-I©- 



guage in which he is addressed. He cam be stimnlated to un. 

 usual exertions by the pr<muse of a reward. " I have seen," 

 says a French writer, " two occupied in beating down, a wall 

 which their keepers had desired them to do and encooraiged them 

 by a promise of fruits and brandy." They were left alone and 

 continued at the work, stimulated by the promised reward, imtil 

 it was accomplished. "When a reward is promised to an 

 elephant," says the same author, " it is dangerous to disappoint 

 him, as he never fails to revenge the insult." Nothing of this 

 could occur without an understanding of the language. 



In India they were formerly emplc^ed to launch vessels, and 

 it is related that one being directed to force a large ship into 

 the water, the task proved beyond his strength ; wherwipon his 

 master, in a sarcastic tone, ordered the keeper to take away 

 this lazy beast and bring another ; the poor animal, as if stung 

 by shame, instantly repeated his efforts, fractured his skull 

 and died on the spot. 



It may be said that the tones of the voice rather than the 

 words are what the animal understands, yet a dog knows hia 

 name however spoken, and a horse understands a whole voca- 

 bulary of orders. But the intelligence which comprehends the 

 meaning of a tone, is not less than that required to understand 

 a word or sentence. Mr. Hamerton, the a^ist, widely known as 

 a lover of animals, mentions a favorite dog which met an un- 

 timely death by drowning, and in his lament over his lost pet, 

 says: "He was a dog of rare gifts, exceptionally intelligent, 

 who would obey a look where another needed an order. He 

 would sit studying his master's £ice and had become &om care- 

 ful observation so acute a physic^nomist that he read whatever 

 thoughts of mine had any concern for him." 



The shrewd intelligence of our countrymen is nowhere more 

 clearly seen than in the keen bargains the New Englander is 

 famous for driving. But our domestic animals make bargains 

 with us and sometimes resolutely keep us to them. On this 

 point a pleasant writer relates an anecdote of a fiivorite mare 

 who was so difficult to catch in the pasture as to often require 

 six men to effect it; "but," says he, " I carried com to her for 



