In the woods near Walden Pond, Henry D. Thoreau built a house.
It was a surprize to the raccoons and squirrels in the woods,
But after a while the news went round that there was among
them a man who would not do them any harm, and gradually they
came closer and closer, and there grew to be a beautiful
sympathy between him and the birds and animals. They would
come at his call. On taking a squirrel from the tree, the
little creature would refuse to leave him, and would hide in
his pocket. A woodmouse, whose hole was under his house, would
first run over his shoes, and at last became so tame that it
would run up his sleeve, and round the table when he was at
dinner. Such communion between man and beast has hardly been
equaled.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”
(1725)