12 FAITHFUL SERVANTS. 



poor qiiadrupeds become more conspicuous, their 

 hides more tightly bound, their coats more staring, 

 and their eyes more enlarged and glassy. Their loss 

 would not have necessarily entailed upon me death, 

 but it would have subjected me to immense incon- 

 venience, for, although now unable to bear my weight, 

 they still carried my small stock of worldly wealth. 

 Moreover, I am not ashamed to confess the grief I 

 should have felt at being deprived of two old and 

 tried companions, for whom I possessed the strongest 

 feelings of affection. 



Each of these animals was a character in its way, 

 and although excessively dissimilar, they exhibited 

 for each other the strongest regard. This might 

 have been the result of their hard fate, for misery is 

 sometimes a bond of sympathy ; and although petu- 

 lance and irascibility were occasionably manifested, 

 these displays of feeling never for a moment pro- 

 duced a spirit of retaliation. 



When first I became their possessor they were 

 high-spirited, proud, sleek, and fat. Though the 

 comparison of their present state with their past was 

 not with me a favourite occupation, yet I sometimes 

 looked forward with pleasure to the prospect of what 

 they might again become after months of regular rest 

 and abundant food. But there was still another 

 reason for my anxiety that they should be spared me ; 

 viz. that if ever I again reached the confines of civilisa- 

 tion, or found my way to a traders' camp, they were 

 almost the only property I possessed convertible into 



