i64 THE PSYCHICAL KINSHIP 



peculiar preparations with a day alone. The long, 

 lonely hours probably affected him somewhat as 

 they do a human being who is compelled to stay 

 alone all day with nothing to do. But what a 

 welcome he gave us in the evening when we came 

 back ! This was indubitable evidence of his lone- 

 liness. The first familiar object we would see in 

 the evening, on coming in sight of home, was 

 faithful Fido, sitting out in the road on the hill 

 above the house — sitting straight up in that 

 peculiar way of his — watching and waiting for 

 our home-coming. He knew, or seemed to know, 

 the direction from which to expect us, and w^as 

 able to recognise us a long way off. The years 

 have been many, and Fido's dust has long been 

 scattered by the gusts over the farms of north-west 

 ^. Missouri ; but now, in fancy, I can see this faithful 

 creature bounding down the road in the sunset to 

 meet us, as he used to do in the golden long-ago, 

 leaping and smiling and wagging his tail, and 

 wriggling and barking in a perfect ecstasy of 

 gladness. 



Well, I know Fido could feel and think, that 

 he loved and feared and longed and dreaded and 

 dreamed and hated and grieved and sympathised 

 and reasoned and rejoiced — in short, that he was 

 moved by about the same passions and considera- 

 tions as human beings usually are. He gave the 

 same evidence of it precisely as a human being 

 does. 



The dog is the oldest of human associates. 

 Long before the historical period the dog was 



