l policeman, and the lazy girl who acted as
postman and strolled about the parish once a day delivering the letters.
When Jack trotted down the village street he received as many greetings
as any human inhabitant--"Hullo, Jack!" or "Morning, Jack," or "Where be
going, Jack?"

But all this variety, and all he could do to fit himself into and be
a part of the village life and fill up his time, did not satisfy him.
Happiness for Jack was out on the moor--its lonely wet thorny places,
pregnant with fascinating scents, not of flowers and odorous herbs,
but of alert, warm-blooded, and swift-footed creatures. And I was going
there--would I, could I, be so heartless as to refuse to take him?

You see that Jack, being a dog, could not go there alone. He was a
social being by instinct as well as training, dependent on others, or
on the one who was his head and master. His human master, or the man who
took him out and spoke to him in a tone of authority, represented the
head of the pack--the leading dog for the time being, albeit a dog that
walked on his hind legs and spoke a bow-wow dialect of his own.

I thought of all this and of many things besides. The dog, I remembered,
was taken by man out of his own world and thrust into one where he can
never adapt himself perfectly to the conditions, and it was consequently
nothing more than simple justice on my part to do what I could to
satisfy his desire even at some cost to myself. But while I was
revolving the matter in my mind, feeling rather unhappy about it, Jack
was quite happy, since he had nothing to revolve. For him it was all
settled and done with. Having taken him out once, I must go on taking
him out always. Our two lives, hitherto running apart--his in the
village, where he occupied himself with uncongenial affairs, mine on
the moor where, having but two legs to run on, I could catch no
rabbits--were now united in one current to our mutual advantage. His
habits were altered to suit the new life. He stayed in now so as not
to lose me when I went for a walk, and when returning, instead of going
back to his kennel, he followed me in and threw himself down, all wet,
on the rug before the fire. His master and mistress came in and stared
in astonishment. It was against the rules of the house! They ordered
him out and he looked at them without moving. Then they spoke again very
sharply indeed, and he growled a low buzzing growl without lifting his
chin from his paws, and they