And the free and happy dogs called the Big Dog Retriever, “for,” said they, “he hath retrieved our lost prosperity,” and they cried aloud that he be elected chief; but the Big Dog would not consent, and he said unto them: “No; I will not be your chief. Be ye your own chief; let this, for the future, be a government of the dogs, by the dogs, and for the dogs; delegate not your power to anyone, be he never so wise and good, for the dogs that do that commit treason against themselves, and if their chief sell them to the fleas, they are but justly punished, as ye have been by Pup McPoodle.” And all the dogs, having still the influence of the Dilute Solution in their eyes, cried out with one accord: “That is Plain Common Sense; we will be the government, and no one shall have the power.”
And it was so. And they set up and kept up all the year round a great, big, free Will of the Dogs Expresser, and through it they passed a law that whatsoever law should henceforth be made should be ratified by the dogs through the Will Expresser. And it was so. And all laws whatsoever which they had were ratified through it and without its ratification was no law made that was made. And their laws were very few and very good; for they found that the wisdom of all the dogs was greater than the wisdom of any one dog or of any few dogs; and there being very few laws, they were simple and easy to understand, for the object sought thereby was Justice and not to fatten fleas.
They also made what they called a Constitution—a Solemn League and Covenant—which they ratified seven times through the Will Expresser, that provided that fleas and suckers of any description should be regarded as Unconstitutional insects, to be arrested on sight and driven ignominiously out of town, and that any law to allow them an existence amongst dogs should be Unconstitutional, and that any dog who should ever propose such a law should be declared a traitor to the community, and condemned to abide by himself in the wilderness, and that any dog who even spoke with any favor of fleas should be deemed insane and be locked up out of sight.
So peace, good order and freedom abounded, and with these came more to eat than they ever needed.
And having true Freedom in the land they pulled down the Liberty Bell, and the grotesque copper Lie that disfigured the prospect at the gates of the city, and broke them both up for old junk, for they said they could not endure the sight of emblems that were lies when they were put up, and only reminded them of the days when they were bamboozled and cheated; and anyway, they said, real true Freedom was seen and felt everywhere, and needed no clangor of metal to proclaim its existence; for a Freedom that needed such an infernal din and racket and oratory and show to make itself known was evidently not self-evident.
And as for the old Flag of the Free, they hardly knew what to do with it. Some said that the fleas and the Bamboozlers had made such a lie of it, had so blasphemed Liberty in its name, and had so defiled it by hoisting it over so many damnable and bloody iniquities that, really, the only proper thing to do was to burn it and devise a new one. But some said that as it was originally devised by fairly honest dogs who had had no education concerning and experience with fleas, such as the expensive and terrible one they had just gone through, they thought if the old Flag were well fumigated to take away the sickening smell of fleas that clung to it, and were well scrubbed and scoured, and had all the dirt washed out of it, it would do very well. So they cleansed and purified it, and set it up; and under it they lived perfectly happy ever after.
THE TYPE SETTING FOR THIS BOOK