TRESPASSERS. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



TRESPASSING seerns to exert a strange fascination over 

 most animated beings. There are many, like the sea- 

 anemone and the barnacle, which are fixed to one spot, 

 and cannot trespass even if they wished to do so. In 

 the latter case, however, the creature has led a roving 

 life before it finally settled upon a resting-place, and had 

 every opportunity of gratifying a restless disposition. 

 The very existence of a boundary seems to create a 

 desire to pass it, no matter what may be its nature or 

 extent. 



Any one who has seen a goat fastened by a cord, 

 will have remarked that the animal is always at the full 

 extent of the rope. And if its position has not been 

 changed for a day or two, there is always a ring of short 

 grass round the edges of the circle which the goat has 

 described by walking round and round at the extent of 

 its tether. The grass which is near the peg is quite 

 as good as that near the circumference ; but, whereas 

 the former is almost untouched, the latter is so closely 

 nibbled by the animal's teeth, and so trodden down by 



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