[From _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1910, v. xii)]
Gentlemen of the Jury:
The best human friend a man has in the world may turn against him and
become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving
care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us,
those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become
traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies
away from him, perhaps, when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be
sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are
prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may
be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud
upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have
in this selfish world, the one that never deceives him, the one that
never proves ungrateful and treacherous is his dog.
A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and
in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground where the wintry wind
blows and the snow drifts fiercely, if only he may be near his
master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He
will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the
roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if
he were a prince. When all other friends desert he remains. When
riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in
his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune
drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and
homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of
accompanying, to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies,
and when, the last scene of all comes and when death takes the master
in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter
if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside may the
noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open
in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.