WAYS OF NATURE 



the action is not the kind that involves reason; it 

 only implies sense perception, and the instinct of 

 self-preservation. Stickeen does as his master bids 

 him, and he is human only in the human emotions 

 of fear, despair, joy, that he shows. 



In Mr. Egerton Young's book, called " My Dogs 

 of the Northland," I find much that is interesting 

 and several vivid dog portraits, but Mr. Young hu- 

 manizes his dogs to a greater extent than does either 

 Muir or Maeterhnck. For instance, he makes his 

 dog Jack take special delight in teasing the Indian 

 servant girl by walking or lying upon her kitchen 

 floor when she had just cleaned it, all in revenge 

 for the slights the girl had put upon him; and he 

 gives several instances of the conduct of the dog 

 which he thus interprets. Now one can beUeve 

 almost anything of dogs in the way of wit about 

 their food, their safety, and the like, but one can- 

 not make them so entirely human as deUberately to 

 plan and execute the kind of revenge here imputed 

 to Jack. No animal could appreciate a woman's 

 pride in a clean kitchen floor, or see any relation 

 between the tracks which he makes upon the floor 

 and her state of feeling toward himself. Mr. 

 Young's facts are doubtless all right; it is his in- 

 terpretation of them that is wrong. 



It is perfectly legitimate for the animal story 

 writer to put himself inside the animal he wishes 

 to portray, and tell how life and the world look from 

 194 



