ion: {A dog breaks a hole through ice to get a drink}]

REASON AND INSTINCT.

Are dogs endowed with reason? As you grow up, you will spend many
happy hours in the contemplation of this interesting question. It does
sometimes seem as if there could be no possible doubt that dogs, as
well as horses, elephants, and some other of the higher animals, are
gifted with the dawn of reason, so extraordinary are some of their
acts.

It is but a few days since a dog in Vermont saved a house from
burning, and possibly the inmates. The dog discovered the fire in the
kitchen, flew to his master's apartment, leaped upon his bed, and so
aroused the people to a sense of their danger.

"As I was walking out one frosty morning with a large Newfoundland
dog," says the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, "I observed the animal's repeated
disappointment on putting his head down to drink at sundry ice-covered
pools. After one of these disappointments, I broke the ice with my
foot for my thirsty companion. The next time Tiger was thirsty, he did
not wait for me to 'break the ice,' but with his foot, or, if too
strong, by jumping upon it, he obtained water for himself."

Here seems to be the manifestation of a desire to _learn from
observation_.

After the battle of Fredericksburg, it fell to my duty to search a
given district for any dead or wounded soldiers there might be left,
and to bring relief. Near an old brick dwelling I discovered a soldier
in gray who seemed to be dead. Lying by his side was a noble dog, with
his head flat upon his master's neck. As I approached, the dog raised
his eyes to me good-naturedly, and began wagging his tail; but he did
not change his position. The fact that the animal did not growl, that
he did not move, but, more than all, the intelligent, joyful
expression of his face, convinced me that the man was only wounded,
which proved to be the case. A bullet had pierced his throat, and
faint from the loss of blood, he had fallen down where he lay. His dog
had _actually stopped the bleeding from the wound by laying his head
across it_. Whether this was casual or not, I cannot say. But the
shaggy coat of the faithful creature was completely matted with his
master's blood.

Strange as these facts may appear, we should not confound INSTINCT
with intelligence which comes from REASON. There is a wide difference
between them. Before long I propose to discuss this matter to some
extent, in an article which I have already begun