chase a cat and make a noise he knew many things 

 that respectable puppies of twice his age who stay at 

 home never get a chance of learning. 



On trek there were always new places to see, new 

 roads to travel, and new things to examine, tackle 

 or avoid. He learnt something fresh almost every 

 day : he learnt, for instance, that, although it was 

 shady and cool under the waggon, it was not good 

 enough to lie in the wheel track, not even for the 

 pleasure of feeling the cool iron tyre against your back 

 or head as you slept ; and he knew that, because one day 

 he had done it and the wheel had gone over his foot ; 

 and it might just as easily have been his back or head. 

 Fortunately the sand was soft and his foot was not 

 crushed ; but he was very lame for some days, and 

 had to travel on the waggon. 



He learned a good deal from Jess : among other 

 things, that it was not necessary to poke his nose up 

 against a snake in order to find out what it was. He 

 knew that Jess would fight anything ; and when 

 one day he saw her back hair go up and watched her 

 sheer off the footpath wide into the grass, he did the 

 same ; and then when we had shot the snake, both 

 he and Jess came up very very cautiously and sniffed 

 at it, with every hair on their bodies standing up. 



He found out for himself that it was not a good 

 idea to turn a scorpion over with his paw. The 

 vicious little tail with a thorn in it whipped over the 

 scorpion's back, and Jock had such a foot that he must 

 have thought a scorpion worse than two waggons. 

 He was a very sick dog for some days ; but after that, 



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