In the early spring when the severe
weather was-over they returned by the same route.
CHAPTER XXII.
PETS: SUSIE--COCKY--TRUMP--CHIPS--WENDY--TAFFY.
"The heart is hard in nature and unfit
For human fellowship, as being void
Of sympathy, and therefore dead alike
To love and friendship both, that is not pleased
With sight of animals enjoying life,
Nor feels their happiness augment his own."
--COWPER.
There are many stories of the affection of the domestic goose for man,
and I knew of one which was very fond of a friend of mine. The goose
followed him like a dog, and would come with him on to the lawn where
we were playing tennis, and sitting close beside him on a garden seat
with great dignity would apparently watch the game with interest. My
friend was fond of unusual pets; he had a tame hedgehog, for whom he
made a most comfortable house with living-room downstairs and sleeping
apartment on the first floor. His pet's name was Jacob, suggested I
think by the ladder which night and morning he used for ascending to
or descending from his bedroom. Hedgehogs have a bad character as
robbers of partridges' nests, and in our old parish accounts, under
the name of "urchins," we find entries of payments for their
destruction at the rate of 4d.
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