74 Ladle Days in Patagonia. 
man among his fellow-men. I doubt if any other 
retriever, in such circumstances and handicapped by 
such an infirmity, could have retrieved that splendid 
flamingo; but with this excellence there was the 
innate capacity to go wrong, a sudden reversion to 
the irresponsible wild dog—the devilry, to keep to 
human terms, that sent him into exile and made 
him at the last so interesting and pathetic a figure. 
