CHAPTER VII. 



ANIMAL RENEGADES. 



Moral philosophers incline to the opinion that all the 

 arts of Despotism have never yet succeeded in produc- 

 ing a perfect slave. Behind all the masks of non-resist- 

 ance, under the thickest varnish of subordination, there 

 is always a substratum of rebellious instincts ; the love 

 of independence is perhaps the most inalienable gift of 

 Nature. It will re-assert itself after centuries of bond- 

 age, — even in brutes. No training and selecting has 

 ever evolved a breed of absolutely domesticated ani- 

 mals ; the tamest of them will now and then avail 

 themselves of an opportunity to resume the life of their 

 free-born ancestors. Household pets, that could not pos- 

 sibly profit by the change, have at least intermittent fits 

 of independence. Only night-walkers know how much 

 secret gadding our dogs are guilty of. On moonlight 

 fields, on lonely mountain-meadows, one meets them, 

 pair-wise and in troops, in quest of gallant adventures, 

 but also singly, on strictly private business. Near the 

 sheep-folds of the Southern Alleghanies sleek watch- 

 dogs have often been shot as much as twenty-five miles 

 from the homes they used to protect by their deep- 



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