lty in men folk.

Matey cursed the Wolfhound angrily, but that did not incline Finn
to trust him any the more. Then the man advanced a little in his
strategy, and tossed a piece of the meat on to the ground, before
Finn, to inspire confidence. But Finn's mistrust was too profound
to admit of his stooping to pick this up. He was not very specially
hungry, in any case; and if Matey had been an observant creature,
or even one who used his memory wisely, he would have known that
the offer of drinking-water would have been infinitely more
tempting to Finn than any quantity of savoury meat. But, as a fact,
Finn was too much possessed just now by his determination to escape
from Matey and all his works to be very clearly conscious of any
other need.

Then, his petty strategy exhausted, and his paltry measure of self-control
with it, Matey started to chase Finn with a stick. Now and
again he succeeded in getting a blow home, as Finn wheeled and
leapt before him within the narrow limits of the yard; and every
time the stick touched him Finn barked angrily. This performance
was extremely bad for Finn. It was calculated to break down some of
the most valuable among his acquired qualities; the characteristics
that he acquired with his blood through many generations of wisely-bred
and humanely-reared hounds. In one sense it was more harmful
than the merciless and unreasonable punishment of the previous
night, because there was no faintest hint of a punishment about it;
not even of the sort of punishment that had followed his howling.
That had had the bad qualities of cruelty and unreasonableness,
unjustifiableness. This was not punishment at all, it was sheer
savagery, the savagery of a running fight in which the man, though
he might hurt occasionally, could not conquer. And that is a most
demoralizing sort of a happening, as between dog and man. Its
demoralizing influence could have been detected by an observant
spectator in the notes of Finn's barks when the stick reached him.
They approached momentarily nearer the threatening nature of a
growl; a new, dangerous note to hear in Finn's speech with mankind.

Matey was rapidly becoming exhausted, and in another moment or two
would probably have flung his stick at Finn and given up his
senseless pursuit, when, just as the Wolfhound bounded forward from
under his stick at the house end of the yard, the gate leading into
that yard opened, and Bill appeared. In an instant Finn had sp