ANIMAL RENEGADES. ^ 



buried his bulky valuables ; and the hogs that used to 

 take their siesta near his treasury were always chased 

 away and out of sight when he was going to make a 

 deposit: he wanted no witnesses at such times. If I 

 happened to surprise him at a grand interment, it was 

 enough to make him nervous for the rest of the day: 

 once in a while he would run back to the garden to 

 see if I had not realized on my discovery. Of carrion 

 he was so fond that he seemed to view the existence 

 of his fellow-creatures from an ultra-Buddhistic stand- 

 point, considering the speedy separation of soul and 

 body as the chief object of their lives. Horses, espe- 

 cially, he regarded only as so many carcasses endowed 

 with an annoying power of locomotion. He would 

 often yelp atf a big mare of somewhat frolicsome pro- 

 clivities, eying her antics with disgust and with a mien 

 of severe disapprobation of her frivolous delight in the 

 vanities of life. The landlord's turkeys made him wag 

 his tail ; he was pleased at their fatness and the reflec- 

 tion that their vital propensities were far less incurable. 

 The presence of man he accepted as a practical necessity, 

 though perhaps with a secret leaning toward the view 

 of the Encratian Gnostics, — that the removal of the 

 bimanous species would at once restore the pristine 

 glory of the globe. He seemed to " shun, not hate, 

 mankind:" his favorite retreat was a gravel-hole be- 

 neath the old garden-wall, and nothing short of a four- 

 teen-inch soup-bone would induce him to leave that 



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