Thou’lt sometimes scan the landscape for thy friend.
Or when the drowsy summer noon is nigh,
Or wintry moon upon the white snow shines,
From dreamy sleep will rise a muffled cry,
For him who led thee through the land of pines.
POSTSCRIPT
FOR THE EDITION OF 1907.
I have been asked to write a few new words for this old book, and it is not easy to do it. Most of the men and all the dogs of that wild time in the North are dead. I have never been able to understand why dogs should have short lives, and so many other things, such as tortoises, elephants, carp, and even men, should have long lives.
A few months ago I saw at St. Helena two tortoises which were said to have been at Plantation House for more than one hundred years. During a visit which I made to St. Helena in 1864 I became the owner of a picture of Plantation House, dated 1840. Two tortoises are shown in that picture on the lawn in front of the house, much smaller in size than the two now there. So it is probable that the legend of the hundred years on the Island is correct.