INTRODUCTION 



ALL the dogs of which I here write 

 are dead. Was it not Sir Walter 

 Scott who said, " I hate to love a 

 dog, he lives so short a life? " Yet Sir 

 Walter did love dogs with rare devotion, 

 as the traditions of Abbotsford, as well as 

 much that he himself has written, affirm. 

 When a lad I was not allowed to keep a 

 dog. My father in his early manhood days 

 saw a man smothered to death between two 

 great feather beds because he was a hope- 

 less victim of hydrophobia, caused by the 

 bite of a mad dog. So no dog was allowed 

 in our home. 



Fortunately for us boys, or rather for 

 the dogs, we (and there were only seven of 

 us) were all very fond of these prohibited 

 animals, and were ever ready to lend our 

 jackknives or skates to any neighbouring 

 boy if he would only let us play with his 

 dog. 



It was a marvellous transition from that 

 country parsonage where the joyous bark 

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