Previous Publications:
Indian Names of Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Indian Names of Places in Plymouth, Middleborough
Lakeville, and Carver
With Interpretations of Some of Them
To Your Dog And
To My Dog
| FIRST IMPRESSION, SEPTEMBER 1915 SECOND IMPRESSION, DECEMBER 1915 THIRD IMPRESSION, FEBRUARY 1916 FOURTH IMPRESSION, APRIL 1916 |
TO YOUR DOG
AND TO
MY DOG
"MAY THEY LIVE LONG AND PROSPER"
By
LINCOLN NEWTON KINNICUTT
BOSTON and NEW YORK
Houghton Mifflin Company
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY LINCOLN NEWTON KINNICUTT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published December 1915
| To him who has never called a dog his friend The full meaning of pure friendship is unknown |
Dear Dogs:—
I have brought together in my library a few of the many proofs that showhow true is the affection which many of your masters have for you, andsome-time when I can read them to you privately, you will understandmore fully the place you hold in our lives. I use the word MASTER onlybecause our language is too poor to express in one word the realrelationship which exists between us, we the master, and you the devotedslave and trusted servant, the most joyful of playfellows, and the bestof companions, the bravest defender, and the truest friend. I wish Iknew the word in your language which expresses all that you are to us. Ialso wish I knew how much you know, and could learn the many things youwould gladly teach us.
You can see what we cannot see.
You can hear sounds we cannot hear.
You interpret signs we cannot read.
You[Pg viii] scent the trails we cannot find.
You talk to us with your speaking eyes, and we cannot understand.
You are sometimes cruelly treated, and so are human beings, andsometimes we have to punish you for you are not always good. You have acertain amount of deviltry in your nature which we rather like, for itmakes you more human and lovable. Your sins, however, are mostly againstthe laws we have made for you, not against your own, or those of nature,which ar