98 OUR DOGS. 



highly appreciated member of society, and adorning his new 

 situation with all sorts of dog virtues, while we wended our 

 ways to the coast of Maine. But our hearts were sore for 

 want of him ; the family circle seemed incomplete, until a 

 new favorite appeared to take his place, of which I shall 

 tell you next month. 



A 



II. 



NEIGHBOR, blessed with an extensive litter of New 

 foundland pups, commenced one chapter in our family 

 history by giving us a puppy, brisk, funny, and lively 

 enough, who was received in our house with acclamations 

 of joy, and christened &quot;Rover.&quot; An auspicious name we 

 all thought, for his four or five human playfellows were 

 all rovers, rovers in the woods, rovers by the banks of 

 a neighboring patch of water, where they dashed and 

 splashed, made rafts, inaugurated boats, and lived among 

 the cat-tails and sweet flags as familiarly as so many musk- 

 rats. Rovers also they were, every few days, down to 

 the shores of the great sea, where they caught fish, rowed 

 boats, dug clams, both girls and boys, and one sex 

 quite as handily as the other. Rover came into such a 

 lively circle quite as one of them, and from the very first 

 seemed to regard himself as part and parcel of all that 



