There is hardly a domestic animal we possess that is not fond, to a
greater or less extent, of children. How carefully a horse will pick
his steps if a child happens to fall amongst his feet! I saw a bull one
day escape, wounded and furious, from a killing-house, and dash madly
along the turnpike road. He knocked down and injured several people,
who could not get quickly enough out of his way; then there stood,
paralysed with fear, and right in the wild brute's path, a child of
tender years, which everyone who saw it gave up for lost; but the bull,
who did not hesitate to attack grown-up people, suddenly veered to one
side, and left this child unhurt!
My large Newfoundland dog is in the habit of careering along the street
with a speed which, considering his size, is quite incompatible with the
safety of the lieges. Policemen, especially, very often find themselves
in the line of his rush, and Nero never hesitates to run clean through
these men, so to speak, leaving them sprawling on the ground with heels
in air; but the other day this dog, on suddenly rounding a corner, found
himself confronted with four little toddling infants, who, hand in hand,
were coming along the pavement. There was no time to slacken speed, and
to proceed was certain death to one or more of the poor children, and
what do you think this noble fellow did? why lifted himself clean off
the pavement, and sprang high and clear over their heads.
The same dog was once in a hotel, when a friend of mine offered him a
biscuit. Master Nero wasn't hungry; he would neither eat the biscuit
from my friend's hand nor from my own, but when the landlord's pretty
little daughter came running in, and threw her arms about his neck, and
caressed him, he hadn't the heart to refuse the biscuit from _her_
hands, and even accepted several from her, although still refusing them
from us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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