The Wisdom of the Mule.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 345, 23 February 1889, Page 5

The Wisdom of the Mule.

Working animals, such as horses and mules are generally kept on a cotton plantation in a large open pen. In the centre there is a feed shed, containing a trough for corn and a rafter for fodder overhead. Stock ia fed only twice a day — noon and ni»ht. By sun-up on work days the plough hands appear, each to catch his * critter,' and the forty or fifty mules at their sight move i» utter confusion around the shed, hiding behind one another. But how is it on Sundays ? There reigns then an Arcadian peace in the pen. Each mule is paired off withhis'chum '(aselectneaffinity no doubt) in an angle of the rail fence, head and tail together. The object is a piactical exemplification of the golden rule. To enjoy an untroubled siesta, each head secures immunity from the fly pest by a close pvoxitoity to his friend's 'perpetuum mobile.' Farm hands may go in and out without pro ducing the least sign of alarm. But, should bridles appear, that disturbs only master's saddle or carriage horses. As to the mules, no extra twitch in tail or ear shows the least suspicion that their owner could pot>* sibly be the victim of a mistake. "With eyes drooping and head on a level with that of his neighbour's tail, his somnolent torpor is a picture of trust and safety. He knows it is Sunday. I remember well the amusedlookof my ioreman, Essex, when askinghimforhisopiniononthe subject: 'Why, in course," said he, ' dey knows it's Sunday.' Pertinent to the above query is the other : Do animals know noontime? For the sake of a lively scene let us some foi'enoou go into a large field. Presently we are startled from our reverie by an unearthly ' Ec-hung, ec-hung, ee-ee-hung, hung, hung.' It is the Nestor of the four footers that calls thus : ' Time for refreshments I—a1 — a signal similarly seconded and approved in succession by forty others. We look at our timepiece, and, sure enough, the large hand is about covering the smaller. It is noon. The mule, however, is some minutes ahead of time, and there ensues a fearful contest for the mastery between him and the driver, which the distant dinner-horn only ends. Now, how is it that the mule knows noontime ? Does he rely on the infallibility of his timepiece, which warns him that it needs rewinding ? Or has he noticed his equally hungry partner, Sambo, who, when reaching the end of a row, halts a moment, and, turning face northward, anxiously scans tbe shadow at his feet ? Or is the senitiveness of his back so delicate that he can discriminate between oblique and vertical rays? We are prone to mystify, and, because we are unwilling to grant brute creation the power of reasoning, we call their' actions that surprise us c instinct.' In the barnyard, stable and field we never observe this quality of instinct in the young. It is only the old that become wise by experience. — ' Scientific American. 1