The
low, sorrowful moan which he would emit, when the disappointment was
the keenest, was so heart-rending, that many a time I would reverse my
purpose and say, “Come, Rover, master will not deny so good a creature
the pleasure of his company for an hour or so in the woods.” Instantly
his whole expression would change, and there would be exhibited a joy
as intense as the grief which had depressed him to the earth. Rover
was no hypocrite. His sorrow was not assumed, but as real and poignant
a sorrow as ever possessed a human breast. I have known him to grieve
for hours, and even to refuse the daintiest food when he has been
disappointed. Were he dissembling, seeing that it availed him not,
he would not be likely to have kept it up so long, and to his sore
discomfort and detriment. Examples of animals making their language
intelligible to man could be multiplied _ad infinitum_, but we must
pass on to say something about their capability of understanding the
language of man.
That many of the lower animals understand something of human language
is a familiar fact. All the domesticated animals, notably the dog and
the horse, can comprehend an order that is given to them, though,
perhaps, they may not be able in all instances to understand the
precise words which are used. There are many occasions, however, when
it is evident that the knowledge of human language does extend to the
signification of particular words. Parrots, as is well known, are well
acquainted with the meanings of the words which they speak. Examples
have been known to the writer of parrots that were able to speak in two
languages, and, when addressed, always replied in the language used by
their interlocutors, speaking English or Spanish, as the case might be.
“Go, bring up the cows,” was an order that was daily given to Lion,
a large black dog, with a shaggy head, that belonged to my maternal
grandfather, an old-time farmer who lived way back in the fifties. So
well did he understand the significance of these words, and the labor,
worry and responsibility which they implied, that he did not have to
be told a second time, nor have to have their import conveyed to him
by sign or by action of the farm lad whose business it was to see that
the animals were brought to the barn-yard at milking time. Obedient
to orders, he would trot to the pasture-ground, nearly a quarter-mile
distant, open the bars between the lane and the field with his mouth,
and then start on his business with a full sense of its requirements.
His coming was well known to the cattle. While the most of them would
take their way in a quiet, orderly manner to the lane, yet there were
some unruly ones among them who gave Lion a great deal of trouble, but
he always succeeded in overruling their contrary tendencies. When there
was a tumult in the hennery, accompanied by loud noises, the command,
“Go, see what the trouble is!” was performed to the very letter, and
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