THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

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Stories. about Goats.

oats have a
strony  at-
tachment for
S “ each other,
OF “aiid the mother, espe-
NY cially, is remarkably fond
Vy of her young. Some
peasants among the Pyrenees, while
gathering wild spinach, saw a herd of
goats, followed by their young. They
succeeded in capturing one of the young.
The rest of the herd immediately ran
away ; but scarcely had the captive ut-
tered a few mournful bleatings, when
they saw a goat stop to listen. This
proved to be the young goat’s mother.
One of the women thought she would
try, by means ‘of the little kid, to cap-
ture the mother. So she climbed a
steep rock, carrying her prey with her.
At the cry of the little one the mother
approached, though with trembling. Af-
terward, she retired; and herself began
to bleat. The bleatings continued for
some time, from both. The mother
again advanced nearer. Fear seized her
afresh, and she fled again, At length,
after a long struggle, she yielded to her
feelings as a mother, approached the
young one, and, without the least re-
"sistance, allowed herself to be bound by
the woman. From this moment, al-
though she was from a perfectly wild
herd, her wildness ceased, and the wo-
man led her wherever she pleased.
Goats seem, indeed, to have in a
greater degree than almost any other
animal, a natural attachment to the hu-
man species. They ate always playful
and familiar; and it is highly probable
that the goat was among the first ani-

  
 

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mals employed by man in a domestic
state. A story, affording a striking
proof of the natural fondness of goats
for the human race, is told by a natu-
raliste about a wild goat of the Alps.
He and his party landed on’ a wild
and romantic spot, on the bank of the
lake of Thun, where those animals are
numerous, and left comparatively in a
state of nature. But he ard his com-
pany had no sooner landed, than these
wild goats came bleating around them,
with their kids, and even jumped into
the boat, and seemed determined to stay
in it. They did this, too—so' says the
naturalist—evidently from mere attach-
ment to the travelers, because the pas-
ture where they were feeding was rich,
and the men had nothing to tempt them
with, in the shape of food: |

“Nothing,” says an English writer,
in a rather playful strain, “ nothing is so
hardy as the goat. Goats will eat
mouldy bread, and biscuit, musty hay,
almost rotten straw, furze bushes and
thistles. Indeed, what will they not-eat,
when they will make a heafty meal on
paper, brown or white, printed or not
printed! They are very healthy things
into the bargain, however closely they
may be confined. When they make a
voyage by sea, and when the weather is
so stormy that geese, ducks, hens, and
almost pigs, are killed, goats are well
and lively. When a dog of no kind can
keep the deck for a minute, on account
of the rolling and pitching of the vessel,
a goat will keep his balance, and skip
about, as if he was on his own wild
hills.”

A farmer in Scotland missed one of