Singular that,
ain't it? but a dog is natural, Sir, and a man ain't.
"'Now, you never saw a codfish at the table of a Newfoundland merchant
in your life. He thinks it smells too much of the shop. In fact, in my
opinion the dog is the only gentleman there. The only one, now that
the Indian is extinct, who has breeding and blood in that land of oil,
blubber, and icebergs.'
"Lord, I wish one of them had been there to have heard him, wouldn't
he a harpooned him? that's all. He made a considerable of a long yarn
of it, and as it was a text he had often enlarged on, I thought he
never would have ended, but like other preachers, when he got heated,
spit on the slate, rub it all out, and cypher it over again. Thinks I
to myself, I'll play you a bit, my boy.
"'Exactly,' sais I, 'there is the same difference in dogs and horses
as there is in men. Some are noble by nature, and some vulgar; each is
known by his breed.'
"'True,' said he, 'very true,' and he stood up a little straighter as
if it did him good to hear a republican say that, for his father was
an Earl. 'A very just remark,' said he, and he eyed me all over, as if
he was rather surprised at my penetration.
"'But the worst of it,' sais I, 'is that a high bred dog or horse and
a high bred man are only good for one thing. A pointer will point--a
blood horse run--a setter will set--a bull dog fight--and a
Newfoundlander will swim; but what else are they good for? Now a duke
is a duke, and the devil a thing else.
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