fell the ill consequences of his misspent or well-spent college
life; for the money which might have gone for shingles and joists
and more provender, had in part been spent on books describing the
fauna of the earth and the distribution of species on its surface.
Some had gone for treatises on animals under domestication, while
his own animals under domestication were allowed to go poorly fed
and worse housed. He had had the theory; they had had the practice.
But they apprehended nothing of all this. How many tragedies of
evil passion brutes escape by not understanding their owners! We of
the human species so often regret that individuals read each
other's natures so dimly: let us be thankful! David was glad, then,
that this little aggregation of dependent creatures, his
congregation of the faithful, neither perceived the change in him,
nor were kept in suspense by the tragedy growing at the house.

They had been glad to see him on his return. Captain, who had met
him first, was gladdest, perhaps. Then the horses, the same old
ones. One of them, he fancied, had backed up to him, offering a
ride. And the cows were friendly. They were the same; their calves
were different. The sheep about maintained their number, their
increase by nature nearly balancing their decrease by table use.

One member of the flock David looked for in vain: the boldest,
gentlest--there usually is one such. Later on he found it
represented by a saddle blanket. After his departure for college,
his mother had conceived of this fine young wether in terms of
sweetbreads, tallow for chapped noses, and a soft seat for the
spine of her husband. Even the larded dame of the snow-white
sucklings had remembered him well, and had touched her snout
against his boots; so that hardly had he in the old way begun to