y the pole. Like all animals that are
loved and well treated, Jane and Blanche soon became most familiar and
trusting. They would follow me without bridle or halter like the
best-trained dog, and when I stopped they would stick their noses on my
shoulder in order to be caressed. Jane was fond of bread, and Blanche of
sugar, and both were crazy about melon skin. I could make them do
anything in return for these dainties.

If man were not odiously brutal and ferocious, as he too frequently
shows himself towards animals, they would cling to him most gladly.
Their dim brain is filled with the thought of that being who thinks,
speaks, and does things the meaning of which escapes them; he is a
mystery and a wonder to them. They will often look at you with eyes full
of questions you cannot answer, for the key to their speech has not yet
been found. Yet they have a speech which enables them to exchange, by
means of intonations not yet noted by man, ideas that are rudimentary,
no doubt, but which are such as may be conceived by creatures within
their sphere of action and feeling. Less stupid than we are, animals
succeed in understanding a few words of our idiom, but not enough to
enable them to converse with us. Besides, as the words they do learn
refer solely to what we exact of them, the conversation would be brief.
But that animals speak cannot be doubted by any one who has lived in any
degree of intimacy with dogs, cats, horses, or other creatures of that
sort.

For instance, Jane was naturally intrepid; she never refused, and
nothing frightened her, but after a few months of cohabitation with
Blanche her character changed and she manifested at times sudden and
inexplicable fear. Her companion, much less brave, must have told her
ghost stories at night. Often, when going through the Bois de Boulogne
at dusk or after dark, Blanche would stop short or shy, as if a phantom,
invisible to me, had risen up before her. She trembled in every limb,
breathed hard, and broke out into sweat. If I attempted to urge her
ahead with the whip, she backed, and all Jane could do, strong as she
was, was insufficient to induce her to go on. One of us would have to
get down, cover her eyes with the hand and lead her until the vision had
vanished. Little by little Jane became subject to the same terror, the
reason of which, no doubt, Blanche told her once they were back in their
stable. I may as well confess that for my part, when I would be driv