THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
animal life is a saving charm of barbarism. Every 
race has manifested affection for something, horses, 
or dogs, or, it may be, domesticated birds. Our 
complex civilization is possible only as we appre- 
hend the unity of all life and the interdependence 
of all living things. 
Animal sympathy not only ministers to our suc- 
cessful management of a country home, but to the 
management of ourselves. It broadens our work 
to a larger number of individualities. Man with 
his gun and a brute-force soul creates only discord; 
and woman, wearing the wings of her allies, com- 
pels the birds to hide in the woods. With such 
people the cow will grow shy, and the horse will de- 
generate into an unwilling slave. On the other 
hand, what can be more wonderful than a country 
folkhold where the horse draws the load of him 
who feeds him; where the cow gives milk and adds 
to his bank account; where the dog guards his prop- 
erty and the birds devour his enemies. 
The interdependence in country life was not or- 
iginated by man, although he has readjusted the re- 
lations of creatures in every direction. When a 
hawk has harried a robin’s nest, I have seen birds 
of half a dozen species join to chase the marauder 
[ 284] 
