The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-07-27

! wor king OF the nSh's brain, but Il
wo1d be quite In accord with the
4 psychology OF a creature OF its kind
that, once having proven the value
OF the swan as its stalking II
should continue to make use OF the
! bard IN the same way. No doubt the
/ little fishes, accustomed TO the sight
and the approach OF the big bird,
which did them no harm. would allow
the pike, hidden behind the mass OF
white plumage, 10 come great deal
nearer them, before starting has dash,
than Il mas terrific form were 10 make
its appearance openly. The flsh
might 1f1us be impelled by motive OF
double Interest 10 swim N the b1ro 5
company, and, once the propinou1ty
was established, ] should be very 10th
10 pronounce II zt all impossible THAI
some strange sentimental attachment
might be formed between them
have seen friendship, of sort, be
tween animals even more crT1onS-S
colsorfed-a dog, for Instance. and q
tortoise ] know what the immeclape
question of the Intelligent reader IS
likely to be: .4ow the mischief can
Won tell when a tortoise is fee}ins
friendly" The question can re asked
only by one who has never, Ton his
Owl part, had a tortoise for & f-lsna-
With people that he knows and likes
8 tortoise VIII put his head out
from his shell and look about
cutie fearlessly In the presence o.
strangers, and vet more when there
are nrovad enemies near him, he VIII
EaeD his head as safe anC far in IS
ne may under the cover OF his shell
The tortoise, like some other persons
is q good deal more Intelligent than
ne appea-s-In which connection IL
mav he noted that IN q large cyc'e OF
Folklore the 1nrtnise Is the typical
wise animal, the 9-nave which scores
or al the rest II may he rem I'm
lsa-ed that IN the Uncle Remus" ste-
r1as tha "9le Man TaTrvf,in" on one
historical occasion actually had all
the better OF such 8 past master in
E1iile as eesrgr Rabbit himself The
dor that the tortoise OF ny acquain-
tal1ne made friends with was a his
black retriever The dog ussd 10 car-
n MIN abnu- III his month. and the
Tn-tnise did uut mind il E bit, bit
would hive ms little black bend ont
ali zhs v1lils, looking ont IN the most
SURPRISED and most surprising way
I'LL LIZ AAS- - ~ ---AA%--
dor hated 1he to-t1iss's going T-y ta-
EwgT from hin when he was IN the
garden where the tortoise always liv
sd- and after the tortoise had taken
half an hour industriously waddling 20
ire far end Of the lawn the dog would
wake up, miss him, go OF on his trail,
and IN a few bounds and 4 few Sec
onds bring him all the way back
again. II seemed to be trying the
bonds of friendship rather highly, but
the tortoise never appeared TO resent
it If. therefore, a dog and tortoise
of that kind be possible.
why not, too, that of swan and pike?
AS for the swan dying Of grief after
the loss of the pike-that may indeed
be so, but IT is. at least, rather Diff
cult of diagnosis. There are other
conceivable causes, even old age it.
self, which might nave been fatal, and
do not think it is needful to stretch
the long arm of coincidence nearly as
far as the more sentimental explana-
ton in order to give a perfectly good
account of the poor birds death But
this apparent friendship OF pike and
swan, whatever Interpretation we may
attach to it, is a singular alliance.
Yet, even so, perhaps it Is not so re-
markable as some which we see
among folk of our own human kind