84 
3PASSI0NAL ZOOLOGYc 
I requested Monsieur Castagno, by voice and gesture, to make 
perquisition in the said place. The water was cold, the stream was 
rough with floating ice. The winter bath did not appear to be 
this day to the taste of the cunning beast. He, however, pretend- 
ed to obey me, and directs his steps in a small trot toward the 
bank ; but doubtless he met in his course a piece of glass bottle or 
a sharp stone, for he suddenly utters a plaintive whine, and limps 
back to me, raising his right foot. 
I have a master ; it is to make use of him. Castagno is in the 
habit of recurring to my assistance for this sort of accidents. I 
then examine and feel the painful limb in every point ; impossible 
to find the slightest scratch. The animal has lied. To the water, 
do you see, and quick ; and, pretending a serious indignation, and 
taking out my whip, I strike the air with energy. The liar runs 
off on all his legs, complaining bitterly of the whipping I have not 
given him, having taken great care, as I always do, to strike aside. 
Having come to the edge of the water, he wets his foot there 
and trembles through his whole body, and turns toward me im- 
ploringly a last look. 
Have I softened ? It is possible, for here he comes creeping up 
to me to finish my defeat ; but, unfortunately for him, the wretch 
could not tell a straight lie to the end. Just now, you recollect, 
it was the right foot that limped — now it is the left ; the fear of 
the lash has taken away his memory. The cheat was too visible, 
and I got angry in earnest at this last piece of impudence ; but 
the traitor perceived his own awkwardness first, and finding his 
trick discovered, he takes his part bravely, leaps into the freezing 
waves, looks out the game, brings it and lays it at my feet with an 
air of vexation, seeming to say ; My master, I thought you less of 
a rake than that. Then, without losing time, he sets off in full 
gallop, on his four feet, for a field where he has seen some stacks 
of grain — straw towels, whose use he knows perfectly well, and 
returns to me in a few minutes with his skin dry and shining. 
It is a certain way of considerably humbling Castagno to remind 
him of this event, though he persists in pretending that any one 
else than his master would have been taken in the snare. The 
same fellow, since he has remarked that I sometimes use the leaves 
