BILLY AND HANS 



thing uncanny in Billy — a preter- 

 natural animal intelligence which one 

 sees generally only in animals that 

 have had training and heredity to 

 work on. He used his little gesture- 

 language with great volubility and on 

 every occasion, insisting imperiously 

 on my obeying his summons ; and 

 one of the things which will never 

 fade from my memory was the pretty 

 way in which he used to come to the 

 edge of the window-bench and nod his 

 head to me to show that he wished to 

 be taken ; for he soon learned that it 

 was easier to call to me and be taken, 

 than it was to climb down the curtain 

 and run across the room to me. He 

 nodded and wagged his head until I 

 went to him, and his flexible nose 

 wrinkled into the grotesque semblance 

 of a smile — he used all the seductive 

 entreaty an animal could show ; so 



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