LEAF AND TENDRIL 



up." I confess to a fair share of this petulant, un- 

 reasoning animal or human trait, whichever it may- 

 be, myself. It is difficult for me to refrain from jump- 

 ing upon my hat when, in my pursuit of it across 

 the street, it has escaped me two or three times just 

 as I was about to put my hand upon it, and as for 

 a balky horse or a kicking cow, I never could trust 

 myself to deal reasonably with them. Follow this 

 feeling back a few thousand years, and we reach the 

 time when our forbears looked upon all the forces 

 in nature as in league against them. The anger of 

 the gods as shown in storms and winds and pesti- 

 lence and defeat is a phase of the same feeling. A 

 wild animal caught in a steel trap vents its wrath 

 upon the bushes and sticks and trees and rocks 

 within its reach. Something is to blame, something 

 baffles it and gives it pain, and its teeth and claws 

 seek every near object. Of course it is a blind 

 manifestation of the instinct of self-defense, just 

 as was my uncle's act when he kicked over his bee- 

 hive, or as is the angler's impatience when his line 

 gets tangled and his hook gets fast. If the Colorado 

 bear caught his fish with a hook and line, how many 

 times would he lose his temper during the day! 



I do not think many animals show their kinship 

 to us by exhibiting the trait I am here discussing. 

 Probably birds do not show it at all. I have seen a 

 nest-building robin baffled and delayed, day after 

 day, by the wind that swept away the straws and 

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