plump, well-fed Mastiff; and after the first compliments
were passed, says the Wolf:--"You look extremely well. I protest, I
think I never saw a more graceful, comely person; but how comes it
about, I beseech you, that you should live so much better than I? I may
say, without vanity, that I venture fifty times more than you do; and
yet I am almost ready to perish with hunger." The Dog answered very
bluntly, "Why, you may live as well, if you will do the same for it that
I do."--"Indeed? what is that?" says he.--"Why," says the Dog, "only to
guard the house a-nights, and keep it from thieves."--"With all my
heart," replies the Wolf, "for at present I have but a sorry time of it;
and I think to change my hard lodging in the woods, where I endure rain,
frost, and snow, for a warm roof over my head, and a bellyful of good
victuals, will be no bad bargain."--"True," says the Dog; "therefore you
have nothing more to do but to follow me." Now, as they were jogging on
together, the Wolf spied a crease in the Dog's neck, and having a
strange curiosity, could not forbear asking him what it meant. "Pooh!
nothing," says the Dog.--"Nay, but pray--" says the Wolf.--"Why," says
the Dog, "if you must know, I am tied up in the daytime, because I am a
little fierce, for fear I should bite people, and am only let loose
a-nights. But this is done with design to make me sleep a-days, more
than anything else, and that I may watch the better in the night-time;
for as soon as ever the twilight appears, out I am turned, and may go
where I please. Then my master brings me plates of bones from the table
with his own hands, and whatever scraps are left by any of the family,
all fall to my share; for you must know I am a favorite with everybody.
So you see how you are to live. Come, come along: what is the matter
with you?"--"No," replied the Wolf, "I beg your pardon: keep your
happiness all to yourself. Liberty is the word with me; and I would not
be a king upon the terms you mention."

JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE AGASSIZ

(1807-1873)

"At first, when a mere boy, twelve years of age," writes the great Swiss
naturalist, "I did what most beginners do. I picked up whatever I could
lay my hands on, and tried, by such books and authorities as I had at my
command, to find the names of these objects. My highest ambition at that
time, was to be able to designate the plants and animals of my native
country correctly by a Latin name, and to extend gradually