



buried his bulky valuables ; and the hogs that used to 

 take their siesta near his treasury were always chased 

 away and out of sight when he was going to make a 

 deposit: he wanted no witnesses at such times. If I 

 happened to surprise him. at a grand interment, it was 

 enough to make him nervous for the rest of the day : 

 once in a while he would run back to the garden to 

 see if I had not realized on my discovery. Of carrion 

 he was so fond that he seemed to view the existence 

 of his fellow-creatures from an ultra-Buddhistic stand- 

 point, considering the speedy separation of soul and 

 body as the chief object of their lives. Horses, espe- 

 cially, he regarded only as so many carcasses endowed 

 with an annoying power of locomotion. He would 

 often yelp at a big mare of somewhat frolicsome pro- 

 clivities, eying her antics with disgust and with a mien 

 of severe disapprobation of her frivolous delight in the 

 vanities of life. The landlord's turkeys made him wag 

 his tail ; he was pleased at their fatness and the reflec- 

 tion that their vital propensities were far less incurable. 

 The presence of man he accepted as a practical necessity, 

 though perhaps with a secret leaning toward the view 

 of the Encratian Gnostics, that the removal of the 

 bimanous species would at once restore the pristine 

 glory of the globe. He seemed to "shun, not hate, 

 mankind:" his favorite retreat was a gravel-hole be- 

 neath the old garden-wall, and nothing short of a four- 

 teen-inch soup-bone would induce him to leave that 



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