34 OUR REAL FRIENDS 



He rode the same pony as his Indian competitor in the 

 trade, but with the seat adapted to a saddle rather than a 

 pad, and still retaining a flavor of the settlements despite 

 his divorce from their ways. In fact, a white man on the 

 plains never quite acquires the redskin habit. He can to- 

 day be told from an Indian as far as he can be seen by 

 his style of riding, and it was no doubt always so. Nor 

 had this trapper lost his pale-face instincts so entirely as 

 to indulge in the Indian's usual atrocious cruelty to his 

 horse. He can scarcely be said to have had the feelings 

 of a member of the society with the exuberantly long 

 name and truly benevolent method ; but he had the sense 

 to see the commercial value of the care he might bestow 

 on his rough-and-ready companion, and at least treated 

 him with common consideration. This the good little 

 fellow repaid with a love and unselfish devotion which 

 only an animal can show. 



Right here and now I would fain pour out my heart-felt 

 admiration for the truest of our four-footed friends, our 

 dogs and horses. Have you never had a horse, my brother, 

 to whom you told your secrets and your griefs ? Have you 

 never had a dog who was to you even as a child, for whom 

 you wept bitter tears and honest when you had laid him 

 at rest in some quiet spot, hallowed alone by his virtues 

 and your sorrow ; who, for his short term of years had 

 grown into your very inmost heart by his faithful love, 

 his unswerving loyalty, his spotless truth of character ? 

 If not, turn this page, read no more. But if you have 

 ever given your affection to such a loving creature, if you 

 have ever held his head bet ween , your hands and looked 

 long and deep down into his tender, earnest eyes, in which 

 lurks no thought of treachery, no ideal but yourself, which 

 view you with a pathetic trustfulness of which you know 

 you are not worthy, then, my brother, join me in laying 



