392 Life and Immortality. 
satisfaction and pleasure than a share of the bed of his mis- 
tress, but he was always a troublesome nest-fellow. Charley 
had, as must be obvious, perfect freedom. He was allowed 
to go as he pleased. There was no coercion in his case. 
Had he wished to escape, there was nothing to prevent, and 
nothing bound him to his mistress but an “ ever-lengthening 
chain” of love and aspirations which none but a human being 
could satisfy. The sparrow, one of the most independent 
and self-reliant of birds, has been known to abandon its kind 
for the sake of human beings. Wood cites a case of a bird 
of this species that had been rescued from some boys who 
had been robbing the nest. The bird was brought home, 
but was never confined in a cage, but was permitted to fly 
freely about the house. As there was a cat about the house, 
she had to be closely watched lest she might do the bird 
some injury. On Sundays, when the family went to church 
and no one remained to keep an eye on the cat, the sparrow 
was turned into the garden, where it flew about until the 
family’s return. The opening of the dining-room window by 
its mistress, and the display of her ungloved hands, was the 
signal for its entry. But if the mistress stood by the window 
with her gloves on, then the bird showed not the slightest 
disposition to enter. 
Such is the intensity of the love which the lower animals 
sometimes entertain toward man that they have been known 
to grieve themselves to death on account of his loss. A dog 
by the name of Prince, who lived in the family where the 
writer spent a few weeks of a summer, is a case in point. 
He had a good master, and one to whom he was strongly 
attached. The year before the master sickened and died, 
and Prince felt the loss so keenly that he refused to take any 
food, and even to notice the surviving members of the 
family. He was pitiable to behold. Life had lost all attrac- 
tions to him, and he showed that he was slowly but surely 
grieving his life away. Some few weeks after the writer’s 
departure, the poor animal breathed his last, and his spirit, it 
