The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-02-27
THE ooAT.
lLoadoa releRranA.l

This habit of the goat iArlng sumptu- ously where anything else would starve, is strictly in keeping with It's character
 It is very original and independent beast For sheep lt has a most curious contempt. and when in their company never loses an opportunity of expressins it's difference to tAeir respectable dullness The woolly folk are of a very pedestrian sort. They follow their noses and arr seEvile tn imitation. Sometimes out oG pure silliness tAey go wrong aud give the dog much trouble to hunt them all to. Gether again or bother the shepherd in his counting As rule, however, they keep in procession ct in a pack. plod along soberly, and live out their lives In soft and deecy placidity. The goa, Is far other wise. It is q restless, uuoeliev- ing animal; will take nothing upon trust, aud tries al every turn to havc It's e~n way, aud if possible to get out oi the old tTodden grooves and make some excitement for itself A level road Is it's abomln Ation, and meadow tho most odious of prisons, Oae might as woll try to hedge m flock of swallows as a herd ot goats. Nor are walls any better, fov tue animals look upon them as play grounds, or as the apparatus ot gym. nAsium, and proceed at once lo skip and ptance about them, preierTing. as A rule, to pass their time on the other side" They detest the commonplace. Rather than trudge safely home by the Teguiat way, they prefer to travel adventurously on paths ot theiI osn, By eho,ce they take the ups and downs oi life, and when they do not 6nd them ready made for them they make them for themselves. II there is a heap of stones by the roadside they get up on it--theiT spirits at once rise on finding themselves on an emi. hence, aud antli the hesdsman comes np they snatch precious han minute iu playing Tom Tiddier's Ground." If there Is . ditch 1t is just the same. As many goats as possible get down into tt and pretend tha, it vas in their way They get amoug the sheep and delibera. tely disorder the woolly community, jumping over their companions' backs, AS M to show their tnd, ficrence to orthodoxy. lt is a cu,ious tact. however, that, prslu diced As we seem to be against the useiul goat, in spite of it's really admirable prop. critics, |, has been from very early times popular in this country, on account Of virtue which Is purely hcticious and ian ciful. Antiquity has bequeathed to us the legend that goats were exceptionally wise ln the matter Of wholesome herbs that they were, in fact. the herbali.,s among quadrupeds and cunning to sim. pies Out of ths grew tue idea that they were virtually physicians; that their presence among other domesticated ani- m Ais was beneficial and that their odot though unpleasant to man, vas whole. some to horses, COWS, pIgs, sheep, nd the farmyard generally. For this reason O, c single goat was often kept, and tarmyards may still be found where Betty" or Nanny" lives a, its ease, and Is main tained not fer any real use It IS put to, but in defonce, perhaps quite unknowingiy, to an almost obsolete superstition. At psescat the British goat society is doing its best to get this valuable beast mste popularly kuown, and with considerable xucCGsg