OF SELBORNE. 241 



a loaded cart, yet does it discover as much solicitude 

 about rain as a lady dressed in all her best attire, shuffling 

 away on the first sprinklings, and running its head up 

 in a corner. If attended to, it becomes an excellent 

 weather-glass ; for as sure as it walks elate, and as it 

 were on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestness in a 

 morning, so sure will it rain before night. It is totally 

 a diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir after it 

 becomes dark. The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an 

 arbitrary stomach as well as lungs ; and can refrain 

 from eating as well as breathing for a great part of the 

 year. When first awakened it eats nothing ; nor again 

 in the autumn before it retires; through the height of 

 the summer it feeds voraciously, devouring all the food 

 that comes in its way. I was much taken with its 

 sagacity in discerning those that do it kind offices : for, 

 as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who has 

 waited on it for more than thirty years, it hobbles 

 towards its benefactress with awkward alacrity; but 

 remains inattentive to strangers. Thus not only " the 

 ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib 2 ," 

 but the most abject reptile and torpid of beings distin- 

 guishes the hand that feeds it, and is touched with the 

 feelings of gratitude ! 



I am, &c. &c. 



P. S. In about three days after I left Sussex the 

 tortoise retired into the ground under the hepaticas. 



2 Isaiah, i. 3. 



R 



