TRESPASSING ANIMALS 215 



the edge, holding out his hand, calling, whistling, and 

 imploring, but in vain. Then the door of a lodge 

 opened, and a pitying porter came to the rescue. He 

 had hardly stepped out of his lodge when the two dogs 

 grasped the situation and bolted, leaving the boy to any 

 fate which their wickedness had laid up for him. 



Such shocking examples of animal law-breaking must 

 not be confounded with the wish to obtain liberty 

 which prompts donkeys to undo knots on gates with 

 their teeth, or horses to open the latch of their stables 

 with their lips and noses. Cats also invade all gardens 

 and roofs at will ; but that is because they feel they 

 have a right to go where they please. Pigs, on the 

 other hand, are inveterate trespassers from their earliest 

 infancy. They inherit this from the wild pigs, which 

 will travel many miles every night to explore new 

 feeding-grounds, and return by dawn to their day- 

 haunt. Little pigs trespass mainly from a spirit of 

 adventure and inquiry, That is what makes it almost 

 impossible to keep a litter of pigs anywhere near a 

 country house. They organize trespassing parties, 

 which grow bolder daily. One day they come round 

 and look at the back-door. The next day one runs 

 into the passage, and pokes his nose into the kitchen. 

 In time they find some open door, and turn up un- 

 expectedly on the tennis-lawn, or raid the bulbs in the 

 crocus-beds. In the course of their travels they eat 



