‘But come in now, my Alice; it is late, and dinner is waiting.’ And they went indoors.
CHAPTER XV.
INSTINCT OF ANIMALS.
‘GRANDMAMMA, will you tell me,’ asked Alice one day, ‘how the geese can know when bad weather is coming? Ellen Laurence told me that they knew.’
‘They certainly do know, I believe, my dear Alice,’ replied her grandmamma. ‘God has given animals the instinct to foresee changes of weather.’
‘But what is instinct?’ inquired Alice.
‘Instinct is a knowledge that comes of itself. It is a gift natural to animals, given, as I said before, by God; and thus animals know when storms and bad weather are coming, and when an earthquake is about to take place. Even dogs will try and give warning, when the house they live in is in danger of falling; and it is a well-known fact that rats will desert a leaky ship, birds will not build their nests in a falling tree or any other dangerous place. I could tell you several stories of the instinct of animals.’