Page:Silversheene (1924).djvu/22

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ners of the cave and blinked at the feeble light of the stone lamp, but were not afraid of the fire, nor of the men creatures, either the large or the small ones. Finally when they grew up they in turn had young which also grew up with the children and became a part of the life of the wilderness man.

This god in time taught his tamed beasts to watch his campfire and growl when the other wild beasts came near. He taught them to trail the wild beasts for him and to help him kill them. They lived with this man creature and worshipped him continually. They grew to love each other and to be mutually helpful.

Thus it was that the first gray wolf came into the life of the primitive man and became the ancestor of the civilized dog of to-day. Long association with man and much breeding have done the rest. The dog's first ancestor was a wolf, and a collie pup will go back to the wolf life, if he is placed in a wolf den with a litter of small wolves, in a single generation. But this