My Boyhood and Youth 



the wall in the farthest corner, and keeping his 

 eye on the outrageous bird, he tenderly touched 

 and washed the sore spot, wetting his paw with 

 his tongue, pausing now and then as his cour- 

 age increased to glare and stare and growl at 

 his enemy with looks and tones wonderfully 

 human, as if saying: "You confounded fishy, 

 unfair rascal ! What did you do that for ? What 

 had I done to you? Faithless, legless, long- 

 nosed wretch!" Intense experiences like the 

 above bring out the humanity that is in all 

 animals. One touch of nature, even a cat-and- 

 loon touch, makes all the world kin. 



It was a great memorable day when the first 

 flock of passenger pigeons came to our farm, 

 calling to mind the story we had read about 

 them when we were at school in Scotland. Of 

 all God's feathered people that sailed the Wis- 

 consin sky, no other bird seemed to us so won- 

 derful. The beautiful wanderers flew like the 

 winds in flocks of millions from climate to 

 climate in accord with the weather, finding 

 their food acorns, beechnuts, pine-nuts, cran- 

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