Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/158

148 would come down to the ground or sit patiently outside the kitchen window, waiting to be coaxed and caught. At one time, after we had been entreating him for an hour, he came down from the house in a rage to scare away some boys who were mocking him from below, and who fled in terror at his approach. When loose in the tall grass. Bob would walk on his hinder limbs, holding his head high, and looking about for birds, in whom he seemed to take much interest. For some reason their calls attracted him. His hands meanwhile were held with drooping wrists like the wrists of persons afflicted with the Grecian bend. Toward most animals and toward persons he could not frighten he usually affected perfect indifference, often not deigning to grant them even a glance.

Toward horses and cows, and to other animals "big and unpleasant" to him, he held a great dislike. When Billy, the saddle horse, came near him, Bob would crouch like an angry cat, erecting his hair, humping his back, and scolding vehemently. When in his judgment he was safely out of Billy's reach, he would advance boldly and scold loudly. When he thought Billy too near, he became as small and inconspicuous as possible, to avoid the horse's notice. At one time he was placed on Billy's back, where he went into spasms of fear. When taken into the house, he grew bolder, and, climbing on the back of a chair, he described his adventures volubly and with many gestures to his friend Otaki, who understood it all.

To the big dog Rover he also had strong objections. Rover looked down on Bob with tolerant contempt, as a disagreeable being, not to be shaken like a rat because possibly human. But