The Argosy — page 302: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

288 About Dogs. days of abstinence, when he will not touch a morsel, and he has his own carefully gathered grass-medicine; but these antidotes are only partial against repletion. A good master or mistress will regulate a dog’s diet so as to keep him in the best health of both mind and body. A dog is, we think, neither happier nor better for being taught a mumber of set tricks. Such instruction must almost of necessity subject the dog to a certain amount of painful discipline, and his ‘accomplishments must, after all, in a little while grow weansome to his master. Leave him alone, and he will make for himself a hundred clever, funny little ways, which are far more interesting to watch than any stiff, trained performances. He should, however, be carefully educated in the matter of obedience. An unruly dog isa real calamity to his friends. One of a dog's chief pleasures is that afforded him by his wonderful delicacy of scent. Each hedgerow, each ditch, each blade of grass, each stone, is to his inquiring nose as full of meaning as a Hebrew character is to the earnest eyes of a scholar. ‘‘ Here passed by latelya rabbit. There couched last night a fox. In this bank lives a family of weasels : what fun it would be if I could scratch them out! Behind that brushwood sits a pheasant ; perhaps I may put her up. The field we are crossing has lately had in it sheep and cows, which I would have barked at, had they still been here. And now, what a delightful dis- covery! we are on a path lately trodden by one of my master’s most familiar friends, who always strokes me when we meet.” Something like this must be the course of thought in a dog’s brain while he is taking a simple country walk. Dogs have always been the close friends and companions of distinguished men and women. Huge deer-hounds and wiry-haired Scotch terners haunt the shades of Abbotsford almost as distinctly as the figure of their great master himself. The love between Professor Wilson and his canine pets forms one of the prettiest parts of the story of his life. How would poor Mary Mitford have got on without the sympathy and affection of hir long succession of dog friends? These are only three instances out of innumerable examples in which we find dogs closely mixed up with the biography of those who are dear to all mankind. Truthfulness is one of a dog’s most marked attributes.’ He will never show affection where he does not feel it, never willingly stay in a place he dislikes. In this, as in many other points, dog-nature is a very beautiful nature. In all our pride of intellect we may perhaps learn’something from our dogs. ALICE Kino. CORnniclooolkks a) (CO)