42 TAILS 



forefathers were pert as kids and insolent when their 

 beards grew. It is useless to inquire why insolence 

 should express itself by an upturned tail until 

 someone can advance a reason why it should express 

 itself in another way. 



For proof of the fact you need go no farther than 

 your own dogs. The ancestral wolf, or jackal, hunt- 

 ing and fighting, fearing and hoping, snowed every 

 changing mood by the pose of its tail ; but a change 

 came when it acquired an assured position of security 

 and importance as the chosen companion of man, so 

 dreaded by all its kith and kin. The tail went up 

 at once and stayed there ; when it could go no 

 higher, it curled over. But promotion breeds conceit 

 only in base natures. The greyhound is a gentle- 

 man, respectful and self-respecting, and it shows 

 that by the very carriage of its tail. Only a snob 

 at heart, petted and pampered for many generations, 

 could have produced that perfect incarnation of 

 smug self-satisfaction, the pug. Let us take the 

 lesson home. The thoughts on which we let our 

 minds dwell, and the sentiments that we harbour in 

 our hearts, are the chisels with which we are carving 

 put our faces and those of our children's children. 



