5i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of this faculty, althougli not possessing articulate speech ? The 

 other evening, while I was giving my plants a drink, he came to 

 me several times, asking to have the gate opened. Not caring to 

 lay down the hose, I paid little heed to his teasings, and he deter- 

 mined to compass his purpose in another way. To the front door 

 he went, and, pressing it, found it not latched, but requiring some 

 force to throw it open. Then he backed out the full width of the 

 veranda, and running, threw his weight so violently against the 

 door as to drive it open. Very soon he reappeared with his mis- 

 tress, to whom he had made his supplication, and she, without 

 knowing of his failure with me, opened the gate and gave the 

 little fellow his coveted freedom. 



It should be explained, in regard to the wit shown in opening a 

 heavy or sticking door, that Toots acquired his experience with a 

 fly door closed by the reaction of a spring. He found by experi- 

 ments that if with his fore paws he pressed this door open just far 

 enough to emit his body, it would spring "to and pinch his tail ; 

 and that by retreating and running the whole length of a small 

 entry he could impart momentum enough to open the door wide 

 and thus clear his tail, at the same time letting out a dependent 

 companion. This act, I am inclined to think, is a little smarter 

 than is usual in a two-year-old child. 



The skill thus acquired is regularly applied by Toots in open- 

 ing the door of the kitchen, in which his bed is made, when he 

 proceeds with the first morning sunbeam to visit his friends in 

 the sleeping apartments of the house. The door is closed but is 

 not latched, to enable the dog to open it without help. Even in 

 this condition it is moved with difficulty, owing to its friction on 

 the sill a difficulty intentionally allowed to remain for the pur- 

 poses of my experiments. 



The first effort of Toots is to press upon the door, to find 

 whether it is fastened. As will be seen, he has come to apply this 

 test as the result of his own experience. If the door is unlatched, 

 he goes to the opposite side of the room and runs, throwing him- 

 self against the panels with the whole weight of his body. This 

 act he repeats five times, after each impact retreating to the oppo- 

 site side of the room to get a fresh start. With the sixth attack 

 the passage is forced, and he scampers away with his companion, 

 a dog with no wit at all, and is happy. More recently he has 

 found that he can decide whether the door is fastened or not by 

 quietly pressing his fore paws against it. Before he had adopted 

 this test, on one night I fastened the door. He pounded it with 

 his running catapult precisely six times ; then gave up and cried 

 for help, which was ready at hand. Such repetition of an adapt- 

 ive act requires no analysis to make its psychological value ap- 

 parent. 



